The Swat Valley (The Beautiful Place of Asia)

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Swat is the most accessible of all the valleys of northern Pakistan, the most interesting historically and one of the most beautiful. Its capital of Saidu Sharif can be reached in 4/12 hours by car from Islamabad, or 30 minutes by air. In all seasons you can drive half way up the valley, and from April to November right to the head of the valley, in an ordinary saloon car. Its scenery is gentler and the land more fertile than the other northern valleys. Everywhere in lower Swat you can see terraced fields, startlingly green rice paddies, abundant fruit orchards, and views of snow-capped peaks. In upper Swat the river narrows into turbulent gorges, the mountains tower above and pine forests cling defiantly to the slopes. Swat offers the best walking in Pakistan, and excellent fishing and climbing. For the historian and amateur archaeologist it is paradise; it has several thousand archaeological sites spanning 5,000 years of history waiting to be explored.

Many of the archaeological and historical sites will of little interest to the general tourist, for much imagination is required to envisage Swat as an important Buddhist centre or the scene of fierce battles between the tribesmen and such diverse characters as Alexander the Great and Winston Churchill. Nevertheless, for the dedicated explorer in the tracks of history, we have given an account of most of the sites. As at Taxila and Vale of Peshawar, no single published work on Swat is available, and many reports on the excavations in the valley are either unavailable or have not been published.

Swat's history goes back to at least 3,000 BC when Stone Age people lived there. In 1,700 BC a wave of Aryans arrived from Central Asia. They were the forerunners of the Hindus. They composed the Rigveda, the oldest religious text in the world. In one of the 1028 hymns still existing, a chief sings of a victory won on the banks of the river Suvastu, the Swat.

In 327 BC Alexander the Great invaded Swat on his way from Afghanistan to the Indus, and fought four battles there. From the 2nd century BC to the 9th century AD Buddhism flourished in the valley, leaving behind a legacy of beautiful sculpture and more than 1,400 monasteries. Tantric Buddhism was developed in lingered on in Swat until the 16th century.

From the 8th to 10th centuries the Hindu kings built their fortified cities on the tops of many of the hills in lower Swat. You can still see massive stone walls crowning the peaks on every side.

Mahmud of Ghazni took the valley in the 11th century after a fierce battle at Udegram, where his commanders Khushal Khan was killed and buried. The Moghuls came to Swat in the 16th century but failed to add it to their dominions. Babur took a wife from Swat, and Akbar suffered a disastrous defeat in the Karakar Pass.

In the 19th century the Akund of Swat rose to power. He was a Sufi ascetic with a highly charismatic and warlike personality who united the Swatis and made his capital at Saidu Sharif. He became known in the west because of the poem by Edward Lear.

Who or why, or which, or what,Is the Akond of Swat?

Is the tall or short, or dark or fair?

Does he sit on a stool or a sofa or chair, or squat,

The Akond of Swat?

Is he wise or foolish, young or old? etc, etc

Churchill Piquet:

If it is not too hot, a climb up to the Churchill Piquet on Damkot Hill is rewarding. You can park opposite the main gate of Chakdara fort. This fort was built in 1896 by the British on the foundation of the Emperor Akbar's 16th century fort, and is still occupied by the Pakistan army. The footpath up the hill to Churchill Piquet takes about 15 minutes to climb. The view from the top of the hill is magnificent. On a clear day the whole of the lower Swat valley is spread out before you, against a backdrop of snow-clad mountains receding into the distance.

Here the young Winston Churchill, reporting for the London Daily Telegraph, covered the Pathan uprising in 1897. There was a ragged volley from the rocks; shouts, exclamations, and a scream. One man was shot through the breast and pouring with blood; another lay on his back kicking and twisting. The British officer was spinning round just behind me, his face a mass of blood, his right eye cut out. Yes, it was certainly an adventure.

It is a point of honour on the Indian frontier not to leave wounded men behind. Death by inches and hideous mutilation are the invariable measure meted out to all who fall in battle into the hands of the Pathan tribesmen. We all laid hands on the wounds and began to carry and drag them away down the hill.

I looked around to my left. Out from the edge of the houses rushed half a dozen Pathan swordsmen. The bearers of the poor Adjutant let him fall and fled at their approach. The leading tribesmen rushed upon the prostrate figure and slashed at it there or four times with his sword. I forgot everything else at this moment except a desire to kill this man. I wore my long cavalry sword well sharpened. After all, I had won the public school facing medal. I resolved on personal combat a lame blanche. The savage saw me coming, I was not more than twenty yards away. He picked up a big stone and hurled it at me with his left hand, and then awaited me, brandishing his sword. There were others waiting not far behind him. I changed my mind about the cold steel. I pulled out my revolver, took, as I thought, most careful aim, and fired. No result. I fired again. No result. Whether I hit him or not I cannot tell. I looked around. I was all alone with the enemy. I ran as fast as I could. I got to the first knoll. Hurrah, there were the Sikhs holding the lower one.

We fetched up at the bottom of the spur little better than a mob, but still with our wounded, while the tribesmen, who must have now numbered two or three thousand, gathered in a wide and spreading half-moon around our flanks. The Colonel said to me, The Buffs are not more than half a mile away. Go and tell them to hurry or we shall be wiped out.

But meanwhile I heard an order: Volley firing. Ready. Present. Crash! At least a dozen tribesmen fell. Another volley, and they wavered. A third, and they began to withdraw up the hillside. The bugler began to sound Charge. Everyone shouted. The crisis was over, and here, praise be to God, were the leading files of the Buffs.

(Churchill was getting a column, so it paid him to spin it out a bit). The door to Churchill Piquet is usually open. A shaky ladder inside leads to the roof. From the ramparts you can see why the position was so important; not only does it guard the river crossing, but it is high enough to overlook the Malakand Pass to the west: the Shah Kot and Mura Passes (from Thana to the Peshawar basin) to the south: Barikot, gateway to Buner and to Swat proper, to the east: and the Chakdara plain and the ancient trade route to the north.

The foundations of the Churchill Piquet rest on an 8th century Hindu Shahi wall. But the history of all the hill goes back to 1,700 BC, when a wave of Aryans swept inform Afghanistan and settled in the area. They lived in stone houses, made elegant grey and black pottery on a slow wheel, and cultivated the land using stone and wooden implements. At first their only use of metal was copper and gold for jewellery. But later a knowledge of iron spread into the area, and they made knife blades, hoes, sheep shears, and needles.

One of the many Aryans graveyards that have been excavated in Swat is Samlai, at the foot of the north side of Damkot Hill. The graveyard is still used by the villagers of Chakdara. The Aryans buried the partially cremated body, surrounded by the necessary utensils of daily life, in graves lined and sealed with large stone slabs. Five graves were excavated at Samlai, but were filled in again, so nothing of interest remains to be seen.

Damkot Hill was then abandoned until the Buddhist community resettled it at the beginning of the 1st century AD. The excavated remains of their stupa and monastery can be seen just below the top of the hill on the south side. The community came to a catastrophic end in the late 5th century.

The Hindu Shahi (the Turkish Hindu kings) were the next to occupy the hill in the 8th century. They built a large fort surrounded by a strong defensive wall that extended down to the river, thus ensuring a safe water supply. The houses, rubbish pits, shops, stables and the remains of smithy on the north-eastern side of the excavated citadel are fun to explore. The Hindu Shahi fort was destroyed by fire at the end of the 10th century, probably by Mahmaud of Ghazni, who invaded Swat in 1001 AD, and the hill was not occupied again until the British came in the late 19th century.

At the foot of the hill, to the west, is a local bathing place, near which stand six boulders with Buddhist carvings on them. The figures shown are mostly of Padmapani, the Lotus Bearer Bodhisa-ttva, with his slim body and diaphanous robes. The carving date from the 6th or 7th century AD, when Bhddhism, though on the decline, was still active in Swat, despite the White Huns.

It is possible to drive a jeep round the north side of Damkot Hill, past Samlai graveyard, to a point fairly close to these carvings. The jeep road continues on this side of the river for another 15 km past more unexcavated Buddhist stupas, to a bridge across the Swat river below Batkhela.

Chat Pat: Chat Pat is a Buddhist monastery. To get there from the bridge drive 1.6 km and park just before the road to Dir enters the ford. The footpath to Chat Pat runs left (west) for about 1 km through the fields, past the village, and up the stream. A guide can be found at the museum if necessary.

Chat Pat is a typical Buddhist monastery site, nestled into a fold in the hills beside a small stream, where the monks could retreat and mediate with a peaceful view down the glen, yet within easy reach of the alms-giving travellers on the main road. We recommend it here because it is a reasonably easy, and very pleasant, walk, and the site itself, though small, is refreshingly well maintained.

It dates from the last 1st to the 4th century AD. There is no main stupa, and a landslide has buried the monastery on the east. The site is important because the excavators found there a quantity of Buddhist Gandharan sculpture decorating its 38 stupas and chapels. These were chronologically dated and showed a surprising decline in style from the 1st to 4th century AD.