Greeting local guides, I hope you are all well. After many days of absence, I have come here with a historical post. As I have written in my recent posts, my home town (Swat) is known as a piece of heaven on earth or famously referred to as Switzerland of Pakistan but let me tell you that along with having natural beauties Swat is also one of the most popular archeological regions of the Buddhist era. It is believed to have about 400 Buddhist historical sites scattered in the valley and today I’m going to introduce you to the 2nd largest Buddha rock-carving of central Asia in swat valley known as Budhgat (a Pashto word that means Buddha’s rock) or Jehanabad-Buddha.
So the idea of visiting the buddha statue in nearby hills was harbored in my mind for some time. It was early Sunday morning when we somehow planned to visit the site finally. I, along with my friend Jami (a French citizen) (though his roots are from the Yousafzai tribes of Swat). We started driving from Kanju Township through Mingora to Malam-Jabba road for 50 Minutes.on Malam-Jabba road we asked locals about the exact location of Buddha and thus followed their instructions. We parked our car in the shadow of a chinar (Platanus Orientalis) tree and started on a narrow track. we came across formers of the village dressed in local Pakhtoon dress having typical farming tools like Loor (sickle) Kashai (hoe) and Rasai (rope) with a broad welcoming smile on their faces, some of them invited us for a cup of tea as required by the Pashto customs of the locality.
After a short interaction, we entered a peach orchard. There was a spotted shadowed track ahead of us with scattered peach leaves. rays of sun penetrating through the dense leaves of the peach trees and adding an extra touch to the beauty of the track multiplied by the chirping of different birds and a small breeze make the leaves make a harmonious sound mingling with the birds chirping was magically providing mesmerizing background music to the drama. Which took me back thousands of years back into history imaginatively.
When we covered almost half the distance, there we found some scattered (mud-made) houses in the lap of a lush green mountain. The only source of fresh water was a pipe fed by distant unknown springs. There we drank some fresh water with our hand-cups.
So after experiencing such a wonderful track in no time we reached the desired spot where the Buddha was magisticly silently observing the panoramic landscape of Jehanabad/Manglawar/MalamJabba road out the skirt in the lush green valley ahead. I imagine the hard work of the stone carver artist and his imaginative abilities regarding Buddha get manifested through his art. The height of the buddha was Approximately 7 meters. In the selection of a clip for carving the Buddha statue, the artist might have many things in his mind as the statue faces the north from a commanding position of the lush green valley beneath providing a very relaxing place for yoga breathing in conformity with the north and south magnetic waves.
The wonderful feeling at this place compel me to meditate for a while which unconsciously extended for a bit longer so I realized the importance of the place keeping in view the then Buddhist culture. Given this beautiful description of the Buddha site, a visitor might get offended by the sight of plastic bags and cans littered here and there reminding the visitor of the existence of a human imperfectness. though I tried my best to collect and dispose them.
Let’s #CleanTheWorld together 
This post is a part of @KashifMisidia Bhai’#GemsOfTheWorld - A Connect Travel Post Challenge 
