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| Sharma brothers are connoisseurs' choice for Dalai Lama | | | Early Times Report
new delhi, Apr 2: His Holiness Dalai Lama today appreciated the work being done by Sharma brothers -Madan Lal Sharma, Lok Sabha member from Jammu and his brother and Jammu and Kashmir Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma for developing Amabaran, an ancient Buddhist site in Akhnoor tehsil.
Impressed by a historic photo exhibition on Ambaran in particular and Akhnoor as a whole at the Capital's Ashoka Hotel today, the spiritual leader and exiled ruler of Tibet told Madan Lal Sharma: "As a Buddhist I appreciate your work."
He also accepted an invitation extended by the duo to visit Akhnoor: "I will come."
Dalai Lama spent about 20 minutes at the exhibition organized by noted Tibet expert and journalist Vijay Kranti and his photographer-son Akshat Kranti. The father-and-son team had spent considerable time in Akhnoor to take on-the-spot photographs. Apart from the discoveries of stupa and relics made at Ambaran the exhibition highlights the historic Akhnoor Fort, majestic Chinab river, Jia Poto Temple, Gurudwara Tapo Asthan and Bhagwan Parsuram temple as well as a magnificent pathway constructed along the Chinab river.
Ambaran is gradually attracting wide notice as an ancient Buddhist site --- the first of its kind excavated in the Jammu region and believed to be the oldest in Jammu and Kashmir which has been known as a cradle of Buddhism in the past and still preserves the religion in its pristine glory.
Akhnoor is also the only Harappan site found so far in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dalai Lama evinced keen interest in photographs and made pointed queries to Dr B.R. Mani, Joint Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India and Vijay Kranti, who is also his biographer.
To a question about the estimated time of existence of the Buddhist site at Ambaran, he was informed that it was between "first century BC and third century BC". Kranti explained that the timing showed that Buddhism may have existed in Jammu about 1000 years before it went to Ladakh and Tibet.
Dr Mani, who is presently posted in Delhi, has been associated with the excavations during his stint in the border state earlier. He pointed out that the discoveries so far indicated that there might have been a huge monastic establishment on the spot in Ambaran and there was need, therefore, for carrying out further excavations.
Kranti announced that a similar exhibition at a larger scale would be held soon in Jammu.
The three-day exhibition is becoming a big draw. People from different walks of life are visiting it. Among those who had turned up included Balbir Punj, Bharatiya Janata Party member of the Rajya Sabha and a good number of senior bureaucrats and Buddhist scholars. |
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