Mingora: Tracing the Ancient Paths of History and Culture

Mingora is a city in Pakistan. It is in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The third biggest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the 26th largest city in Pakistan, it is on the river Swat. Malakand Division’s biggest city and the center of all social, cultural, and business life is Mingora. It is also the largest city in the northern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

History Of Mingora

People have lived in the area around Mingora for a long time. Italian researchers found 475 Indo-Aryan graves from 1520 BC to 170 BC at Loe Banr, Butkara II, and Matalai, along with the bones of two horses. Italian researchers found a Gandhara grave site on the other side of the River Swat in Aligrama, close to the Saidu Sharif airport. The site dates back to 1000 BC and is from the Gandhara culture.

Buddhist ideas spread to the area when monks from the Gangetic plains came there. During the reign of Emperor Ashoka, Buddhism became well-established in the area. It was also a starting point for Ashoka’s Buddhist preachers who came from the Mediterranean and West Asia to spread Buddhism to the western regions.

In the Jambil River Valley, close to Mingora, a lot of Buddhist artifacts and skeletons have been found. A stupa and temple from the first century CE have been found at Panr. In Mingora, Faxian said he saw the largest Buddhist temple. He also said he saw large carvings of Buddha’s footprints on the sides of the hills at Teerat.[6] In the 20th century, Pakistani archaeologists dug up the Butkara Stupa near Mingora and found a big and impressive center stupa ringed by more than 200 tribute stupas.

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