Afghans divided over remains of Buddha statues

 

By Farhad Peikar Mar 11, 2011, 5:18 GMT

Bamiyan, Afghanistan - As experts in Paris pondered what to do with Afghanistan's shattered Buddhist statues, the locals in a snow-covered valley thousands of kilometres away had their own opinions.
Exactly 10 years after the giant statues in the central province of Bamiyan were dynamited by the Taliban, hundreds of provincial officials and local farmers massed in front of their empty niches this week in commemoration.
'If they were reconstructed, they would attract a large number of tourists every year,' said Ebrahim Akbari, the head of Bamiyan's information and culture department.
In a declaration drafted at the gathering, the men and a handful of burqa-clad women collectively condemned the destruction of the 1,500-year-old statues and pleaded with the international community to help the province rebuild them.
But Western and Afghan specialists have decided against trying to piece the rubble back together, as the fragments are too small.
'The reconstruction is not possible,' said Franscesco Bandarin, assistant director general for culture of the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 'We are not doing it,' he said late Thursday at UNESCO's New York offices.
Speaking before the decision was announced, Akbari said a restoration would help the province, once a trading hub on the ancient Silk Road, regain its historical significance.
The region, which lies in the Hindu Kush mountains, attracted many visitors even after Muslims captured the region in the ninth century. Tourists and traders continued to come to the region until Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Even today, while most of Afghanistan is plagued by a Taliban insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops, Bamiyan frequently hosts foreigners who work for international organizations and diplomatic missions in Kabul.
The province, located 230 kilometers north-west of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 metres, still suffers extreme poverty, but is widely regarded as the country's safest region.
Pride in local culture is strong, and people from all walks of life have taken firm positions on the debate over the statues' future.
Haji Qasim Kazimi, Bamiyan's deputy provincial governor, welcomed a finding by a German specialist that only the smaller statue could have been rebuilt. Leaving the larger niche empty was a good idea anyway, he said, so that future generations could see 'the Taliban's cultural crimes.'
Razia Eqbalzada, a member of the provincial council, had called for both to be restored, in defiance of what she called the Taliban's act of enmity towards Afghan culture and the international community.
'Now that we have a government with the help of the world, we should show them [the Taliban] that if they could destroy our cultural heritage, we can rebuild it and keep our history alive,' she said, days before UNESCO announced the decision it had made with Kabul.
Local people had other reservations about the potential project.
'I don't know why we should spend millions of dollars rebuilding Buddhas while we don't have clinics, schools for our children or paved roads,' said Hussain Ali, who owns a grocery shop in the main bazaar of Bamiyan city, the provincial capital.
But Abdul Karim, another shopkeeper in the same market, who was forced by the Taliban 10 years ago to help destroy the statues, disagreed. 'This is a historical province, and the main site is the statues,' he said.
'So if these Buddhas are not reconstructed, I don't think anyone would spend money to come all the way to see the empty niches,' he said.
Some were also concerned that reconstructing the Buddhas could send the wrong message to the country's conservative Islamic society.
'Because of these statues, the Taliban thought we were not Muslims, and that was why they came and destroyed them,' said Safar Ali, a resident of Dara Fooladi, a village on Bamiyan city's western outskirts.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said the statues were anti-Islamic idols when he ordered them dynamited, seven months before the regime was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
Ali said the Sunni Muslim Taliban fighters thought their Shiite rivals, the majority in Bamiyan but a minority in the country, were worshiping the statues. 'So if we rebuild them, we will prove them right, that we wanted these statues for worship,' he said.
Speaking before the decision not to rebuild was announced, Omara Khan Masoudi, the director of National Museum in Kabul, was philosophical. 'Afghanistan has lost its precious statues and nothing could be done to bring them back to their original shape,' he said.

Source,

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1625196.php/Afghans-divided-over-remains-of-Buddha-statues

Conserving the Bamiyan Buddhas

One of the most horrifying acts of the Taliban was blasting the two magnificent, 1500-year-old Buddha statues in Bamiyan with dynamites, rocket launchers, and tanks. The 10th anniversary of this tragic destruction, which began on March 2, 2011 and took weeks to complete, provides an occasion to reflect on the future of the Afghan heritage. These statues, carved on the face of the Hindu-Kush Mountains, were great representatives of Asian art. The two unique colossi, 55 and 38 meter tall — the first of which was the tallest in the world — synthesised various art styles, including the Gandhara and Greco-Roman. They also represented a wonderfully creative phase of Buddhist history. The Indian government, through the Archaeological Survey of India, played a commendable role in the conservation of the Bamiyan monuments between 1969 and 1977. Although attempts were made in the early 1980s to declare them as World Heritage sites, it was only in 2003 that the effort succeeded. Simultaneously, these heritage structures were placed in the list of sites in danger, which helped mobilise international expertise and financial support for their protection.

UNESCO, which is coordinating the conservation efforts in Afghanistan, deserves the highest praise. Instead of rushing to rebuild the destroyed icons, as desired by some of the heritage experts and funding countries, it opted for a three-phase project to demine the area, strengthen the mountain cliffs, and improve the vicinity. Involving local communities in conservation efforts and building their capacities has been very sensibly made a priority. This sustainable approach, adopted since 2003, has paid dividends and the Bamiyan site is now ready to be removed from the list of World Heritage sites in danger. The demand to rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas has gained fresh momentum after experts demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing the smaller of the two statues, using fragments from the original statues. A final decision will be taken after carefully analysing the costs and benefits of the project, including the social gains that would accrue to the local community. The Taliban's barbaric destruction of the Buddhas exposes the limits of international conventions meant to safeguard heritage structures of universal value. In general, these conventions only address the damage caused by conventional war; they are ineffective in dealing with rogue States that vandalise their own cultural properties. There is an urgent need to review these international legal instruments and to make it mandatory for states to protect their cultural diversity and the heritage structures that represent it gloriously.

Source,

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article1529610.ece

Ancient Buddhas Will Not Be Rebuilt – UNESCO

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11, 2011 (IPS) - Afghanistan's historic Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban 10 years ago, will not be reconstructed despite claims the 1,500-year-old statues could be repaired, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said Thursday.
The decision follows a two-day meeting of scientists, Afghan officials and donors in Paris last week.

While the expert panel was split on the possibility of reconstruction, UNESCO has told the Afghan government it does not support a rebuild project, citing concerns over funding priorities and authenticity.

Replicating the colossal monuments, which once stood 55 and 38 metres tall, could cost between eight and 12 million dollars. However, less than half of the original stone used to build the statues remains.

"We think any reconstruction will essentially be a fake because of lack of original material," UNESCO's assistant director-general for culture, Francesco Bandarin, told reporters at a special conference in New York.

"We have to think of the public, and they don't need to see a fake, they need to see the reality. And these statues have been destroyed. As much as we mourn that they have been destroyed it's an historical fact," he added.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, dating from the sixth century, were bombed in 2001 as part of the Taliban's campaign to rid Afghanistan of pre-Islamic structures.

While much of the statues was reduced to dust, a group of German scientists, led by Professor Erwin Emmerling of the University of Munich, has said the smaller of the two could be restored.

The scientists have spent years studying the Buddhas, by analysing the hundreds of exploded fragments currently stacked in warehouses in the Bamiyan Valley.

According to Emmerling, a reconstruction project could be feasible using the original stone, but there would be practical considerations. Either a small factory would have to be built in the valley, or the 1,400 rocks weighing up to two tonnes each would need to be transported to Germany.

The scientists' proposals, however, have not been accepted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government, which has indicated it will not go ahead with restoration.

The decision has drawn strong criticism from Afghanistan's Hazara community, a minority ethnic group that claims a long association with the Bamiyan Valley and views the Buddha statues as a source of pride.

The international advocacy organisation Hazara People said the consensus to not rebuild was "shameful".

The group believes the decision is politically influenced and reflects the continued discrimination aganst Hazara peoples in Afghanistan.

"We are not surprised the Afghan government does not want to rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas," a spokesperson, who did not want to be named, told IPS. "Bamiyan Buddhas are great proof that say Hazara people have been living in that area for thousands of years."

Hazaras have long faced violence in Afghanistan, suffering genocide, slavery, and forced displacement under a series of governments including the Taliban.

And while the ethnic group is predominately Muslim, their East Asian appearance bears a resemblance to monuments such as the Bamiyan Buddhas.

"Afghan regimes have had this policy to destroy all historic symbols of Hazaras," the spokesperson continued. "The (19th century) Afghan/Pashtun king Abdurrahman has destroyed the face of Buddha in Bamiyan. It was very simple, he didn't want Buddha's face like Hazara's face."

The group rejected the argument that there was a lack of funding for restoration, pointing to the Karzai government's recent willingness to financially support the reconstruction of Pashtun poet Rahman Baba's bombed shrine in Pakistan.

"But the same government didn't pay one dollar for the Bamiyan Buddhas," the spokesperson told IPS.

"The expenses of a few projects in Bamiyan have been covered by some international donors. Furthermore, eight to 12 million dollars is nothing compared to billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan…eight to 12 million dollars is nothing compared to a million dollars corruption by Afghan senior officials."

While acknowledging there was desire to see the Buddhas rebuilt, UNESCO believes priority should now be placed on preserving the wider Bamiyan Valley, a World Heritage-listed site containing treasured Buddhist art and monastic caves dating to the first century.

The organisation, which has already conducted extensive consolidation of the ancient niches where the statues once stood, has called for construction of a central museum in Bamiyan, in addition to smaller site museums within the area.

"The priority now is creating the capacity to conserve what is there and ensuring the security of the site, in order to have it open for tourism," Bandarin said.

Source,
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54808

The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan Trailer

Buddhas of Bamiyan and the Boy Mir

UNESCO plans museum complex for Bamiyan Buddha site

Updated March 11, 2011 13:30:41

World culture body UNESCO has unveiled plans to preserve the site of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, an Afghan archaeological treasure destroyed by the Taliban 10 years ago. The UN's cultural body says international experts and Afghan officials stopped short of recommending the two Buddha statues be fully rebuilt in replica.


Presenter:Sonja Heydeman

Speakers: Professor Abdullah Saeed, Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. Member for the UNESCO Commission in Australia;Shahib Sharifi, Afghan journalist; Associate Professor Nigel Lendon, Australian National University's College of the Arts and Social Sciences


HEYDEMAN: UNESCO has plans to preserve the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan site. It says the westernmost of the two cliff-side niches that housed the Buddhas should be left empty, "as a testimony of the violence that occurred" under the Taliban.
UNESCO says for the other niche, a feasibility study may be undertaken to determine whether or not a partial re-assembling of fragments of the eastern Buddha could be an option in the coming years. The UN's cultural body says there's also a need to construct a central museum in Bamiyan, and smaller site museums within the landscape.
Professor Abdullah Saeed is Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. He's also a member for the UNESCO Commission in Australia. Professor Saeed says anything that can be done to remedy the violence the Taliban created should be seen as a welcome development.
SAEED: It is a global cultural issue, Buddhism is an important religion, and Buddhism has always been there in that region for a very long time. And when one looks at these kinds of issues today, one should not look at them as a short term issue, it is a long term cultural issue. And as a global community, whether we are Buddhists or Muslims or anybody else, we should all be concerned about maintenance and preservation of these cultural artifacts and sites.
HEYDEMAN: But not everyone is so upbeat about possible plans. Within Afghanistan � journalist Shahib Sharifi says the news has registered no interest whatsoever.
SHARIFI: The announcement comes at a time the country is grieving for maybe one of the bloodiest weeks, in the east and in the north, and most of the attention of the people is towards that, and it has not on a local level, it has not even drawn any attention.
HEYDEMAN: Shahib Sharifi says part of the problem with any development plans is lack of access by road from Kabul to Bamiyan. And he says the province remains under serious threat.
SHARIFI: Anything about tourism inside that security bubble would still at the moment would be meaningless for people, when the future looks bleak, when still the province threatened, when at any time the situation destabilises, the Taliban could return and take revenge.
HEYDEMAN: Associate Professor Nigel Lendon is with the Australian National University's College of the Arts and Social Sciences.
Associate Professor Lendon says any museum style development would be an enormous undertaking and one unlikely to be shared widely. He says it would make a poor investment.
LENDON: Museums are keeping places for a country's treasures certainly, but they're also primarily places for people to visit, and there's no one visiting. So I can't really see the purpose of that sort of a project. I'd much rather see a hospital built on the site rather than a museum, frankly.
HEYDEMAN: Associate Professor Lendon says bringing tourists to the region could also draw the unwanted attention of terrorists.
LENDON: In a sense having so many foreigners might in fact create a kind of target for other people.
HEYDEMAN: Shahib Sharifi says instead of development plans such as museums � the focus should be on protection of what's left at the site.
SHARIFI: To train the local structure, increase the number of these local structures, give the local institutions more support just to look after what has remained, until Afghanistan is safe enough to create further tourist attractions. What is there needs to be protected properly, and unfortunately, it's not.
HEYDEMAN: UNESCO added the Bamiyan valley to its list of endangered heritage sites in 2003.
Since then, UNESCO says it's spent years preserving the remains and removing mines from the site.

Source,

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201103/s3161599.htm

DCIFF: The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan

Posted by Tessa Moran on Mar. 9, 2011 at 10:30 am

Eight-year-old Mir and his family live in the mountains of Afghanistan. It's 2001 and the long-oppressive Taliban regime has been toppled by U.S. and allied forces. Mir and his family have already fled from the Taliban and drought in their village in the North to the caves of Bamiyan. It's here that filmmaker Phil Grabsky meets the boy, who peeps into his camera his very first day of filming.

Grabsky documented the boy for a year, resulting in 2003 documentary The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The Buddhas were massive 6th century statues built into the cliffs of Bamiyan and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. It's one of many scars left from the regime. As Grabsky explains in the introduction of his latest doc, The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan, he sensed one year was not enough time to document the true impact of Afghanistan's new realities, so he set about documenting Mir's life over a decade's time.

Mir is instantly infectious with his chubby cheeks and boyhood playfulness. In one scene, he giggles as he shows the filmmaker his "room," a few blankets arranged in the small cold cave where his family lives. He's prideful of his space despite his family's extreme poverty. This picture of innocence hauntingly sticks with you as the film shows Mir growing up over ten years, his skin roughened and wrinkled even in that short time. Throughout these times he struggles to balance his attendance at school and the need to work to feed his family, a task his elderly father is unable to shoulder. Meanwhile, much older half-brother Kushdel, a second father of sorts to Mir, uses his own life as a cautionary tale of the destiny that awaits illiteracy.

Mir's journey into manhood takes place throughout the war in Afghanistan, although the viewer only knows it from audio snippets of news reports and scenes of the family listening to the radio. Only once does Mir meet a couple of Humvees of American soldiers. He's scared of their size and weapons but notices they're scared too. Mir and his family are not victims of the violence of war but rather the other effects of it: a fractured country and a gap in humanitarian aid promised from foreign occupiers. It's a side of Afghanistan rarely seen and one framed in a narrative that depicts the strength of the human spirit.

Source,

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2011/03/09/dciff-the-boy-mir-ten-years-in-afghanistan/