Taxila

Taxila is an ancient city, or a series of cities actually, which flourished from the 5th century BC until the 5th century AD. There have been a series of archaeological excavations going on since the 1930’s and it is slowly being uncovered. It’s believed that as much as 90% is still buried. It was a major Buddhist centre with the first university in Asia, dating back 2,500 years. Later, it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 326 BC and then by the Persians. Each invasion meant that a new city was built near the site of the old one.

Taxila is a great day-trip from Islamabad. I stopped first at the Taxila Museum, which houses all the objects removed from the sites. These include an amazing array of statues of Buddha in various positions and surrounded by helpers, donors, dancers and even devils trying to tempt him. There was a display of intricate gold filigree jewellery, surgical instruments, cooking utensils of the type still used today and even a water distiller to purify water. I couldn’t help but think that 2,500 years ago when these objects were being made, my ancestors in Wiltshire were probably still peasant farmers without a writing system, organised religion, formal education or much medical knowledge.

The first site that I visited was called Jaulian and was high up on a hill. It had been a Buddhist monastery and a university. The stupas (tall towers that usually hold relics of a deceased person such as bones and ashes) are gone but their amazing carved bases are still in excellent condition. Whenever I stood still for a few seconds in Taxila, a helpful guide would pop up from nowhere offering to show me around for a few rupees. Jaulian was no exception and the guide seemed quite knowledgeable. He explained that the different arches under which Buddha sat in the carvings on the stupa bases could be identified as Aryan, Greek and Persian and pointed out the strong elephants and lions which held up the stupa as well as the sinful humans who were being punished by having to do the same thing.

There was a healing Buddha with a hole for a belly button. Worshippers placed their finger in the hole and asked Buddha for something, usually health-related. Modern Buddhists still worship at the healing Buddha today and there were incense sticks and flowers from a group of Chinese who had visited the previous day.

I then went to the Sirkap site, which was the Greek incarnation of Taxila. It lasted until 64 AD. It had a wide, straight main street and neatly organised side streets laid out in a grid pattern, a bit like Islamabad today. There are only the foundations of buildings visible, but it had clear descriptions of the purposes of many of the buildings, including Buddhist and Jain shrines, a temple of the sun god with an enormous sun dial in the forecourt, and even a Christian church, according to my temporary guide, although I’m a little sceptical about that.


There are 6 or 7 other sites in the massive Taxila area, but by this time I was very hot, tired, sunburnt and had run out of water, so I bought cold, bottled water from a man with a donkey and headed back to Rawalpindi.