Ancient Buddhist manuscripts added to Islamabad Museum collection.

Byline: Jamal Shahid

ISLAMABAD -- Some of the oldest Buddhist manuscripts in existence have been added to the collection at the Islamabad Museum, as well as the stone inscription of a 1,100 AD mosque in Udigram, Swat.

The 2,000-year-old Buddhist script is written on bark and was found buried inside terracotta jars. It was discovered by Sir John Hubert Marshall, the director general of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1930.

Inside a glass box adjacent to the small pieces of bark sits a rock edict from the 5th to 7th century.

'These manuscripts are not only the oldest of any Buddhist tradition, but they are also the oldest manuscripts from the Gandhara region,' said museum director Dr Abdul Ghafoor Lone.

The Islamabad Museum's collections represent the rich heritage of Pakistan, with artefacts from across the country. Among the pieces on display are the more than 7,000-year-old Mehergarh relics, two million year old hunting tools and artefacts from the Hindu, Muslim and British colonial period.

The collection of artefacts has grown from 312 to more than 800, including the recent addition of the famous 2nd to 5th century Bodhisattva, a rare red sand stone sculpture discovered in the excavation in Badalpur that is only one of two in the whole country.

'Red sand stone sculptures are not found...