Lahore Museum (Lahore)

 museum, interesting place

Lahore Museum is the oldest and largest museum in Pakistan. It is situated on Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam (The Mall) near Anarkali Bazaar and famous Kim's Gun. Originally, it was established in 1855 as District Museum in the historic Baradari of Wazir Khan. This Baradari was built during the reign of Mughal emperor Shahjahan. An Industrial Art Exhibition of Punjab was held in 1864 in a newly constructed building, later came to be known as Tollinton Market. After the conclusion of this exhibition, the Museum was shifted from the Baradari to Tollinton. For 30 years (1864 to 1894), the present Tollinton Market functioned as the museum. The present building was constructed as a memorial of Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria held in 1887, and financed through a special public fund raised on the occasion. The foundation stone was laid on 3 February, 1890 by Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Queen Victoria's grandson (suspected of being Jack the Ripper). On its completion in 1894, the entire Museum collection was transferred to present building with its new name as Jubilee Museum. After its complete renovation and reorganization in 1967, the Museum was renamed as Lahore Museum. Conceived in red brick and red sandstone, it displays the finest example of Gandhara sculpture, the masterpiece of Fasting Siddharta. The museum also contains some fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh door-ways and wood-works and has a big collection of paintings dating back to Indo-Pakistan, Mughal, Sikh, Jains and British times. It has also a collection of musical instruments, ancient jewellery, textile, poetry and armory.
The Lahore Museum has a fine collection of Jain relics mainly of the
material collected from the city of Gujranwala and Darkhana. It is
believed that Mr Raghavji Virchand Gandhi, the first person to
represent Jainism abroad and who attended the first Parliament of
World Religions in 1893 in Chicago was supported by the Jain center
from this area