KP to establish Gandhara Research Center

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to set up Gandhara Research Center in the province.

According to the details. Gandhara Research Center will be created with the collaboration of Korean government for promotion of religious tourism in the province.

A spokesman of Provincial government told media, that there are about six thousand archeological sites including more than two thousand historical and sacred sites of Buddhism in the province.

It is important to mention here that hundreds of tourists including Buddhist monks from South Korea, Thailand and other Buddhist countries visited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last few months.

Buddhism in Pakistan took root some 2,300 years ago under the Mauryan king Ashoka.

Buddhism has played a major role in the ancient history of Pakistan — the land of which over time has been part of predominantly Buddhist empires such as the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Maurya Empire of Ashoka, the Pala Empire.

In 2012, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) indicated that the contemporary Buddhist population of Pakistan was minuscule with 1,492 adult holders of national identity cards (CNICs).

The total population of Buddhists is therefore unlikely to be more than a few thousand. In 2017, number of Buddhist voters was stated to be 1,884 and they are mostly concentrated in Sindh and Punjab.

The only functional Buddhist temple in Pakistan is in the Diplomatic Enclave at Islamabad, used by Buddhist diplomats from countries like Sri Lanka.