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WEEKLY
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| Protect and preserve |
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
Two of the leading custodians of our rich cultural and historical heritage have recently voiced their concern over where we are headed the Taxila museum and the Lok Virsa centre in Islamabad. Both have been at the forefront of the battle to protect and preserve that of which we are the stewards, an inheritance that stretches back thousands of years and which today is under threat from extremism. Abdul Nasir Khan, curator of the Taxila museum, has said that the local administration has warned him of a possible attack. Weeks pass without a foreign visitor. He bemoaned the lack of research funding and expressed strong fears for the Buddhist relics that lie within our borders already destroyed or desecrated by extremists with promises that they will continue to destroy in the future as they have in the past. Foreign missions have ceased their operations in archaeology and conservation. The museum in the Swat valley is abandoned, its showcases broken. In NWFP cultural tourism has been dead for a year and a half, with no sign of a revival in the foreseeable future.
Lok Virsa a wonderful concept that has been starved of funds and support from the centre virtually since its inception is looking for friends. As the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage it has begun a campaign to recruit volunteers to support its work and to promote the national cultural heritage. The initiative will support the many programmes run by the museum and hopefully raise awareness in the wider population of the importance of preserving our culture. The alarm raised from Taxila and the Lok Virsa call for friends reminds us that it is these difficult times we must not neglect that which is something we must guard and preserve for the global community. This is not only our heritage; it is the heritage of every person on the planet.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
