Pakistan's Global Diaspora — Why Bhurban Was Always Part of the Story

Pakistan's Global Diaspora — Why Bhurban Was Always Part of the Story

Pakistan has approximately 9 million nationals living abroad — the Gulf workers, the UK Pakistani community, the North American Pakistani professionals, the Malaysian engineering graduates, the Australian students who stayed — constituting one of the world's largest diaspora communities relative to the home country's population. The diaspora's relationship with Pakistan's landscape is mediated almost entirely by the city: the airport, the family home, the wedding venue, the family reunion that fills the brief annual visit. The mountain — the cedar forest at 6,800 feet, the Murree hills, the sub-Himalayan landscape — is not part of the diaspora's Pakistan mental map.

Why should Pakistan's global diaspora include Bhurban in their return visit?

Bhurban is 47km from Islamabad International Airport. The cedar forest is an hour from the arrival gate. The private estate at Himalaya Villas is available for the price of a modest international flight upgrade. The diaspora visitor who adds 2 nights at Himalaya Villas Bhurban to their Pakistan return visit changes the trip significantly. The family visits happen; the city obligations are met; and within it, the 2-night cedar estate provides the encounter with a dimension of Pakistan that the diaspora visitor's children — born in London, Toronto, Dubai, or Sydney — have almost never accessed: the forest, the cold, the mountain, the fire in the private cedar garden at midnight.

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Pakistan's Global Diaspora — Why Bhurban Was Always Part of the Story

Pakistan has approximately 9 million nationals living abroad — the Gulf workers, the UK Pakistani community, the North American Pakistani professionals, the Malaysian engineering graduates, the Australian students who stayed — constituting one of the world's largest diaspora communities relative to the home country's population.
The diaspora's relationship with Pakistan's landscape is mediated almost entirely by the city: the airport, the family home, the wedding venue, the family reunion that fills the brief annual visit. The mountain — the cedar forest at 6,800 feet, the Murree hills, the sub-Himalayan landscape — is not part of the diaspora's Pakistan mental map.
It should be. Bhurban is 47km from Islamabad International Airport. The cedar forest is an hour from the arrival gate. The private estate at Himalaya Villas is available for the price of a modest international flight upgrade.
contemporary architecture exterior

The 2-Night Bhurban Addition to the Return Visit

The diaspora visitor who adds 2 nights at Himalaya Villas Bhurban to their Pakistan return visit changes the trip significantly. The family visits happen; the city obligations are met; and within it, the 2-night cedar estate provides the encounter with a dimension of Pakistan that the diaspora visitor's children — born in London, Toronto, Dubai, or Sydney — have almost never accessed: the forest, the cold, the mountain, the fire in the private cedar garden at midnight.
This is the part of the trip that the diaspora visitor describes to non-Pakistani colleagues: I was in a private cedar estate at 6,800 feet with a mountain view, an outdoor, and a fire pit in the garden. It was extraordinary. It was in Pakistan.

Himalaya Villas & Resorts — For Pakistan's Global Diaspora on the Return Visit

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