Columban Fr Robert McCulloch (third from right) with the university research team at the site of the Kovardo Cross in Pakistan - Photo:Fr Robert McCulloch
In early 2019 a group of young Muslim men discovered a large, monumental carved marble cross on the mountainside above their village in the Kovardo Valley in Skardu in the far northern part of Pakistan. The cross was upside down and almost completely buried beneath the dry stony soil of the mountain in a geographical area that has no rain, but is covered in deep snow every winter. It seems to have rolled down the mountainside due to earthquakes and landslides over a long period.
In 2020, three researchers, from the recently established University of Baltistan in Skardu led by Doctor Zakir Hussain Zakir, visited the village in search of old artefacts, such as utensils, woodcarvings or weapons, as part of a university-sponsored project to preserve the culture of the people of Skardu Valley. They were given hospitality, but the villagers said they were too poor to have any such objects.
As the village leader was walking with the researchers back to their jeep, he casually mentioned that something had been found some months earlier, but that it was a long way up the mountainside and would probably be too far away for them to get to. Fortunately, Doctor Zakir and his companions turned around and immediately climbed the mountain. This was the beginning of the historical, academic and archaeological interest into the discovery of what is now called the Kovardo Cross.
Much has happened since then to try to discover the origin and purpose of the cross. In June 2020, a small group of Muslim and Christian academics led by the vice-chancellor of the University of Baltistan, Doctor Naeem Khan, visited the new archaeological site. There has been national and international media coverage. An academic conference was held in August in Skardu and another in October in Islamabad. During the August conference, opinion was divided as to whether the discovery of the cross could be proof of the existence of Christianity in Skardu before the arrival of Islam in the 14th century.
However, when the October conference was held, the overall opinion was that it was most likely an ancient Christian cross and should not be regarded as a threat to the present national or religious reality of Pakistan. The Kovardo Cross was recognised as an important testimony to the multi-layered reality of the peoples who had lived for thousands of years within what is now Pakistan and especially in Skardu.
The team from the university making the arduous trek up the mountain to the site of the Kovardo Cross - Photo: Fr Robert McCullloch
The University of Baltistan estimates the weight of the cross to be three or four tons. Vertically, it measures six feet and seven inches, while horizontally, six feet four inches. The front side is finely finished while the backside is rough. The base stem of the cross is slightly damaged. The university estimates it to be 1,000- to 1,200-years-old.
I visited the site of the discovery of the Kovardo Cross with Fr Gulshan Barkat in September 2021 and I now act as the cultural ambassador of the University of Baltistan to promote academic and historical research to enable collaboration with other universities for the intense archaeological research needed to unlock the secrets of this cross.
Geographically speaking, the place of the discovery of the cross is on a mountain of the Kovardo Valley facing the right bank of the Indus River. Behind the cross is the gigantic Karakoram Range, while at the foot of the mountain, where the cross was found, is the Indus River, joined by its tributary, the Shigar River. On the left bank of the Indus is the colossal Himalayas. The cross would have been positioned on the mountain facing east, so that it overlooked the Indus River, the Himalayas and the Skardu Valley.
The area is now full of olive and apricot trees. The village near the mountain where the cross was discovered is 30 kilometres from the city of Skardu. The city is not only the geographical meeting point of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya ranges, as well as the Indus River, but is also an important part of the Silk Road, which from 500AD connected China through what is now northern Pakistan and Central Asia with the Persian Empire and beyond to Syria and Constantinople.
Adventurous modern tourists and equally inquisitive and scholarly archaeologists and historians have turned their attention to the ancient Silk Road, which seems to be the antique version of the modern Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy of the present Chinese government.
How did the Kovardo Cross come to be where it is? Obviously, the presence of a cross means the presence of Christians. The spread of Christianity into the Skardu Valley seems to have had two sources in the period after 500AD. Firstly, the Christians from the nearby Persian Empire, which included present-day Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also Christians from the ancient Sogdian civilisation that was made up of parts of present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. Secondly, the evangelisation carried out by Syrian monks active up and down the Silk Road and even in China at this time.
The present hypothesis is that the Kovardo Cross was set up in about 800AD by Syrian monks with links to the Sogdian Christians. They may also have established a monastery near where the cross was found in 2020. There is a sense of excitement concerning the intellectual and archaeological challenges surrounding the discovery of the Kovardo Cross. The site of the discovery is for the moment secure. The people of the nearby village own the land and have donated four acres where the site is located. The villagers themselves control the access ascending the mountain to the cross. However, a serious concern is that the cross and the site of the discovery still remain open to the natural elements and possible human threat.
Columban Fr Robert McCulloch worked in Pakistan for 34 years.
Listen to "The Kovardo Cross"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - May 2022
