Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

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Ancient · Buddhist · Pakistan

Mankiala Stupa

Rawalpindi district, Punjab · 33.4481°, 73.2433°

Gautama Buddha (commemorative stupa)Kushan
Sacred since
128 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
2nd c. CE (Kushan)
Kushan

History & significance

A large Buddhist stupa on the Potohar plateau south-east of Rawalpindi, associated by inscription with the Kushan emperor Kanishka, who is recorded as having visited it often. It was described by Mountstuart Elphinstone in his memoir of 1815 and opened in 1830 by Jean-Baptiste Ventura, whose relic finds were removed to the British Museum under British rule.

Sthala katha — the legend

Jataka tradition holds that the stupa marks the spot where Prince Sattva, an earlier birth of the Buddha, gave parts of his own body to feed seven starving tiger cubs.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Kushan