Haldeikish Sacred Rocks Monuments located at Hunza, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan

These are some Photographs of English commemoratives boards and thousands years old Haldeikish Sacred Rocks Monuments located at Hunza, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. Most of these animals carvings were made when the area became sacred for the local population. The pictorial Inscriptions on the four rocks are in bactrian, Kharoshti, Sogdian, Tibetan, Chinese, Guptan, and Brahmi scripts.

The Commemorative boards Erected by the Department of Archeology, Government of Gilgit Baltistan read as under '

' Haldeikish '

Sacred Rocks in Hunza

Haldeikish is one of the earliest and most reliable sources available for understanding the history of entire region during the first millennium CE. Spread over four rocks, thousands of graffiti and petroglyphs; names, titles, dates, formulae, and designs in bactrian, Kharoshti, Sogdian, Tibetan, Chinese and Brahmi scripts reveal the diverse linguistic and geographical origins of the visitors and travelers via Hunza. They highlight the important role of the Hunza Valley as a transition for cultural exchange on one of the silk route networks.

The site is broken into four rock areas and each has a separate description. '

Rock 1

'This rock contains many Inscriptions on its eastern side, where niches have protected the Inscriptions from extreme weather conditions. A lot of these Inscriptions on this rock are in Kharoshti and include names of Buddhist pilgrims and merchants from as early as the year 83 A. D. It also has a portrait of a Kushan king in Central Asian dress with the name Gondophernes written in Kharoshti. '

Rock II

' Most of the graffiti and petroglyphs on this rock appear neat ground level on the Southern side of this rock and on a large'boulder on its southwestern corner written in Brahmi on the large boulder on the western side of this rock Buddhist Proper name Budharaksota protected by Buddha. The rock also carries the Inscription, in Guptan script (late Brahmi script), '' Chandra Sri Vikramaditya Conquers'', with a date corresponding to 419 AD. Chandra Sri Vikramaditya was the greatest of the Gupta Emperors who ruled over most of India in the early 5th century.'

Rock VI

'This rock is predominantly covered in simple drawings of ibexes and goats hence the name of the rock -' Haldeikish' means 'a place of many ibex'. The ibex is an extremely revered animal for the inhabitants of Hunza, who to this day perform ritual ibex dance. In the times of Shamanism, a holy man would usually wear the head of an ibex and after falling into a deep trance, would proceed to tell fortunes and answer questions about the future. '

Photographs By Mamoona Parvaiz Sahiba