Travel

Pakistan - a visit to magnificence

Riza Rawdin in Islamabad

The Faisal Mosque is Islamabad’s landmark. It is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the sixth largest in the world.

Nestling at the northernmost end of the city and in front of a magnificent backdrop provided by the Margalla Hills, the westernmost foothills of the Himalayas, it is a must see for anyone visiting Islamabad.

“All world leaders visiting Pakistan pay their respects at the Faisal Mosque,” says the mosque’s Assistant Director Afarulah Khan recalling that the last Head of State to visit the mosque was Prime Minister Tony Blair one and a half years back.

With its unusual design resembling a desert Beduoin’s tent, the mosque has no pillars inside it. “This is what makes the mosque unique,” says Khan showing the 288 by 299 feet prayer hall which can accommodate 10,000 persons - 8,500 males and 1,500 females. The courtyard can accommodate 90,000 persons. The total area of the mosque complex is 46 acres and the total covered area of the prayer hall is 1.25 acres. The four minarets, one at each corner of the prayer hall, each 285 high including a 14 feet gold plated copper crescent on top.

“The minarets add to the grandeur of the mosque,” adds Khan who quickly adds that lifts have been provided to two minarets upto the level of the visitors’ gallery at 190 feet from ground level.

“Work on the mosque was started in 1978 and completed in 10 years,” says Khan. Asked why it was named Faisal Mosque, Khan says the then King of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Abdul Aziz visited Islamabad in 1966 and during a briefing at the Shakarparian Hills about the Federal Capital, the site for the mosque was indicated to him.

“He was impressed by the site and offered to defray the cost of the project. The proposed grand national mosque was named after the late King to be called Faisal Masjid (mosque),” Khan explained.

According to him an international competition was held in 1969 for the selection of a design of the mosque. A design prepared by Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay was adjudged the best by a jury appointed by the International Union of Architects.

The ablution area is at ground level close to the main entrance. It provides open space with 200 ablution units made of white marble and a large reflection pool in the center. Sidewalls of the ablution area are clad with custom-made art ceramic tiles in simple colours depicting simple graphics like the walls of the galleries leading to the main prayer hall. Khan says the Qibla wall (Arabic word for the direction that should be faced when praying) is decorated with custom manufactured art ceramic and scripture tiles.

The chandelier from West Germany weighing over 6.5 tons is in the center of the main prayer hall. The chandelier is lit by 1,100 bulbs and has been fabricated by with aluminium tubes anodized in gold colour in the shape of a sphere and an outer ring.

Taking the different seasons in Pakistan into consideration, the mosque also has two subways which are used during winter and summer when the weather is hot. Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s mausoleum whose 1988 funeral at the site was the largest in the history of Pakistan is located adjacent to the mosque.

“When you mention Islamabad, the first thing that comes to the mind is the Faisal Mosque. No visit to Pakistan is complete without a visit here,” says Khan.

Khan also adds quickly: “People who have visited Faisal Mosque once, want to visit it again.” Perhaps Khan was thinking in the same lines as we journalists from Sri Lanka and Maldives were.

JETWING’S JEEP wins PATA Gold

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PATA has just announced that the 2009 PATA Gold Award in the Corporate Environment programme category has been awarded to Jetwing Hotels for the Jetwing Eternal Earth Project, based in Jetwing Hunas Falls, Kandy. This year there was a total of 236 entries from 120 organisations who were vying for the 24 Gold Awards in the various categories; it is no surprise perhaps that Jetwing was the only winner from Sri Lanka this year.

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The winning entry titled, ‘Together we can make it – the Jetwing Eternal Earth Project’ was nominated as the ‘best in its class’ by the judges, who were very impressed with the quality and over all high standard of the entry.

The JEEP project was launched in January 2008, by Jetwing as a responsible corporate citizen to contribute towards minimizing Global warming and its effects for the benefit of mankind. As a responsible tourism partner the project has also been associated to Sri Lanka Tourism’s ‘Earth Lung’ initiative aimed at making Sri Lanka a Great Green Destination.

Under this project a model re-forestation was implemented at Jetwing Hunas Falls, which can be replicated in many other climatic zones as well as in small scale plots of land. Of the hundred acres of land, adjacent to the hotel which was allocated for this project, the team was pleased to announce that a total of 1594 trees have been contributed and planted at the project site as at June 2009, taking into consideration Analogue forestation and Forest Garden principles.

The key objective of the project is to use this model and its process as a method of educating the younger generations through the schools, in order to enable them to secure a safe earth, both for themselves and the generations to follow. Each hotel and other operational units within the Jetwing family have taken on two foster schools over the year, with new schools being added each year.

The objective was to educate children on good ‘Earth Saving Practices’. Where possible compost bins to encourage composting of bio-degradable garbage was used for the nurseries at hotels and in foster schools. This was also be used as a method to teach school children practices of better waste management and the underlying reasons.

‘This is indeed a great honour for the community, each contributor and us as a whole. The success of this project is based entirely on each person working together with the other to ensure that together we can certainly make Sri Lanka a Great Green Destination.

Winning this award shows us that we are certainly on the right track. In addition it is an excellent opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as an exemplary Green Destiation to the rest of the world.’ said Ruan Samarasinghe, Managing Director of Jetwing Hotels.

Experiences in Kashmir

Usha Ekanayake

When we visited India, Kashmir was not a place where death, lurked in street corners. Though the Muslim politicians clamoured for a free State, the general populace were not embroiled in the violent and cruel militancy of divisive extremists. The people pursued a simple life adjusting to the seasons it was delightful to carry an earthen pot of embers under our shawl. “achcha, this way”.

We were advised “hold it closer to the stomach as the heat spreads all over the body. Better. “We travelled in an ‘express tourist bus’. We had Hindi jingles and films played at the beginning, later in the night there were a number of beautiful instrumental ‘Short Hits’ and then there was silence.

After many ‘Heart in the mouth’ experiences when the bus lurched and veered to the edge but did not roll down into the valley, it simply rolled early next morning into Srinagar.

We proceeded to the India Tourist Office and were sent in a taxi to a small hotel where we were given continental breakfast and before 12 p.m. we were in our house boat on tranquil Lake Dal. We spent two memorable days gazing at the far Himalayas, and buying hand made goods from the Tibetan women who rowed their little canoes up to our house boat. Everything was beautiful and peaceful. The mind was at peace the material world and excitement of new, experiences seemed unimportant.

Our experiences in Kashmir are etched in my mind because the unexpected visits we made to many places of Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist interest. Wherever we went the people were as in the rest of India very courteous and anxious to take us shopping.

The regions of Jammu and Kashmir includes Ladakh, J&K is a region of cultural and geographical contrasts. The snow covered mountains of the Himalayas to the east and the Pir Panjal to the west and south makes it a unique area. The peaked white mountains become hills and then the green vale of Kashmir.

The Chenab and the Jammu drains the Kashmir valley providing water and areas for agriculture. The Kashmir valley was a beautiful, serene place. The Mughals always retreated to the cool green heights of Kashmir and it is said that Jehangir called it the ‘Happy valley’. The British too retreated to this soothing green vale and to Lake Dal. It is said that the rulers of Kashmir would not permit the British to build homes so they had house boats on the lakes in Shalimar and Nishat bagh, famous mughal gardens.

We visited the cantonment area which was like Nuwara Eliya, a little bit of England. The guide informed us that many Britishers who did not wish to return to England nor live in mainstream post independent India retired to live in Kashmir. We went up to Gulmarg, (means meadow of flowers). It is a trekking base for mountain climbers and Sonamarg (means the meadow of gold) is also a trekking base which today is famed for terrorism.

It is believed that the original settlers in K&J were the Kampas who brought yaks for pasture. The Mons came from the upper Indus and these settlers were followed by others. They were agriculturists who had become Buddhists. When the moghuls swept in these settlers moved to Ladakh and the upper regions to escape moghul cruelties. The Namgyal rulers arose in Ladakh and Leh.

They were followers of Buddhism and Hinduism and cultural activities, the building of temples and painting and sculpture thus continued in upper K&J. When the mahaviharas in Nalanda and Vikramashila were destroyed people moved into the Kashmiri trans Himalayan ares. It said that the Buddhist university complexes were mistaken for military establishments by the invading moghuls.

Kashmir was now the ‘Sharda peeth’. Saivism and Buddhism flourished and Parihaspura became a capital and centre of learning. Abhinava gupta a great Indian philosopher lived in Kashmir.

A feature is that all the patches of fertile land became settlements and small temples with exquisite paintings and sculpture were built. It is said that Ringpo sanchen from Tibet visited these areas and lived for a while in Aichi and supervised the building of monasteries. Clay statues and beautiful murals using earth colours are found in the temples of trans Himalayan Kashmir.

The concept of the Padmasambhava and the masked ritual dance of cham are still practised. The yogacarya concept prevails, where the Buddha is personified as the five Buddhas (Aksobya, Ratnasambhava, Amitaba, Amoghasisdhi and Vairochana) the Himalayan Buddhists created these concepts because people in these regions believed that many evil spirits lurked in the mountains and they sought protection and created these concepts.

There were many small mosques and Hindu temples but we did not see any Jain and Sikh places of worship.

It would be wonderful to visit Kashmir again.

What’s on Where

Mount Lavinia Hotel

“Slow Food works to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives,” avers Chef Leonel Velazquez, Executives Sous Chef at Mount Lavinia Hotel, the founder of Slow Food in Sri Lanka.

August 28 will be Cuban Family Dinner - with Cigars, Congos, Dominos and Mojitos take you through a slow and a pleasurable journey through the varying tastes of Cuban cuisine however with local ingredients. In the following month you can enjoy “a passage to India” created and menu engineered by Chef Ranga.

Chef Leo will take the concept Slow Food to the south and the cultural triangle so that the culinary traditions could be blended into the Slow Food concept to surface authentic and unique creations synonymous to Sri Lanka.

Unique culinary experiences:

St Andrew’s Hotel

Jetwing St Andrew’s invites all to explore unique culinary experiences from around the world this August in Nuwara Eliya during mini-season in August titled “Food Festival at Jetwing St Andrew’s”. The food and beverage team will concentrate on creating gourmet delights from 12th August till the end of the month.

Each day is a pleasant experience where one could savour the delights of traditional Sri Lankan, Indian, Thai, etc.

“Go Sri Lankan” is an initiative by Jetwing to highlight the identity of Sri Lankan traditional cuisine to the rest of the world. Dishes from the ‘Go Sri Lankan’ programme will be on display during the festival; in addition, those who’d like to taste these traditional delicacies will also get the opportunity to do so.

Galadari Hotel

Galadari Hotel spreads out a Dinner Buffet with a variety of Salads, Soups, Main Dishes and Desserts to celebrate Eid UL Fitr on 20 and 21 August at the Sheherezade Arabic Restaurant.

The buffet will include speciality Arabic main dishes and sweets. The Cafe 64, pastry shop will also offer varieties of items.