The Catholic Church tradition about the death
of Mother Mary is called "The Dormition" (the
sleep).
She went into a deep sleep from which she
never woke. The location of her death is not
known, and has variously been given as
Jerusalem, Ephesus (Turkey) and France.
Little mention is ever made of the grave on the
Old Silk Road. Yet the evidence is mounting
that this was the birthplace of Abraham and
Sarah, that Tocharians and Pashtuns are an
integral part of Biblical history, and Kashmir
was the Camelot of many Biblical patriarchs.
There is a very good chance she could be
here!
To see the grave, which is on property now
owned by Pakistan TV, I had to return to
Islamabad and get written permission, which
took several more days. Finally, the day
arrived, and we made the steep climb up the
hill.
When I got to the grave I was shocked. I
wasn't prepared for what I found.. The grave
has been terribly desecrated through the
years...
I realized few in the world might care as deeply
for these sites. The Bamiyam Buddha is gone:
Joseph the Patriarch's grave near Palestine
was destroyed in the summer of 2000. The
grave of Yuz Asaf is in imminent danger of
being wiped out through "remodeling". Each
week in some large way or small, the world
loses another great piece of history. It doesn't
always happen with a big bang of dynamite.
Sometimes the destruction consists of a few
small stolen relics to sell on E-Bay every few
months.
What if there was just one chance in a million?
Or one chance in a billion this could be her
final resting place? Surely we owe it ourselves,
and to her, to find out. How hard would that
be? A few archaeologists and scientists could
get to the truth in a matter of days. The impact
on the world would be enormous. If we don't
make the effort soon, then the
Taliban-fundamentalist mentality will make the
choices for us,
The site has already been twice attacked and
bombed.
I brought some yellow silk roses to place at
her grave, and as I pushed them through the
barbed wire I thought this was someone's
mother buried here, and certainly, after
surviving all these centuries, she deserves
better than this!
I met people in Murree who do care, and
slowly efforts are being made to validate this
site. I hope they succeed in getting the
interest of serious archaeologists.
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