In praise of … the Bamiyan Buddhas
These statues were a reminder of a more beguiling version of Afghanistan than Mullah Omar pressed upon his people
Editorial
The Guardian, Thursday 10 March 2011
Article history
They stood 55 metres and 38 metres high, the colossal Buddhas of Bamiyan, and blowing up the bigger statue took 25 explosions and all the dynamite local commanders had. Afghanistan's Taliban demolished these two "shrines of the infidels" 10 years ago this month on the grounds that they were idolatrous. But the world's largest Buddhas, carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan in the sixth century AD, were also a reminder of a different and more beguiling version of Afghanistan than Mullah Mohammed Omar pressed upon his people. Bamiyan was a staging post on the Silk Road that carried goods and ideas all the way from China to Rome, and Buddhism came to Afghanistan as an export from the Indian subcontinent. Religious monuments have been regular victims of intolerance throughout history – but there was something peculiarly bloody minded about the destruction of these statues. It was done amid Afghanistan's worst drought in 30 years, while three million people faced starvation. Taliban commanders gave their orders as a show of defiance against the imposition of more UN sanctions, despite the pleadings of Kofi Annan and countless other world leaders. Almost as soon as the statues were reduced to rubble, repeated promises have been made to restore them. German scientists are now talking about putting the smaller Buddha back together again. But they also note "practical and political" obstacles to doing so – a phrase that seems to have the due combination of sadness and sobriety.
Source,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/10/bamiyan-buddhas-statues-afghanistan?utm_source=darjeelinglimited&utm_medium=twitter
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Experts outline plans for preservation of Bamiyan Buddhas World Heritage site: UNESCO Press
09.03.2011
Afghan officials and international experts outlined plans for the future safeguarding of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan) at the end of two meetings at UNESCO in Paris from 2 to 4 March. The meetings were held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan.
Afghan officials and international experts outlined plans for the future safeguarding of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan) at the end of two meetings at UNESCO in Paris from 2 to 4 March. The meetings were held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan.
After hearing proposals for remedial measures and the future presentation of the two Buddha niches from international teams of experts from Germany, Italy, and Japan, the participants, including the Afghan Minister of Information and Culture, the Minister for Urban Development Affairs and the Governor of the Bamiyan Valley, agreed that:
- A total reconstruction of either Buddha sculpture is not to be considered for the moment in view of the scientific data presently available, and according to the best estimates of available resources against cost.
- The larger western niche will be consolidated and left empty as a testimony of the violence that occurred, while a feasibility study may be undertaken to determine whether or not a partial reassembling of fragments of the eastern Buddha could be an option in the coming years.
- There is a need to construct a central museum in Bamiyan and smaller site museums within the Landscape in order to preserve and display findings from the valley within the World Heritage property.
- Work needs to be pursued to safeguard and preserve the entire cultural landscape of Bamiyan Valley with due regard for all the archaeological and architectural components necessary for the future development of Bamiyan.
- A master plan needs to be developed in close collaboration with the local authorities to serve as reference for all future interventions.
Since 2003, when the Cultural Landscape and Archaoelogical remains of the Bamiyan Valley were inscribed on the List of World heritage in danger, UNESCO has led a three-phase preservation plan for the property. Its focus has been to safeguard what remained after the intentional destructions of the Buddha statues and to render the site safe, notably by carrying out a complex demining operation of the site.
The 2011 Expert Working Group meeting concluded that the World Heritage site is potentially ready to be removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger by 2013. This conclusion was reached upon examining progress made to address security; structural stability of the remains of the two standing giant Buddhas; conserve the Archaeological Remains and Mural Paintings; and implement the property’s Management Plan and the Cultural Master Plan.
Participants at the meetings further concluded that, with the tragedy of the destruction now behind us, Bamiyan Valley - with its unique history, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and local communities - constitutes a fertile environment for learning how to transform a destructive act into an opportunity to reinforce tolerance, peace and development through culture for future generations.
The International Forum ‘Towards Cultural Rapprochement and Tolerance’ organized by UNESCO on 2 March 2011 reaffirmed the vitality of cultural heritage and its tremendous potential to bring together cultures and promote tolerance.
Source:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/experts_outline_plans_for_preservation_of_bamiyan_buddhas_world_heritage_site/back/18256/?utm_source=UNESCO+Press&utm_medium=twitter
Afghan officials and international experts outlined plans for the future safeguarding of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan) at the end of two meetings at UNESCO in Paris from 2 to 4 March. The meetings were held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan.
Afghan officials and international experts outlined plans for the future safeguarding of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan) at the end of two meetings at UNESCO in Paris from 2 to 4 March. The meetings were held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan.
After hearing proposals for remedial measures and the future presentation of the two Buddha niches from international teams of experts from Germany, Italy, and Japan, the participants, including the Afghan Minister of Information and Culture, the Minister for Urban Development Affairs and the Governor of the Bamiyan Valley, agreed that:
- A total reconstruction of either Buddha sculpture is not to be considered for the moment in view of the scientific data presently available, and according to the best estimates of available resources against cost.
- The larger western niche will be consolidated and left empty as a testimony of the violence that occurred, while a feasibility study may be undertaken to determine whether or not a partial reassembling of fragments of the eastern Buddha could be an option in the coming years.
- There is a need to construct a central museum in Bamiyan and smaller site museums within the Landscape in order to preserve and display findings from the valley within the World Heritage property.
- Work needs to be pursued to safeguard and preserve the entire cultural landscape of Bamiyan Valley with due regard for all the archaeological and architectural components necessary for the future development of Bamiyan.
- A master plan needs to be developed in close collaboration with the local authorities to serve as reference for all future interventions.
Since 2003, when the Cultural Landscape and Archaoelogical remains of the Bamiyan Valley were inscribed on the List of World heritage in danger, UNESCO has led a three-phase preservation plan for the property. Its focus has been to safeguard what remained after the intentional destructions of the Buddha statues and to render the site safe, notably by carrying out a complex demining operation of the site.
The 2011 Expert Working Group meeting concluded that the World Heritage site is potentially ready to be removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger by 2013. This conclusion was reached upon examining progress made to address security; structural stability of the remains of the two standing giant Buddhas; conserve the Archaeological Remains and Mural Paintings; and implement the property’s Management Plan and the Cultural Master Plan.
Participants at the meetings further concluded that, with the tragedy of the destruction now behind us, Bamiyan Valley - with its unique history, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and local communities - constitutes a fertile environment for learning how to transform a destructive act into an opportunity to reinforce tolerance, peace and development through culture for future generations.
The International Forum ‘Towards Cultural Rapprochement and Tolerance’ organized by UNESCO on 2 March 2011 reaffirmed the vitality of cultural heritage and its tremendous potential to bring together cultures and promote tolerance.
Source:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/experts_outline_plans_for_preservation_of_bamiyan_buddhas_world_heritage_site/back/18256/?utm_source=UNESCO+Press&utm_medium=twitter
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Quarryman recalls being forced to destroy Buddha statues
By Farhad Peikar Mar 9, 2011, 3:02 GMT
Bamiyan, Afghanistan - While the world was pleading with the Taliban not to obliterate Afghanistan's Buddha statues in March 2001, Didar Ali was working hard to bring the giants down.
The then-40-year-old was no iconoclast himself, but Taliban fighters had told him that they would spare his life only if he helped destroy the sculptures.
In February 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had ordered the statues in Bamiyan province, 230 kilometres north-west of Kabul, to be dynamited. Despite widespread international opposition, the Taliban maintained the images were idols and, therefore, not tolerable under Islam.
Starting March 2, the militants began shelling the 1,500-year-old statutes with artillery for several days, but with little result. The sixth-century Buddhists had done a great job, carving them in hard stone into the same cliff face with a distance of around 800 metres between them.
The Sunni militants, who has wrested control of the province from their Shiite rivals, forced a group of local men to drill and plant explosives inside the statues, 38 and 55 metres high, respectively.
While the international community was increasing its pressure on the Taliban to abandon their plan, the militants were arresting more male villagers from the near-deserted town to complete the job.
But it was not until much later that the militants learned that one of the men, Ali, was an expert in using explosives to quarry stones from the mountains, which local people would use for construction.
'They tied a rope around my waist and hung me from the top of the cliff to dig holes and bury explosives on the two shoulders of tallest statue,' Ali recounted. 'I refused to do it, but they threatened to push me from the top of the statue without a rope and kill all the other (arrested) men.'
'They also told me that if I tried to escape, they would kill my family and burn down my home,' said the father of five, who still lives in Sultano village, 20 kilometres west of Bamiyan city.
Suspended from the top of the cliff, Ali and two other men drilled holes into the statues and filled them with explosives and rocket shells. When they were detonated, the statues were flattened, leaving the niches where they had stood empty. Around 50,000 kilograms of explosives were used in the two-week operation, according to a Taliban-linked publication.
The world was shocked by the news, but Ali was glad to be able to return to his family. 'I know they were our cultural heritage. They also belonged to the entire world, but at that time I could only think about my life.'
The statues were not the only victims of the Taliban.
According to Omara Khan Masoudi, director of the National Museum in Kabul, the ultra-Islamist regime destroyed more than 2,000 ancient statues and other artifacts depicting human-like figures before Bamiyan's sculptures were brought down.
When they seized the Bamiyan area in 1998, two years after taking Kabul, the Taliban torched hundreds of homes and 'massacred at least 500 people, including women and children,' said Haji Qasim Kazimi, deputy provincial governor.
'I was only a schoolteacher, not a fighter, but the Taliban burned down my home after I fled my village,' said Ebrahim Akbari, who is currently the head of the information and culture department in Bamiyan.
Sitting in his mud-walled office near where the statues' feet would have been, Akbari, whose job it is to preserve the remaining debris, said the international community only began condemning the Taliban after they bombed the giant sculptures.
'There were more serious atrocities before and after that incident.'
In the 10 years that have passed, the statues have been preserved against further destruction and one or both of them might even be reconstructed, but Ali is far from forgetting his ordeal. Despite living only a 30-minute drive away, he only visits the snow-covered valley once or twice a year.
'Whenever I really have to go to the city, I don't want to look at the statues because they remind me of those days when I had to take part in their destruction,' the farmer said.
'Every minute I was living between life and death because if the rope had suddenly been cut or if we failed to bring the statues down, I would have been killed.'
Source,
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1624591.php/Quarryman-recalls-being-forced-to-destroy-Buddha-statues
Bamiyan, Afghanistan - While the world was pleading with the Taliban not to obliterate Afghanistan's Buddha statues in March 2001, Didar Ali was working hard to bring the giants down.
The then-40-year-old was no iconoclast himself, but Taliban fighters had told him that they would spare his life only if he helped destroy the sculptures.
In February 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had ordered the statues in Bamiyan province, 230 kilometres north-west of Kabul, to be dynamited. Despite widespread international opposition, the Taliban maintained the images were idols and, therefore, not tolerable under Islam.
Starting March 2, the militants began shelling the 1,500-year-old statutes with artillery for several days, but with little result. The sixth-century Buddhists had done a great job, carving them in hard stone into the same cliff face with a distance of around 800 metres between them.
The Sunni militants, who has wrested control of the province from their Shiite rivals, forced a group of local men to drill and plant explosives inside the statues, 38 and 55 metres high, respectively.
While the international community was increasing its pressure on the Taliban to abandon their plan, the militants were arresting more male villagers from the near-deserted town to complete the job.
But it was not until much later that the militants learned that one of the men, Ali, was an expert in using explosives to quarry stones from the mountains, which local people would use for construction.
'They tied a rope around my waist and hung me from the top of the cliff to dig holes and bury explosives on the two shoulders of tallest statue,' Ali recounted. 'I refused to do it, but they threatened to push me from the top of the statue without a rope and kill all the other (arrested) men.'
'They also told me that if I tried to escape, they would kill my family and burn down my home,' said the father of five, who still lives in Sultano village, 20 kilometres west of Bamiyan city.
Suspended from the top of the cliff, Ali and two other men drilled holes into the statues and filled them with explosives and rocket shells. When they were detonated, the statues were flattened, leaving the niches where they had stood empty. Around 50,000 kilograms of explosives were used in the two-week operation, according to a Taliban-linked publication.
The world was shocked by the news, but Ali was glad to be able to return to his family. 'I know they were our cultural heritage. They also belonged to the entire world, but at that time I could only think about my life.'
The statues were not the only victims of the Taliban.
According to Omara Khan Masoudi, director of the National Museum in Kabul, the ultra-Islamist regime destroyed more than 2,000 ancient statues and other artifacts depicting human-like figures before Bamiyan's sculptures were brought down.
When they seized the Bamiyan area in 1998, two years after taking Kabul, the Taliban torched hundreds of homes and 'massacred at least 500 people, including women and children,' said Haji Qasim Kazimi, deputy provincial governor.
'I was only a schoolteacher, not a fighter, but the Taliban burned down my home after I fled my village,' said Ebrahim Akbari, who is currently the head of the information and culture department in Bamiyan.
Sitting in his mud-walled office near where the statues' feet would have been, Akbari, whose job it is to preserve the remaining debris, said the international community only began condemning the Taliban after they bombed the giant sculptures.
'There were more serious atrocities before and after that incident.'
In the 10 years that have passed, the statues have been preserved against further destruction and one or both of them might even be reconstructed, but Ali is far from forgetting his ordeal. Despite living only a 30-minute drive away, he only visits the snow-covered valley once or twice a year.
'Whenever I really have to go to the city, I don't want to look at the statues because they remind me of those days when I had to take part in their destruction,' the farmer said.
'Every minute I was living between life and death because if the rope had suddenly been cut or if we failed to bring the statues down, I would have been killed.'
Source,
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1624591.php/Quarryman-recalls-being-forced-to-destroy-Buddha-statues
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Karmapa likens Bamiyan Buddha destruction to Berlin Wall fall
Source: The Press Trust of India Limited
Mysore - Seeking a positive perception towards demolition of Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan during the erstwhile Taliban regime, a Tibetan spiritual leader Saturday likened the incident to the fall of Berlin Wall that was followed by the unification of east and west Germany.
While many termed the Bamiyan episode as a tragedy I have a suggestion that perhaps we can look at this in a positive way.
What we saw in destruction of Bamiyan Buddha is some kind of depletion of matter... some soured substance coming down... disintegrating, said the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Ogyen Trinley Dorje), the second highest-ranking leader of Tibetan Buddhist.
Distinguishing between the approach towards spirituality in Islamic and Buddhism, he said spirituality revolved around ideology and there are not as many physical representation in Islam, unlike spiritual liberation practised in Buddhism.
Maybe we can look at that being more similar to falling of Berlin Wall, that had kept people apart, the Karmapa said at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference here.
Source,
http://mingkok.buddhistdoor.com/en/news/d/2839
Mysore - Seeking a positive perception towards demolition of Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan during the erstwhile Taliban regime, a Tibetan spiritual leader Saturday likened the incident to the fall of Berlin Wall that was followed by the unification of east and west Germany.
While many termed the Bamiyan episode as a tragedy I have a suggestion that perhaps we can look at this in a positive way.
What we saw in destruction of Bamiyan Buddha is some kind of depletion of matter... some soured substance coming down... disintegrating, said the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (Ogyen Trinley Dorje), the second highest-ranking leader of Tibetan Buddhist.
Distinguishing between the approach towards spirituality in Islamic and Buddhism, he said spirituality revolved around ideology and there are not as many physical representation in Islam, unlike spiritual liberation practised in Buddhism.
Maybe we can look at that being more similar to falling of Berlin Wall, that had kept people apart, the Karmapa said at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference here.
Source,
http://mingkok.buddhistdoor.com/en/news/d/2839
Remains of Bamiyan Buddhas yield additional details about statues' origins: Washington Post
By Andrew Lawler
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Ten years ago, the Taliban destroyed the great Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, two giant statues that watched over the Bamiyan Valley for 1,500 years. Extensive studies of the rubble have revealed new details about the creation and appearance of these statues, including their original colors.
Early travelers, including Chinese monks, described the Buddhas as painted - one red and one white, according to an 11th-century visitor. But material evidence was lacking until a team led by Erwin Emmerling of the Technical University of Munich analyzed the remains. Smaller fragments are stored in warehouses in the valley and larger pieces remain at the bottom of the niches, covered by tarps.
"The Buddhas once had an intensely colorful appearance," Emmerling said in a recent statement. And he adds that they were painted over several times. The outer robes on one were pink and later orange on the outside, with a pale blue lining, whereas the other was white.
The researchers also found "an astonishing degree of artistic skill" in fashioning the massive statues, which were carved from the rock but had garments made out of clay as smooth as porcelain, Emmerling says.
"These have survived not only nearly 1,500 years of history but even the explosion in some parts," Emmerling said. But he warned that the porous sandstone, now exposed to the air, may crumble within a few years.
The researchers suggested that at least the smaller Buddha might be partly rebuilt with existing fragments injected with a synthetic material designed to halt weathering. Those fragments - more than 1,000 - would have to be sent to Germany for treatment, and Emmerling declined to say what such an effort would cost.
Bamiyan was an important monastic complex at a time when Buddhism began to spread from India and Pakistan into Central Asia and China. But dating the statues carved into the sandstone cliffs has proved problematic. Based on the style of the robes, art historians have long thought the monuments were made as early as the 3rd century A.D.
But the new analysis indicates that they were made a few hundred years after this. Drawing on organic material in the clay layers in the rubble of the destroyed Buddhas, Emmerling's team used mass spectrometry analysis to date the smaller Buddha to between A.D. 544 and A.D. 595 and the larger Buddha to between A.D. 591 and A.D. 644. These later dates may show that the complex remained vibrant longer than scholars once thought, even after the advent of Islam in Afghanistan starting in the 7th century A.D.
A team of experts from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met recently in Paris to hear the results. Brendan Cassar, a UNESCO representative in Kabul, said that the focus at Bamiyan is on stabilizing the niches and on preparing a modest open-air museum at the site rather than reconstructing the statues.
This report was produced by Science NOW, a daily online news service of the journal Science, which can be read at sciencemag.org.
Source,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/05/AR2011030503558.html
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Ten years ago, the Taliban destroyed the great Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, two giant statues that watched over the Bamiyan Valley for 1,500 years. Extensive studies of the rubble have revealed new details about the creation and appearance of these statues, including their original colors.
Early travelers, including Chinese monks, described the Buddhas as painted - one red and one white, according to an 11th-century visitor. But material evidence was lacking until a team led by Erwin Emmerling of the Technical University of Munich analyzed the remains. Smaller fragments are stored in warehouses in the valley and larger pieces remain at the bottom of the niches, covered by tarps.
"The Buddhas once had an intensely colorful appearance," Emmerling said in a recent statement. And he adds that they were painted over several times. The outer robes on one were pink and later orange on the outside, with a pale blue lining, whereas the other was white.
The researchers also found "an astonishing degree of artistic skill" in fashioning the massive statues, which were carved from the rock but had garments made out of clay as smooth as porcelain, Emmerling says.
"These have survived not only nearly 1,500 years of history but even the explosion in some parts," Emmerling said. But he warned that the porous sandstone, now exposed to the air, may crumble within a few years.
The researchers suggested that at least the smaller Buddha might be partly rebuilt with existing fragments injected with a synthetic material designed to halt weathering. Those fragments - more than 1,000 - would have to be sent to Germany for treatment, and Emmerling declined to say what such an effort would cost.
Bamiyan was an important monastic complex at a time when Buddhism began to spread from India and Pakistan into Central Asia and China. But dating the statues carved into the sandstone cliffs has proved problematic. Based on the style of the robes, art historians have long thought the monuments were made as early as the 3rd century A.D.
But the new analysis indicates that they were made a few hundred years after this. Drawing on organic material in the clay layers in the rubble of the destroyed Buddhas, Emmerling's team used mass spectrometry analysis to date the smaller Buddha to between A.D. 544 and A.D. 595 and the larger Buddha to between A.D. 591 and A.D. 644. These later dates may show that the complex remained vibrant longer than scholars once thought, even after the advent of Islam in Afghanistan starting in the 7th century A.D.
A team of experts from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met recently in Paris to hear the results. Brendan Cassar, a UNESCO representative in Kabul, said that the focus at Bamiyan is on stabilizing the niches and on preparing a modest open-air museum at the site rather than reconstructing the statues.
This report was produced by Science NOW, a daily online news service of the journal Science, which can be read at sciencemag.org.
Source,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/05/AR2011030503558.html
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