Karavan Heritage Mural - Taxila Canvas
The Timeless Ruins of JaulianGandhara – the very word sets of images of a culture unparalleled in its aesthetic expression. The centre of Gandhara Culture was Taxila. Jaulian, a historically significant site is famous for the ruins of a monastery at the summit of a hill. The Gandhara Heritage Fest PSO-Karavan Heritage Mural Painting Initiative was held by KaravanPakistan in collaboration with Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Taxila, Risalpur and Wah Cantt Schools.
Children painted beautiful murals utilizing not just the physical heritage site but its spiritual, cultural and aesthetic components.
The Taxila Heritage Murals form part of a larger canvas that includes Heritage Murals from Karachi, Lahore and Bahawalpur: all depicting in the beautiful language of art the silent majesty and significance of the Heritage Sites of Pakistan.
The Heritage Mural also allows students to form a close bond with these sites and observe them minutely with the added knowledge of their historical significance.
The Gandhara belt in Pakistan extended on a wide area with Taxila as its main centre and represents this invaluable chapter from our history. It was to celebrate this portion of our history and a physical vestige of this great civilization in the form of the Buddhist monastery of Jaulian that the PSO-Karavan Heritage Mural Painting Initiative was held at Jaulian.
The children have made beautiful portraits that are poignant reminders of our emotional and spiritual heritage ensconced in these heritage sites. One of the most magnificent murals painted in this stretch of the Heritage Mural Initiative by schools shows Buddha serenely sitting under a tree as a halo of light surrounds the scene and the tree becomes the source of all blessings. Other murals depict the feeling and concept that this site sets off in the minds of the children.
These murals not only show the knowledge that the children acquired about the Buddhist civilization but also that they realized the true spirit of the message of the Buddha, which is peace and caring, a message increasingly of great importance in a world ravaged by disputes.