BEIJING, Sept 28 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan said here on Monday that the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China was an occasion for celebration by the Chinese people. But this historic moment should also be celebrated by all developed and developing countries around the world. He was speaking at the launch of a book Gandhara and a photographic exhibition on the civilizational links between China and Pakistan. The event was organized on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The President of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) Yang Wenchang was the chief guest on the occasion.

China’s progress in the past six decades, he said, had brought peace, stability and prosperity in the region and around the globe. 

“China has demonstrated how in one lifetime poor people can have longer life expectancy, better health, better education, better jobs, better civic sense and better dreams,” he said. 

The Pakistani Ambassador said that the roots of the time-tested and all-weather friendship of Pakistan and China went deep into history.

In the fourth, sixth and seventh centuries, Chinese monks and envoys visited Peshawar, Swat, Charsadda and Taxila and brought back messages of peace, harmony, pluralism and friendship. That message feeds the inter-civilizational current of the two countries.

Elaborating the programmes chalked out by Pakistan to mark the celebrations in a befitting manner, Ambassador Khan informed the audience that besides a number of activities, President Asif Ali Zardari will host a reception on the occasion and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani will attend celebrations in Islamabad. A commemorative postal stamp is being issued.

Professor Wang Yong said that contrary to the common belief that Gandhara art was created under Greek and Roman influence, it was mainly conceived by Pakistani artists.

He pointed out that the impact of Gandhara art on ancient Chinese art was deeper than its impact on other Asian countries.

“Gandhara art is the bridge that connects the cultures of China and Pakistan and cements their friendship”, Professor Wang said.

He called on Pakistani and Chinese scholars to conduct joint productive research on the Gandhara art and invited Pakistan to hold exhibitions on Gandhara art in China and publish books to be co-authored by Chinese and Pakistani scholars.

“Gandhara art is so rich. It should have the same recognition as the works of De Vinci and Picasso”, he said.  

The book launched today on Gandhara was written by late Muhammad Walliullah Khan and translated in Chinese by Lu Shuilin. A photographic exhibition was also inaugurated on the occasion. The photographs have been taken by the famous Chinese photographer Zhang Chaoyin. The project was put together by Ms. Wang Xinyang, an enterprising cultural leader.

The book and the photographs capture images of the Gandhara Civilization which flourished in the valleys of Peshawar, Swat, Charsadda, Bannu, and Taxila for more than a millennium. The Gandhara art, a blend of Buddhist and Hellenic cultures, traveled from the land now constituting Pakistan to China and other parts of East Asia. This cultural link between Pakistan and China is a lasting legacy of the two nations.

The event was attended by Chinese officials, scholars, artists and diplomats.

Mr. You Wei Jun, Counsellor, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also attended the event.