ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Preservation work at the Shah Allah Ditta Buddhist caves in the foothills of the Margalla Hills was formally opened on Wednesday, and officials hope the site will draw families and foreign visitors.
Former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the project at a ceremony attended by diplomats from Buddhist countries. National Heritage and Culture Minister Aurangzeb Khan Khichi said the government was committed to protecting Buddhist sites across Pakistan, and asked the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation to promote the caves at home and abroad.
The caves are widely described as about 2,400 years old, though some traces found there have been dated to the 8th century. Buddhist monks are believed to have used them first for meditation, followed by Hindu sadhus and later Muslim ascetics in the Mughal era. Images of the Buddha survive on the walls, and the nearby village takes its name from a Mughal-era dervish whose shrine stands there.
The caves lie beside Shah Allah Ditta village, next to Sector D-12 of Islamabad. Hamza said the site needs a better and more direct road, and asked the minister to pursue it. Accounts of the ceremony did not give the project’s cost, visiting hours or any entry fee, so check before you set off.
Plans to protect the site go back a long way: the Capital Development Authority approved one in October 2010 for the caves and the adjoining garden known as Sadhu ka Bagh.
