DOAM to work on ancient Gandhari Buddhist manuscripts

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (APP): University of Sydney, Australia on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM), National Heritage and Culture Division, Pakistan to work on ancient Buddhist scriptures of Gandhara.

From Australian side Dr. Mark Allon, Chairperson of the Department of the Indian Subcontinental Studies, University

of Sydney, while from Pakistan side Dr. Abdul Azeem, Director General, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Islamabad signed the agreement. Fareena Mazhar, Secretary, National Heritage and Culture Division was chief guest

and Abdul Sattar Khokhar, Senior Joint Secretary, National Heritage and Culture Division also attended the ceremony.

In the agreement, a five-year project for the conservation, housing, imaging, curation, scholarly access and publication of a collection of ancient Gandhari Buddhist birch bark manuscripts will be launched.

During this project, a conservation laboratory for conservation of ancient birch bark manuscripts will also be established at the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Islamabad. The laboratory will also provide training facilities and capacity building of museums in Pakistan.

After signing ceremony, Dr. Mark Allon delivered a lecture on ancient Buddhist scriptures of Gandhara written on birchbark.  The lecture was attended by a large number of scholars, museum professionals and students of the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.