It was in 1852 that the famous V&A Museum of London opened as a ‘museum of manufactures’. In 1899, the museum was renamed and inaugurated by Queen Victoria. But then Lahore’s amazing museum was founded in 1865 replacing the ‘museum of manufactures’ that was later renamed Tollinton Market.

The market was named after H.P. Tollinton, the then Secretary of the Punjab Government, because he oversaw its construction. After the British had exhibited and forced local buyers to purchase British good, they realised that the place be used as ‘The Lahore Museum’. As space quickly ran out the need for a larger museum was put in motion in the garden where Ranjit Singh rested before invading and capturing the walled city of Lahore in 1799 in the ‘baradari’ of Wazir Khan. That ‘baradari’ still stands and is part of the Punjab Public Library built in 1884.

My emotional connection with the Lahore Museum started when my father, then Editor of the ‘Civil & Military Gazette’ newspaper, used to take us brothers there and lecture us on the ancient history of Lahore. “Never forget that for almost 1,000 years Lahoris were Buddhists” he used to remind us. The city has been through six different faiths. People think the current faith system was always there. Beliefs have their own logic.

In my university days after winning the ‘All-Pakistan’ universities debate with the late journalist-actor-director Imran Aslam as my partner, I met a lady. She was a ‘fine art’ student who came to congratulate me, reminding that our fathers were friends. Then we became friends. With her almost every day for almost two years in the afternoon break we visited the nearby museum. Her classmates every day collected two 25-paisa museum tickets for us. That was 52 years ago, and we are still good friends living on the opposite sides of the globe.

But back to the museum. As Lahore has experienced almost 1,000 years of Buddhist rule, as has the sub-continent especially areas to the west, it is to be expected that the arts and crafts of that period will dominate what exists in the museum. It certainly has one of the seven ‘world sculptures wonders’ – the Starving Siddhartha – a wonder to appreciate only when seen.

There are other Buddhist statues and stones too, each one a wonder and well worth spending time there. No wonder Lahore Museum is considered as among the world’s finest Buddhist collection museum. It is also Pakistan’s largest and most visited. Besides the exquisite and extensive Buddhist Collection, it has an equally impressive and much earlier Indus Valley Civilisation Collection, as also an impressive Indo-Greek Collection and a very important Gandhara Collection. As one walks through one notices an impressive Mughal era Collection, a Sikh Empire Collection and then a British-era Collection.

Such is the sweep that this world-class museum has run out of space. It should not come as a surprise that in the underground warehouses there are more ancient and valuable items that are not exhibited. One museum official laughingly observed: “Sir, we will need four museums to display every item we have”.

The building of the museum was designed by the famous architect Sir Ganga Ram, whose statue was smashed by 1947 Partition zealots during the riots. One story by the famous writer Saadat Hasan Manto reminded the wounded that all of them were shifted to the Ganga Ram Hospital. The architectural style is in the ‘Indo-Saracenic Revival’ style.

Major portions of the present building were designed by Bhai Ram Singh and John Lockwood Kipling. The foundation stone was laid on the 3rd of February 1890 by Prince Albert Victor, who died at the age of 27 years, and hence was unable to be King.

In 1948, as part of the Partition artefacts agreement, the Lahore Museum handed over 40 per cent of their rare artifacts to India, who built a new museum in Chandigarh to house them. But then in a subtle move the Indian Government requested the military government of Gen. Ayub Khan in 1960 to lend them the famous Indus Valley statue ‘The Dancing Girl’ for just two months to display. They have never returned that masterpiece and refuse to discuss the matter.

There are a series of news reports where ruling politicians have tried to take away rare statues to display at their homes. It might come as a surprise that the ‘Starving Siddhartha’ statue, a world wonder, was attempted to be removed, damaging a side portion. That politician is still in power.

But for the average Lahori, the very mention of the museum brings to the mind a statue and a cannon outside. Firstly, there is the famous ‘Zamzama’ cannon gun which was built in where stands the famous Nila Gumbad. This gun was mentioned by Rudyard Kipling in his novel ‘Kim’. Incidentally Kipling lived in the museum premises with his father. The other statue opposite the museum across the road is that of Alfred Woolner, the person that saw the Punjab University start off with Dr Leitner.

Of the over 59,450 artifacts with the Lahore Museum, only 13,990 are on display. No wonder museum employees every time one meets them claim that the best is stored away. One such British era statue is that of Queen Victoria, which in our youth we used to see in the monument opposite the Punjab Assembly. But then the ‘pious’ Gen. Ziaul Haq got it removed and put a metal replica of the Quran there. That got stolen so a wooden one was replaced. That has also decayed.

The museum has an amazing collection of Pahari and Sikh era paintings by some of the finest artists of that particular genre. On the museum ceiling the famous artist Sadequain painted 48 panels depicting the ‘The Evolution of Mankind’. As a young journalist I recall Sadequain lying on the museum floor busy in his ‘creation’. Sadly, because of construction cracks and moisture this amazing work got damaged, more so because of termites. An attempt is currently underway to restore them, which is halfway through.

The museum also contains fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh carved woodwork. Their library is also special for it contains the finest books on the ancient sub-continent. There is a definite need for an archive expert to take care of this treasure.

All around the Lahore Museum are buildings that house the very finest of our city. To the east is the old Mayo School of Arts, now known as the National College of Arts (NCA). To the south is the Punjab Public Library, where rare books decade uncared. Almost a national habit like the Punjab Archives in the tomb of Anarkali inside the French-built Punjab Secretariat. That is a massive tragic tale in itself.

Opposite the museum is the Punjab University’s fine arts department, where once the great Mrs. Anna Molka Ahmed of Czech origin reigned supreme. Inside and outside the Lahore Museum exists our finest past history and institutions. There is an urgent need to care for them lest we lose them.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2025