For The Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 17, click here.

December 31, 2017, Lahore Pakistan - Today I was very fortunate to have an interview with Grandmaster Malik Iftikhar Ahmed, who is the President & Founder of the Pakistan Wushu Federation, President of the South Asia Wushu Federation, Vice President of the Punjab Olympic Association, and President of the Red Dragon Wushu Federation(!) and, workout with and photograph two of his illustrious teams.

I had an appointment for 12:00 and arrived just about on time. I was warmly greeted at the entrance to his home, private training center and hostel by Grandmaster Malik along with his wife, son and some of his coaches and team members. I was greatly pleased with this meeting as I’ve looked forward to it for a long time and had chatted with the illustrious grandmaster several times on Facebook prior to our meeting. During the interview my expectations were exceeded when I got some grasp on the living legend that is this true gentleman’s real life story.

Settled into his office adjacent to the training enter I started by asking about his family and early martial art experiences. “Some of my ancestors migrated to Thailand near Malaysia a long time ago. One of my cousins visited us here from Thailand in 1969. He played Kung Fu then and I was 12 years old at the time. Though he was only here for a couple of weeks his skills really inspired me. And then along came Bruce Lee’s movies that even further got me going. In 1970 I started training with Ajmal Mughal a Wing Chun master but after a while he left.

“I and some of my friends started Karate in 1977 but were disqualified in competitions for doing things like sweeps and dumping our opponents on the floor. I did train hard though and even wrote a book titled Master Karate Text Book dedicated to Gichin Funakoshi. But after a time my friends and I went back to our roots in Kung Fu and planned to get affiliated. Then we left Karate again. In 1992 I traveled to Beijing by road. It took 17 days to get there from Lahore. Things were very much different then with checkpoints every few kilometers checking our IDs. In Beijing I met a Mrs. Kong, Secretary of the International Wushu Federation or something like that. I was very happy and surprised it only took three days to get the affiliation for the Pakistan Wushu Federation. I asked her if she would like to see my performance and she said: ‘We want organizers not players; we can see your courage and enthusiasm.’

“We had established the Pakistan Wushu Federation under the name of our club, the Red Dragon Kung Fu Club but later decided to change the name to simply Pakistan Wushu Federation to give it a more professional image. In the beginning there were lots of problems, like lots of fights. It was rough in the beginning. Some people wanted to fight us saying ‘fight with me and if you win I will join with you.’ That’s how it was in the old days. After three or four challenging years people started to understand this is not the way. The Pakistan Wushu Federation was affiliated with the International Olympic Committee in 1998 and registered with the government in 2009. Bureaucracy was a big hurdle, but we were very patient. Now each province in Pakistan has its own association, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Capital Territory, the Tribal Areas, Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Also there are federations for the Pakistan Army, Police, Railway, Higher Education and the Water & Power Department. Just last week December 24-27 we sponsored the Inter-Army Championships and there are regular intra- and inter-province, national and international competitions.”

When I asked Grandmaster Malik how many Kung Fu and Wushu players there are in Pakistan he said: “Unregistered, around 30,000 but if you’re asking about only registered players there are approximately 12,000.”

I asked about the percentages of his players preferring Sanshou vs. Taolu, he chuckled: “Pakistanis do love Sanshou!”

Asked about their competition record Grandmaster Malik answered “We are the only martial arts federation in Pakistan that has had three consecutive victory standings in the Asian Games, Dohar in 2006, Guangzhou, and 2012 in Incheon, South Korea 2014.”

I asked about the Wushu training club with the elevated ring which I could see through the window of his office there at the federation headquarters and he said: “Oh this? This is all my private property. Later you can see behind these buildings is a hostel; visitors to our federation can stay there up to 60 persons at a time. The government by the way does not pay for this.”

Which led me to my next question about his annual budget to which he responded: “It’s something like 800,000 per year. I was suitably impressed till I asked: “Is that Pakistani Rupees or US dollars?” to which he answered: “Rupees my dear!” That means he’s operating the Pakistan Wushu Federation on something like $7,700 per year. “But,” he added: “for the games and camps the government does pay for those.” In regards to private sponsors Grandmaster Malik said: “Only cricket gets private sponsors here in Pakistan.” I asked him about visa issues and he said: “We’ve never had any visa problems, but it’s a tough job sometimes as each embassy has different criteria.”

At this time it was apparent his club members were ready for action in the training hall so we moved on to the next stage of what turned out to be a very interesting day. It appeared to be mostly a girls and ladies training day and a couple of the students squared off in the elevated ring for some pretty exciting Sanshou sparring. After a couple of minutes it appeared they were more or less equally matched and another pair took the floor. Those are some hard hitting ladies and they really demonstrated precision punching and kicking as well as take-down techniques (unfortunately my photos weren’t as good as they were).

Following this I trained the young team in a stretching routine I’d learned decades ago in Hatha Yoga called “Salute to the Sun,” and then practiced a few kicks and kicking combinations with them. It was huge fun and really felt good for me to get at least a little work-out there, and share some skills I found useful for Wushu skill development with the enthusiastic students. After a round of photos Grandmaster Malik invited me into his office again and presented me with a couple of the books he’s written and a beautiful iron Wushu sign. Fantastic gifts!

Then we drive over to another training center of his, the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and there were around 30 – 50 men training most enthusiastically in both Sanshou in one area and Taolu in an adjacent area. I walked around photographing them for a while then I was introduced to the coaches, including Malik Osman, IWF Qualified coach and Grade B Judge, as well as Chief Coach of the Pakistan National Wushu Team and the super WAPDA team that was training there.

Then I was introduced to Muhammad Saleen, Senior Coach of the Pakistan WAPDA team who teaches both Sanshou and Taolu. In addition he’s the first International Wushu Coach of Pakistan Wushu Federation, having received his certification in 1995 in Wuhan, China. He also mentioned that he was a co-founder of the Pakistan Wushu Federation along with the President, Grandmaster Malik. But the way, Teacher Malik doesn’t call himself a Grandmaster, but it’s obvious to me that’s what he is, so that’s what I’m calling him in this story.

Next I was introduced to Ijaz Ahmed, 2010 Asian Games Silver Medalist and man, he is one powerful looking man with clean precise technique. Then I met Maratab Ali Shah, who won two Bronze Medals in the Asian games and three Gold Medals in the South Asian Games, another very powerful gentleman with excellent technique.

I then got all the players together in a (very large) circle and we went through the stretching routine I’d showed the other team earlier in the afternoon, as well as some kicks and kick combinations. Though being the Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour sole member, promoter, writer and photographer, which is really, really fun, I probably enjoy training even more.

Somehow the afternoon had slipped by and it was time to bid farewells, but not before I told them: “It’s great to be a traveler discovering new brothers and sisters of the worldwide Wushu Family. But, the difficult part is saying ‘goodbye,’ so I never say goodbye. Instead I just say: ‘See ya later,’ to everyone.”

After departing I headed to the bus station as it was almost time for my 5:30 pm, 16 hour bus ride to Sukkur where I thought I’d spend the next evening. Sukkur (yes, it does sound like 'sucker') by the way is close to Larkana, which is close to Mohenjo Daro, the site of a 5,000-year-old mysterious Indus Valley civilization in which the central structure was “the Great Bath,” which Gregory Possehl of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia believes may have served as a temple suggesting a religion based on cleanliness. Mohenjo Daro in turn was a stop on the way to my final destination of this Silk Road trip, Karachi.

The bus ride – which also transported me into 2017 as it was December 31st, was long but most entertaining. Sitting next to me was a handsome young man named Hisham, who is a second year medical student and we talked for hours about medicine, life, love and other things. He said he liked foreign money so I exchanged some for him and then gave him a bit more. Then he gave me some very nice prayer beads and Muslim cologne. The gentleman sitting just across the aisle from me was Mr. Munsif a mechanical engineer who was on his way home to his wife. Fortunately for me he was getting off at the same stop as me, Sukkur. His help was instrumental in finding the fine hotel Inter-Pak Inn. Also on the bus was an energetic, very healthy, older gentleman named Joel Andrews, age 76 as I recall, who is absolutely and totally into health and fitness. In fact he was a member of Pakistan’s track and field team back in the 1970s, former National Athletic Coach in Pakistan and compiled Pakistan’s Track & Field Athletic Results Book. In addition to all that he runs a Christian ministry of some sort and is just a totally dynamic and enthusiastic guy all around! He’s also great at making friends, encouraging everyone around to be more health conscious. What a crew with whom to spend New Year’s Eve! Real Silk Road – being totally multi-cultural and educational travel.

On the other hand the 16-hour mostly-night drive was a bit difficult in some ways because of the heavy dense fog which made it almost impossible to drive and also there were a couple of near miss accidents that woke those who managed to sleep. Again – real Silk Road! The element of danger historically – was always there.

In the morning I finally got to see some of the countryside landscape in Pakistan for the first time. Basically the land was hilly desert, but due to fine irrigation there were also some very verdant fields. We crossed several rivers, but practically everyone I’d met since coming to Pakistan reminded me that it hadn’t rained in some four months. I could believe it as the air was quite dusty almost everywhere.

Arriving in Sukkur bus station my new friend Mr. Munsif helped me into one of the three wheeled motor vehicles which are ubiquitous in Asia it seems called san lun chua in China, tuk tuk in Thailand and rickshaw in Pakistan. The first hotel we went to didn’t allow foreigners which is normal enough, but luckily the second one called the Inter-Pak Inn did. It’s a large, older hotel but clean and the staff were quite friendly. It’s the only hotel close to Mohenjo Daro archeological site where foreigners can stay as far as I know. Thanks so much to Mr. Munsif for his help. Again, Silk Road travel - sharing and caring.

 

Mohenjo Daro

January 1, 2017, Sukkur Pakistan - I spent the evening typing notes from previous days and before going to sleep on January 1st, I got an in-house telephone call from the front desk asking if I planned to go to Mohenjo Daro the next morning. Indeed I was and the front desk gentleman named Korbana asked if I’d made transportation arrangements. Funny he should mention that as indeed I hadn’t and traveling in quite rural areas in a foreign country where one doesn’t speak the language, travel arrangements can be quite complicated indeed. So I was absolutely delighted he’d thought of it and called me. I went to the hotel lobby and had a most excellent conversation with the very kind and thoughtful gentleman there. He was so kind as to hook me up with a driver that would take me first to get a bus ticket for a ride later in the day to Karachi, and then to the site of this ancient doorway to the Indus Civilization, followed by a ride back to the bus station and all for a mere 5,000 Pakistani Rupees, or about $50. That’s really quite pricy for me, especially for a few short rides, but 1) that’s the way most foreigners travel here and 2) maybe I was getting lazy or something. So I agreed.

Waking in the hotel in Sukkur town I packed and went to the hotel restaurant for my complimentary breakfast. It was empty of course, though another guest did appear for a couple of minutes. As I was busy chomping down some fried eggs and bread I didn’t talk to him and he left quickly. Afterwards I asked the waiter where the other guest was from and was told he’s Chinese. Oh! Too bad I should have chatted with him. But perhaps he was in a hurry as he didn’t stop to eat anyways.

Never mind, I had my travel and camera bags there with me in the restaurant and promptly at 9 the driver was there. I took some photos with new friends working at the hotel and was off on a new adventure. First the bus stop and I was a bit disappointed to find out the busses were filled until 9:00 pm. That meant a 10-hour bus ride - again at night and arriving Karachi in the morning, pretty much unquestionably quite tired. Not seeing any other options I reluctantly bought the ticket for 1,500 Rupees or about a dollar and a half.

After that it only took about 30 minutes to get to Mohenjo Daro. The driver (sounds like Emmet, but he spells it ‘Ahmett’) had arranged for a most excellent guide named Ishab who had, like my guide in Taxila, worked with archeologists some years earlier. Ishab knew well the huge ancient metropolis of Mohenjo Daro and first we visited the museum, which held many artifacts from this ancient Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization which started around 3300 BCE and was really booming by around 2,600 BCE.

 

Mohenjo Daro and the Bones of Sinners and Saints

We started our tour of the site itself at the remains of a large Buddhist Stupa (pagoda in Japanese and 'ta' or 'tower' in Chinese). The Stupa dated from the 2nd Century CE and thus was flourishing long after the heyday of Mohenjo Daro, yet because it was occupying the high ground of Mohenjo Daro was obviously of great influence in its day. That Stupa was real Silk Road, whereas most of the Mohendo Daro had been abandoned over a thousand years earlier long before the development of a transcontinental Silk Road.

Following a walk around this ancient holy place we visited the ancient College, Divinity Street, Street with a Drain, and then Ishab showed me the Great Bath which for some reason occupies the very center of the ancient metropolis of Mohenjo Daro. He showed and explained the advanced water distribution system which was astonishingly well designed such that water was available throughout the entire huge city, including the baths, homes, kitchens, private and public toilets and so on. It is an engineering masterpiece, built some 4,600 years ago. Researching this site I found that some archeologists believe that they had a religion based on cleanliness, given that the Great Bath was located in the very center and heart of this huge ancient city. The sign said it was eight feet deep which looked about right, which made me question if it was a bath at all, but rather instead a swimming pool.

While there we met some other travelers and Ishab asked if any had a 20 Rupee bill. Indeed one did and then he showed me that Mohenjo Daro is the picture on the front of the bill. Walking along the dusty deserted streets of this ghost city, Ishab showed me some human bones in the rough wall of a partially excavated part of the site. Indeed the fine powdery gray-white dust from the bones of sinners and saints are mixed equally along the walkways and walls of this and other ancient Silk Road sites.

Before long he showed me the Yoga center where the ancients did physical training. I asked Ishab how the archeologists figured that out and he said artifacts for physical training and other clues were found there, but moved to museums. Was this perhaps a city dedicated to health and fitness some four-thousand five-hundred years ago I wondered. For that matter it could have been a military college. Who knows? Then we walked along a long dusty pathway to another excavated site in the ancient city and I saw various wells and toilets. Indeed the water system was remarkable with fresh water and covered sewers for all.

The streets got a little wider as we entered the HR area so named because it was excavated by Herald Hargreaves, back in 1924-25. Further along the walkways, he showed me large rooms where the skeletal remains of some 14 bodies were found, and another room with one skeleton. Though this sounds like the start of a great murder mystery or ancient war story, examination of the skeletons by Kenneth Kenney in 1994 showed that the marks on the skulls were caused by erosion, not violence. However, the question remains, why were skeletons found in those rooms and why were they not buried? Indeed, foul play, murder, war or even disease might indeed have been the reason for their presence there. There are many ways to die besides a bang on the head! So much of ancient history is simply unknown.

In one room of this neighborhood, a very famous figurine was found called “Dancing Girl.” There was also a large cotton textile building and kiln building found, suggesting some kind of commercial center. And there was a jeweler’s area. Then after walking along further, we came to the royal palace area where the rooms were bigger and the remaining walls higher. I noticed some things that looked like brick towers or chimneys, but Ishab told me they were actually wells and some parts of the city were built with two stories such that at the time, the wells were accessible from the upper levels. In one well, whose mouth was at the ground level, Ishab told me they’d found a large king cobra a couple of days earlier. I contemplated that for a moment and decided this was possibly not the best place for camping.

I was also amazed when Ishab told me there were paintings and sculptures of unicorns there at Mohenjo Daro. How can such a “mythical” creature’s existence keep popping up around the world given that no skeletal remains have ever been found?

Before long the tour ended and I was left with that that dizzy feeling as we drove away, like a huge part of my own past was being left behind – perhaps departing a better time in our collective archetypal memories.

As we drove away, Ahmett offered to drive me to Karachi 450 kilometers away to the south for an additional 15,000 Rupees. This is a king’s ransom in this part of the world, but the alternative was hanging out in the small town of Sukkur for the day. I didn’t know exactly what else I would find there, and didn’t relish spending all night on a bus again, and consequently feeling exhausted the next morning. So, I agreed and we drove for eight hours to Karachi.

I learned a lot from Ahmett during the drive. Mohenjo Daro is located in the Larkana District within the Sindh province, one of four provinces in Pakistan. I found out that each province has its own language and Karachi where I was going is the capital of the Sindh Province. Islamabad isn’t in a province per se, but rather its own Capital Territory where they speak Urdu and Lahore where I’d been a couple of days previously is in the Punjab Province.

I must say the Sindh police were exceedingly nice giving us an escort most of the way to Karachi, putting on their siren to help clear sometimes slow traffic to help speed us along. They had an amazing relay system such that as one Toyota police truck left another would be found just ahead to escort us along. I felt like the president! In fact, 28 years previously I’d visited Pakistan and the military had been a huge help to me when I’d gotten sick, giving me medical treatment in their hospital and refusing my money when I offered it upon departing. These guys are really selfless hardworking people dedicated to helping their guests and ensuring they are happy and well cared for. A thankful salute to them all!

Driving into Karachi that evening was a real thrill because it’s the biggest, most modern, and populous city in Pakistan. I absolutely love the countryside and rural areas, but getting to a big city is quite exciting too. Around 10:30 pm we got to my Karachi Hotel reserved by the tour company I needed to get the visa. It was quite nice and I relaxed after a long Day 10 of this journey, January 2nd, 2017.

 

Day 11, January 3rd National Museum of Pakistan

Waking as usual these days around 5:30 am, I started typing notes from the day before and around 12 noon, a new driver - this time from the tour company came to take me to the National Museum of Pakistan here in Karachi. I’d also looked forward to this for a long time as I knew most of the artifacts from Mohenjo Daro would be here. I toured this museum in about an hour photographing everything from several angles and afterwards was very fortunate to get a meeting with the director, Muhammad Shah Bukhari. I introduced myself and of course mentioned that I write for Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.

Before meeting him I was told that Director Bukhari was a learned and wise man, a Hafiz in fact, that is someone who had memorized the Quran. When I met Director Bukhari with this jolly sparkling gray blue eyes, easy going manner and excellent American English I was a quite happy. And not a moment later he was quoting “Uqman Ibn ‘Anga Ibn Sadun,” a Nubian slave extolled for his wisdom in the time of the Prophet Mohammad (and about whom an entire chapter or Sura in the Quran is written). “When asked what raised Uqman to his highly respected status he answered: ‘Oh my son: let your speech be good and your face be smiling; you will be more loved by the people than those who give them provisions. And he said: Kindness is the head of wisdom…’”

During the next hour or so we had a wonderful chat about a 100 subjects and I learned among other things he used to train in Kyokushinkai Karate, along with one other gentleman in attendance. I also found out that’d visited my home town of Milwaukee, Madison and some other quite nice places in the U.S.

I learned that the oldest mosque around Karachi is about 60 kilometers to the east and was founded by the Companion Ali as evidenced by an inscription in the Kufic language. I also learned that the oldest port around is called Makran in Baluchistan Province which was visited by Alexander the Great, and from which some of Xerxes the Great’s army that fought at the battle of Thermopylae came. Earlier yet, it was the home province of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and I found out ancient Babylonians used this port to sail to India. The name Makran comes from the older word makar which means 'sea dragon,' so-called because of the whale sharks and humpback whales frequently seen in the Arabian Sea (where I’m going swimming tomorrow). By the way, Gwadar town, beach, and port is in the Makran region and the ancient port there is key terminus of the land Silk Road. Unfortunately building the huge deep water port there has covered much of the ancient remains, if indeed there were any. The development of this joint Pakistani/Chinese port project presents a huge opportunity for economic development in Pakistan and few will disagree that economic development is seriously needed here.

I learned that there is a Hadith (companion texts to the Quran) stating that parents should teach their children archery, swimming and horseback riding, which sounds perfectly good to me as I very much like all three. I asked for a specific reference and he said it was Hadith Bukhari, which I suspect he knows rather well as his name is Muhammad Shah Bukhari, after all.

Following this most stimulating conversation, we took some photos and he walked with me for a while. After that I also had some time to chat with Anwar Hussain, the museum’s Production Officer who told me that if I come and visit Pakistan again he will have a gift for me. I can’t wait, especially given that I found out he also makes replicas. Anwar also showed me a display area I’d somehow missed that had the coolest weapons of the Islamic Era in the museum. Wow! How did I miss it before?

After all this it was definitely lunch time and I went with my newest driver Mr. SanAulla to a real traditional restaurant with normal regular everyday Karachi people. That was most excellent and cheaper than some of the places I’d been brought to before. Hats off to SanAulla! (Actually all the food in Pakistan was GREAT! But the prices did vary a lot.)

After a bit of a tour of the city I needed to return to my hotel to finish typing some Mohenjo Daro notes while the memories were fresh, then had dinner and called it a day. To make a long story short, for the next few days in Karachi, I visited shopping malls, went swimming in the Arabian Sea, rode a camel, hung out at tea shops and restaurants, bought a couple of gems for a friend, visited several amazing mosques. And on my last night, I went to Port Grand where I made several wonderfully kind new friends. Then, I flew back home to Beijing. It was an awesome trip and I have to thank so many people there. Pakistanis are beyond a doubt some of the world’s friendliest, most warm-hearted, inclusive, generous people I’ve ever had the honor and fortune to meet. My sincere thanks to one and all. A word to the wise: Pakistan can be a dangerous place; hook up with the federation before visiting. But hay, let’s be honest, some parts of New York, Miami, LA, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago can be rather rough too sometimes. In any case, I had a fantastic time and reaffirmed my great love for this beautiful timeless land and especially their great Wushu people.

For The Silk Road Kung Fu Friendship Tour Part 19, click here.