Sixteen-member Sri Lankan delegation arrives in Pakistan for eight-day Buddhist heritage tour

Islamabad: A 16-member delegation from Sri Lanka has arrived in Pakistan for an eight-day Buddhist heritage tour that will take in the museums, archaeological sites and universities of the old Gandhara region. The visit is meant to strengthen cultural, academic and people-to-people ties between the two countries — and to bring Pakistan’s Buddhist heritage to audiences back in Sri Lanka.
A formal welcome in Islamabad
The delegation was formally welcomed at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad. Federal Minister for National Heritage and Culture Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, Heritage and Culture Secretary Asad Rehman Gilani, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Rear Admiral (retd) Fred Senevirathne, and Deputy High Commissioner Christy Ruban received the visitors. The tour has been organised by Imran Shauket, coordinator of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Gandhara.
Who is travelling?
The group is led by Deeptha Wickramaratna, president of the Bodhi Dhamma Buddhist Association in Australia and the tour’s principal coordinator. Alongside him are Dr E. A. Senarath Dissanayake, director general of Sri Lanka’s Department of Archaeology; former director general Professor P. D. Mandawala; Mrs Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, Sri Lanka’s 46th solicitor general; and community and business leader Jagath Sumathipala — plus senior officials, archaeologists, academics, legal professionals and journalists.
A university agreement on day one
The first day already produced something concrete: a memorandum of understanding between Hazara University in Mansehra and Sri Lanka’s Nagananda International Buddhist University. The delegation then visited the Islamabad Museum, going through its archaeological collections. A second agreement, between the University of Swat and the same Sri Lankan university, is also planned during the trip.
Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi, Peshawar and Swat still to come
In the coming days the delegation will meet officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and visit museums and archaeological sites in Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi, Peshawar and Swat, as well as Pakistani academic and heritage institutions. The ruins at Taxila have been on UNESCO’s World Heritage list since 1980, and the Dharmarajika Stupa — pictured with this story — stands among them.
The journey will also become a TV series
There is a media thread running through the whole visit. Renowned Sri Lankan television presenter Chathura Alwis is travelling with a production team, filming the journey for an eight-episode television series that will be broadcast in Sri Lanka. The organisers hope it will encourage religious and cultural tourism from Sri Lanka to Pakistan’s Gandhara sites.