Vanishing temples of Thar and Nagar Parkar

its good to know the `surviving` temples in pakistan. it would be great that if both the govts create an organisation to take care of religous relics on both sides of the border.

Mukul Bhatnagar
New Delhi

Dear Ameer Hamza

Sorry for the late reply since I was out of country. In short not a single temple seems to stand erect or in a good condition. Domes fallen, walls crumbling, pillars missing, the idols or the statue looted, broken, missing, smashed or vanished, stones of the temples removed for home construction, the paintings done on the walls of the temple are desecrated by the fanatics, Even the Pakistan Army is using the temple as a polling Booth. All these things speaks a lot .

Iqbal Singh (Chandigarh)
CC to Dost Mittar, Arjun, Harimau, Jay, Harish_Hyd, Ally

Alas... There are so many Temples in Pak decaying... but as Dost Mittar has said, there isn`t anyone left to patron them... our govt. is sh*t at looking after anything but its fat behind... even mosques and other more Muslim style things are strewn across Pak in dis-repair... best go see Pak now before its fallen to bits...

Thanks, HP. You are a good photographer! :)

Really solid structures, those temples. Does anyone have any idea when they were built or what their history may be?

#5 Kaal,

Hey Kaal, Here are some pictures of Jain temple and the area around it in Thar or rather Nagarparkar from my personal collection...


ChowkStaff-please don`t hide these pictures. Thanks.

Re: # 10: It is good to hear from experience people on board. I own a business in Karachi which sells, among other items, Clipsal switches and Casali water proof membranes. On the journalistic side, my work primarily focuses on places that are dying fast due to human explosion, population and otherwise. And Chowk is a fine place to contribute. I freelance for Dawn, Friday Times and International websites and magazines.

batman
Even ``Auqhaf`` don`t take care about muslim mosque except a few like badshaee mosque. There were thousand of mosque and moghal institution of learning[aka Madrassah] which were very sophisticated in design, that the liking of which was never seen. But my dear they are all in dust now, simply put they are all busy fighting the so called War on Terror;-)

anyhow, good read thou. I never imagine THAR had such history.

I saw some beautiful temples in Nara Desert during my expedition last year. Most got damaged in reaction to the Babri Mosque Tragedy and killing of Muslims in Gujerat. The Jain Mandar in Nagar Parkar was also damaged in this wave. The same happened to the Jain Mandar in Old Anarkali Lahore. People here do not distinguish between Jain, Kohlis and Hindus, generalising all as Hindus.

harish_hyd#7:

The problem is that there are not enough Hindus left in many of the areas. Although there are exceptions, for example, of a temple in Karachi (in the coastal area) where the land occupied by the temple is very expensive and a tempting target, the poor condition of these temples is generally due to the fact they are no longer patronised by the Hindus and hence fallen into a state of desrepair.

#6 by dost-mittar

I agree with batman

Even I agree with his post, but not for the reason he mentioned (promoting Pakistan`s image). It should be done for the sake for Pakistan`s Hindus, who are as Paki as Paki Muslims are, and deserve proper upkeep of their places of worship. Pakistan`s image will be a beneficiary, but as a side-effect.

I agree with batman.

I think that Pakistan might invest in these and other religious shrines` improvement and bring Hindu jathas for religious/roots tours. It may even provide some much-needed impetus to tourism industry in Pakistan. The more foreigners, including Indians, discover the warm and friendly nature of Pakistanis on an individual basis, the better it is for everyone.

That`s a great website, HP. Since most of us are never going to make it across the borders, such pictures offer the second-best option! Thanks.

Masjid, Mandar all are going to be deserted at some point.

Check out these pictures to see Thar after the rains.

Clickable thumbnails

#1 looking at the pictures, these places are beyond repair, esp in comparison to magnificently maintained ones in raunakpur, dilwara, mondhera, even jaisalmeer on the border of thar desert on the other side of the border. i would ask our paki friends (those interested in temples etc) to just come over for a visit and enjoy the beauty.

Its a pity `Auqaf` only looks after the religous sites significant to muslims. These sites should not only be maintained but as a gesture of goodwill hindus from around the world should be encouraged to visit them. Might just imporve our much needed `soft` image...

Hope (a request to Indian friends?), this board will not become an occasion to bash Pakistan. Rather focus will be on ways and means of identifying and preserving traces of the paths we have travelled before.