Lesser Known Fact:

On account of Christmas tomorrow, do you know Pakistan had a small Christian community 1800 years ago? The disciple of Jesus St. Thomas also visited here and Pakistan has 1 of the oldest crosses in the world.

[Thread on Pakistan’s Christian history]

Now before I start, lemme tell you firsthand that this merely historic narration. You’ll find supportive accounts, divergent accounts and opposite accounts of what I’m narrating. I’ll be using Christian terminology and mostly following Biblical accounts for this thread.

But all in all, it’s just a thread about Pakistan’s biggest minority groups so I’d advise you to take it lightly. But if you believe you can’t, then I’d advise you to swipe away. Thank you :)

Now the very footprint of Christianity in Pakistan is about as old as Christianity itself. It is generally believed that the disciple of Jesus, Saint Thomas visited what is now Pakistan in between 20th AD to the 40th AD.

The general story is known to us by a 3rd century text known as the ‘Acts of Thomas’.

The text narrates that St Thomas captured and enslaved by a man and taken to the realm of the King Gonodophares of the Indus-Parthian Kingdom. This was a Parthian kingdom over modern Pakistan.

Gonodophares had his capital in the ancient city of Taxila in northern Punjab. Thus, much of what is now northern Punjab and central KPK (i.e. the Gandhara region) formed the core of his kingdom and it was here that St Thomas had come to visit.

The story goes that Thomas was brought to the court of Gonodophores who gave him some money to create a palace for him. Thomas rather than creating a palace decided to roam all villages in the vicinity donating the money to the poor. When the King arrived and discovered -

Discovered that there was no palace, he asked Thomas of it who replied that he had indeed created a palace, just that it would be visible when Gonodophares departs from the world i.e. it is in the heaven. Gon’ was furious and imprisoned Thomas straight away. Now Gon’ had -

Had a brother named Gad who suddenly fell ill and died that night. According to the text, his soul was taken to heaven where he saw a palace but couldn’t enter because the angels told him that it was created by Thomas for Gon’. Then his soul reappeared in his body -

And he called upon Gonodophares and told him what he saw before dying again. Gon’ was quite ashamed of what he had done. So he asked Thomas for forgiveness and released him from prison.

Now loads of accounts exist of what happened next. Some narrate that Thomas travelled into northern Pakistan using the ‘Gandhara Corridor’ to pass into China using a route through Hazara-Swat-Chilas-Gilgit-Hunza-Xinjiang (East Turkistan).

Our relation to Thomas ends here, but we now come across one of the oldest crosses of Christian history; The Taxila Cross.

It was discovered in 1935 in the ancient city of Sirkap in Taxilla where Gon’s capital was. The cross is dated to the 2nd century CE.

The existence and discovery of this cross has lead many people to believe that Taxila had a small community of Christians in 2nd CE due to missionary work of St Thomas who converted the local Buddhist populace. These Christians lived in Taxilla until possibly the Hunnic invasions

Christianity was somewhat dormant in Pakistan after the Hunnic invasions. It is then believed that some Nestorian Christian missionaries visited Punjab and preached Christianity during their missions of Central Asia. So Pakistan was linked to the Persian church.

Nestorianism is a special type (sect?) of Christianity. It is well known for its works in Central Asia where its missionaries managed to convert loads of people including Mongol nobles in Tartary and Chinese people in Tang Dynasty China.

Christianity once again appeared in the land of Pakistan during the Mughal era when Akbar allowed for the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries to preach in his empire. It is again not known how successful their evangelism was though some accounts speak of Mughal benevolence to them.

Christianity properly appeared in Pakistan during the British colonisation and the appearance of rail roads. Churches received aid from the British government for teaching in the railway schools. These Christians created new missionary schools of their own.

In between 1850-1900, many people joined Christianity en masse from Hinduism in Punjab leading to a shift in demographics which would ultimately declare Punjab a Muslim majority province and thus lay a foundation for Pakistan itself.

Christians now form the largest minority of Pakistan. Though they are only 1.6%, they’ve represented Pakistan at almost all levels.

The most famous Pakistani Christian is most probably Cecil Chaudhry, the man who took part in the famous Halwara Air Strikes in the ‘65 war.

Also fun fact: The Shroud of Turin is a very controversial object in the Christian world since it is supposed to be a projection of Jesus on a piece of cloth. The cloth is believed to have been from modern Pakistan. The cloth was referred in all accounts as ‘Sindon’ which was -

the Greek name of special type of Muslin acquired from Sindh in Pakistan. The Muslin is not found anywhere else in the world.

Reference:

Christian citizens in an islamic state - T. Gabriel.

Acts of Thomas.

Fate of the Apostles - S. McDowell.

A companion of religion in late antiquity - Lossel, Joseph, Baker Brian, Nicholas J.

The bible translator - Vol 41

A response to Indigenous culture and evangelisation - Charles Amjad Ali.

Punjab and Sindh missions of the church missionary societies - R. Clark

Now I’m gonna go eat some Biryani. Do forgive the grammatical mistakes in this I had no time to proof read because I’m very hungry. Do share it if you liked it.