Cholistan in Lahore
14 February 2015
‘I am a Cholistani; Cholistan lives within my soul,’ says my friend Akhtar Mummunka. And so it is that barely half an hour from the famous crossing known as qainchi in east Lahore, as one drives to Kasur, one notices a sign by the canal bridge on the right side of the road proclaiming ‘Cholistani’.
There along a smaller distributary and barely a few hundred metres off the highroad is a walled-off, tree-shaded compound. This is the dream that was born back in 2002 when Akhtar was invited to conference by Asian Productivity Organisation in Japan. Every year, this organisation awards one person from around the world for outstanding work to preserve the world’s environment.
Read more »Labels: Cholistan, Lahore, Punjab
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Channan Pir
18 October 2014
Legend has it that a Muslim saint came to the court of Raja Sandhila, who ruled over this part of Cholistan at some indeterminate time in the past, and asked if there were any Muslims in the country. There were none, he was told. In which case, said this man of god, the king’s pregnant wife was to deliver a son who would be a Muslim and who would eventually convert the whole country to the true faith.
Read more »Labels: Cholistan, Culture, Punjab
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Derawar Fort
06 July 2014
Baig sahib pointed out that the travel time and direction pointed to just one place: Derawar Fort in Cholistan. He also said that his narrator thought Nearchus had mentioned this episode in his book which he had tried to get his hands on and failed. I lent him my copy and when it came back I knew it had been read for there were pencil marks throughout the book. But my guru had failed to find any mention of the treasure.
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 08:00,
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Channan Pir
17 August 2013
The shiny new pick up truck went bowling down the black top road bordered on one side by rolling, grey sand dunes and by vibrant green citrus orchards and wheat fields on the other. I was riding from Yazman (Bahawalpur District) to the annual festival of Channan Pir in the Cholistan Desert and my co-travellers, all twenty or so of them, were devotees come from as far away as Faisalabad, Rahimyar Khan and Kashmore. Being the first Friday in February, these people were the vanguard for the festival was to continue over the next six Fridays culminating in middle March. As far back as anyone could remember the death anniversary celebration of Channan Pir had always extended a full six weeks.
I had come to investigate what I believed to be the most primordial festival in Punjab, the others were heading for the shrine of Channan Pir either to offer thanks for the dead saint’s benediction in providing long sought for sons or to seek fulfillment of their quest for sons. The boys born out of supplication at the shrine came freshly scrubbed, wearing their best finery with oily hair and shiny plastic shoes. The thick smear of kohl lining their eyes made them winning candidates for parts in some B-grade horror film. Some of the boys even wore cheap rouge on their cheeks.
Labels: Cholistan, Culture, Prisoner on a Bus: Travels Through Pakistan, Punjab
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Oh! Uch
05 May 2013
One school of historians believes that Uch is the city, another one of those several Alexandrias, which Alexander’s historian Arrian says was built on the confluence of the Chenab and t he Indus. The conqueror had hoped that ‘the place would grow and become a world-famous town.’ In the Middle Ages, Uch was known as Askalanda or similar variations of the word, all believed to be derivatives of Alexandria leading historians to connect it with the Macedonian conqueror. However, others deny this connection and would seek the city elsewhere.
Be that as it may, by the 11th century, Uch (or Ucha – Elevated – because of its situation on a high mound) was indeed ‘world-famous’. Eminent archaeologist Dr Saifur Rahman Dar points out that lying on the trunk road down from Central Asia through the Afghan highlands; Uch was a busy way station for travellers heading either for Rajasthani cities or for Multan en route to Delhi.
Read more »Labels: Cholistan, Heritage, Punjab
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:10,
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