GUIDEBOOK

Rawalpindi
PAKISTAN
Ayesha-Pamela Rogers (Coordinator of HUL Project in Rawalpindi), Visiting Professor at the National College
of Arts, Lahore and Rawalpindi, Pakistan
1. Layers of the site
The old core of Rawalpindi is a densely packed area of bazaars and mohollahs or
neighbourhoods, which has developed organically creating an enduring and resilient
pattern of urban life. This pattern emerged in its earliest formation and can still be clearly
read in contemporary Rawalpindi. It bears testimony to a heritage and tradition where
Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Muslim and Christian religions and cultures met and coexisted, expressed
in the great variety of religious buildings of different faiths, the complex of traditional
bazaars, the many languages, worship and religious festivals, art and music, food, and daily
life. The old city retains a significant amount of residential and commercial architecture
from the 18th to 20th Centuries in which no two buildings seem to be the same in design
or decoration. They form a yet-to-be studied compendium of decorative forms, combining
western and oriental materials and design vocabulary. The flat skyline of Rawalpindi is
punctuated at intervals with the domes and spires of Hindu temples and the minarets of
mosques. Each is distinctive and acts as a geographical marker that represents its locale
and assists the people of the city to navigate through the dense maze at street level. The
pattern of bazaars linked to adjacent residential mohollahs by narrow twisting pathways
forms the unchanging framework in which life has been lived in Rawalpindi over the
centuries.
The HUL Guidebook | 39