Mankiyala Stupa

An archaeological site featuring a prominently standing stupa—visible from a great distance due to its considerable height (28.34 m) and circumference (156.24 m)—was regarded as one of the four great stupas by the renowned Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian (Legge 1886: 32) in the 5th century AD. It was also mentioned by Sung-yun in the 6th century AD (Thomas 1904: 255) and Hsuan Tsang in the 7th century AD (Beal 1884: 145–146) in their accounts. The Mankiyala Stupa, located on the boundary between the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Punjab Province, in Rawalpindi District near Rawat, is associated with the famous Jataka tale of Mahasattva. This significant Buddhist site was reported by Elphinstone in 1809 (Elphinstone 1819: 130–132). Later on, during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, it was excavated by General Ventura in 1830 in search of antiquities. During the British period, the site was surveyed by Sir Alexander Cunningham, then Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) (Cunningham 1871: 152–172; 1875: 75–79), and some conservation work was also undertaken by the ASI. The Department of Archaeology and Museums(DOAM), Islamabad, conducted excavations in the monastery area of the Mankiyala Stupa in 1968 and published the findings in the journal “Pakistan Archaeology” (Dar, S.R. 1972: 7–22). However, the surrounding area of the stupa remained unexplored and required systematic excavation to fully understand the monument’s layout. Therefore, the Korea Heritage Agency (KHA), in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM), Islamabad, conducted archaeological excavations during the 2024 season, introducing modern technology into archaeological research at Mahikyala Stupa.