Distant view of village and stupa, Ishpola, Peshawar District

Photograph of a distant view of the village and stupa at Ishpola, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, taken by Joseph David Beglar around the 1870s. A stupa is a hemispherical monument which would have formed the focus of worship at Buddhist religious sites such as Ishpola. Made from earth faced with bricks, to devotees, a stupa directly represents the Buddha. In northern Pakistan Buddhism grew in popularity from the first century AD onwards under the patronage of a dynasty of kings called the Kushans. Particularly under a Kushan king called Kanishka, monasteries sprang up all over the area that we now call Peshawar. The stupa shown here would have probably been attached to a monastery or vihara.