The Kargah Buddha

The Kargah Buddha looms over Gilgit, Pakistan. One of the country’s most famous Buddhist archaeological sites, the ten-foot-tall Buddha is carved into the side of a cliff, about fifty feet high. It dates back to the 4th to 7th century, when the Kingdom of Gilgit was ruled by the Buddhist Patola Shahi dynasty, and was likely commissioned by them from missionaries traveling on the Silk Road.

With his right hand at his heart and his left hand at his side, the standing Buddha is surrounded by holes in the cliff, indicating that he was once sheltered by a wooden structure. The carving was uncovered between 1938 and 1939, along with the ruins of a Buddhist monastery and three nearby stupas. Seven years earlier, cattle grazers in the same area had found the Gilgit Manuscripts, the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscript collection from the Indian subcontinent.

These days, the Kargah Buddha draws tourists and pilgrims from abroad. It is particularly popular among visitors from Japan and South Korea. When visitors arrive, however, they usually hear a different story. According to local legend, the carving is not of the Buddha but of a yakshini—a female spirit—in this case, the giant demoness sister of Shri Badat, the last Buddhist king of Gilgit. He was overthrown by his people and burned to death due to his penchant for eating babies—a story now celebrated during Gilgit-Baltistan’s annual Taleno Thumishalling Festival. The yakshini, also a cannibal, albeit one that ate grown men, needed to be killed next. One brave shaman devised a plan. He first put the demoness into a trance by burning juniper and performing a song and dance. He then informed her of the deaths of Shri Badat and her father. In her grief, the yakshini struck her chest and her leg, giving the shaman the opportunity to stab her hands and pin her to the mountain wall. He cast a spell that turned her to stone. Upon the shaman’s death, he was buried at the foot of the cliff to ensure that the yakshini would never return.