n a quiet Victorian-era building, turned into Peshawar Museum, lies Buddha`s statue depicting his First Meditation. It is a unique one among the rich collection of sculptures about Buddha`s spiritual journey from a prince to a spiritual leader.

Peshawar Museum Curator Nidaullah Sehrai narrates that King of Kapila Vastu, Sadho Dhana, was told by a sage that he would have a son, who would either become a ruler of the world or a spiritual leader. So the king made every worldly pleasure made available for prince Bodhisattva Siddhartha indulgence.

The First Meditation is the first sign which way the prince opted for.

First Meditation (2nd-3rd Century A.D) is a stone-sculpture depicting scene of ploughing contest, a scene where the bleeding of the bulls, moved prince Bodhisattva Siddhartha so much that he abandoned the worldly pleasure and sat under a Jumbo tree. The sculpture also depicts how the King`s men searching for him showed their respects by kneeling when they witnessed that sun had moved but the shade of the tree was still covering Buddha as he meditated. Text by Sadia Qasim Shah