ISLAMABAD, FEB 15 (DNA) – Pakistan and South Korea have warm cultural relations which are deep routed in the history.

Especially, common heritage of Buddhism is of particular importance for further cementing cultural and religious ties between the two countries.

The Republic of Korea and its Embassy in Pakistan are committed to increase relations with Pakistan for preservation of cultural heritage and to promote tourism in Pakistan.

As part of cooperative efforts, the Korean government has provided the conservation equipment for treating and preserving the Pakistan’s movable heritage, especially specimens of the Buddhist art uncovered from the archaeological remains of Buddhist sanctuaries in the ancient Gandhara region to DOAM.

The equipment included environmental control system for museum, devices for cleaning and conservation of antiquities including conservation consumables, streo-microscope, ultrasonic cleaner etc. at the amount of US$ 50,000.

The equipment will surely be instrumental in promoting the country’s capacity to conserve its cultural heritage to the international level.

The project has been administrated jointly by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) of the Republic of Korea, Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation (KCHF) and the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan with the common aim.

Kwak Sung-kyu, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Engr. Mr. Aamir Hasan, Secretary of the National History & Literacy Division, Syed Junaid Akhlaq, Director General, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Islamabad and other officials from both sides participated in the handing-over ceremony that took place at the Islamabad Museum on Friday.

On this occasion, Ambassador Kwak Sung-kyu re-emphasized the importance of promoting cultural ties between the two friendly countries and reviewed the co-projects that were completed in the last two years such as;              

He also announced new initiatives to this end in this year. Among them, he is emphatically working to arrange a pilot Korean Buddhists pilgrim tour to the Buddhist sacred places in Gandhara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan by March or April this year. This will be followed by a couple of projects such as;

–      one more project for capacity-building of treating historical artifacts, and

program of inviting the historical and archaeological officials and academia, preferably from the museums having collection of the Buddhists Art of Gandhara, to Korea soon.