Field guides / Khyber Pakhtunkhwa / Rawalpindi / Pippala Stupa and Monastery, Taxila
Field guide · Heritage
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi District · Punjab, Pakistan
Pippala Stupa and Monastery, Taxila
The Buddhist archaeological site in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, dates from the 1st to 5th century CE and is located on Jaulian Road, surrounded by Pipplan Hills.
Pippala Stupa and Monastery features a well-preserved monastery with a courtyard, monks' cells, assembly hall, kitchen, and a stupa complex. The main stupa is notable for its three-tiered structure, originally decorated with Ionic pilasters and a Dhyani Buddha figure. Smaller votive stupas are also scattered around the main stupa. Excavations led by Sir John Marshall revealed a detailed layout of the monastery and stupas, which were built using heavy masonry. The site is protected under The Antiquity Act 1975 (amended in 1992) and the excavation results were published in Frontier Archaeology, Vol VI in 2016.
Why go
- ✦A well-preserved monastery with cells, hall and kitchen
- ✦A three-tiered main stupa once decorated with Ionic pilasters
- ✦In the Pipplan hills, 0.8 km from Jaulian
Planning tip
Best Time to Visit, October to March. The monastery with its three-tiered stupa is close to Jaulian in the Taxila valley, so the two pair well on a cool morning; May and June are very hot.
Getting there, In the Taxila valley, about 0.8 km from Jaulian.
What to Do
Nearby
Straight-line distance from Pippala Stupa and Monastery, Taxila, within 5 km.
