UNESCO: Destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas Nearly Impossible to Rebuild

Jennifer Glasse | Kabul  March 22, 2011

Photo: AP

The 53-meter tall, 2,000-year-old Buddha statue located in Bamiyan, about 150 kilometers west of the Afghan capital Kabul, is shown in a November 28, 1997, photo

Ten years after the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha statues at Bamiyan, a UNESCO meeting concluded the cultural landscape of Bamiyan must be preserved. UNESCO’s ambassador to Afghanistan says the ultimate decision is up to the Afghan government but that rebuilding the statues will be difficult if not impossible.
The two giant Buddhas, carved into a stone cliff in the Bamiyan valley in the 6th century, were one of Afghanistan’s greatest monuments and the largest example of standing Buddhas in the world until the Taliban destroyed them a decade ago.
Since the fall of the Taliban, historians and archaeologists have debated the possibility and merits of rebuilding the Buddhas.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, held a conference this month to discuss their fate.  Shigeru Aoyagi, UNESCO’s ambassador to Afghanistan, says it is up to the Afghan government to decide what happens at the site, but that reconstruction may not be an option.
"Well, technically it’s very difficult, the fragments are not left in enough quantity, for example especially the surface of the Buddha is a very big problem," he said.
Aoyagi says reconstruction is not totally ruled out, but specialists are not optimistic.
"There might be some way, if the government decides, if the government wishes for the reconstruction, [but] notably, the bigger one, it’s very, very tough, difficult, almost impossible, that’s the observation of the experts," he said.
In the case of the smaller Buddha, which was about 37-meters-high, Aoyagi says there are more pieces to assemble, but still not enough to rebuild it completely.
"For the eastern part, there might be some measure to reassemble these fragments and then make something symbolize the tragic history of this destruction," he said.
He says UNESCO and Afghan officials have discussed another option.
"The possibility of setting up the Bamiyan Museum, which can preserve these fragments, rich artifacts, as well as tell the people about the [tragic] history of the Bamiyan Buddhas," Aoyagi said.
While UNESCO does not support the rebuilding of the Buddhas, it and the Afghan government do want to ensure the statues, and their cultural importance, are understood and remembered.

Source,
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/UNESCO-Destroyed-Buddhas-Nearly-Impossible-to-Rebuild-118440784.html

کریم خلیلی: باید گفتگو با طالبان را جدی بگیریم

خلیلی: "جنگ، خونریزی، کشتار، ویرانی، انفجار، انتحار همه باعث بدبختی و نابودی این کشور گردیده است."

محمد کریم خلیلی، معاون دوم رئیس جمهوری افغانستان گفته است تا زمانی که جنگ در این کشور ادامه داشته باشد، روند واگذاری مسئولیت های امنیتی به نیروهای افغان موفق نخواهد شد.

آقای خلیلی روز دوشنبه، اول حمل/فروردین در مراسم جشن نوروز در شهر مزار شریف گفت که قرار است حامد کرزی، رئیس جمهوری آغاز روند انتقال مسئولیت های امنیتی از نیروهای ناتو به نیروهای افغان را روز سه شنبه رسما اعلام کند.

قرار است این روند تا سال ٢٠١٤ میلادی به پایان برسد و نیروهای امنیتی افغانستان مسئولیت تامین امنیت سراسر این کشور را به عهده بگیرند.

معاون دوم آقای کرزی بر اهمیت روند انتقال مسئولیت های امنیتی به این نیروها تاکید کرد و گفت که برای موفقیت این روند، گفتگو با شورشیان هم باید جدی گرفته شود.

آقای خلیلی گفت: "ما زمانی می توانیم از این مرحله تاریخی سربلند بیرون شویم که روند صلح را هم جدی بگیریم. جنگ، خونریزی، کشتار، ویرانی، انفجار، انتحار همه باعث بدبختی و نابودی این کشور گردیده است."

او افزود: "تا زمانی که جنگ در افغانستان ادامه داشته باشد و کشتار در افغانستان باشد، یقینا ما در روند انتقال هم موفق نخواهیم بود."

آقای خلیلی در بخشی از سخنان خود تاکید کرد که مصالحه با شورشیان به معنای "برگشتن به تحجر و وحشتی که ده سال پیش در کشور حاکم بود نیست."

پیش از این آقای خلیلی هشدار داده بود که مصالحه با طالبان نباید دستاوردهای ده ساله این کشور را با خطر مواجه کند.

گفته می شود که شرکت کنندگان جشن نوروز در شهر مزار شریف به صدها هزار نفر می رسیده است.

ما زمانی می توانیم از این مرحله تاریخی سربلند بیرون شویم که روند صلح را هم جدی بگیریم. جنگ، خونریزی، کشتار، ویرانی، انفجار، انتحار همه باعث بدبختی و نابودی این کشور گردیده است

محمد کریم خلیلی

مراسم اصلی نوروز به طور سنتی در آرامگاه منسوب به حضرت علی در شهر مزار شریف برگزار می شود.

به دلیل افزایش حملات طالبان و بمبگذاری های انتحاری در هفته های اخیر در مناطق مختلف افغانستان، نیروهای امنیتی تدابیر ویژه امنیتی را برای برگزاری جشن نوروز به اجرا گذاشت.

شهر کابل، پایتخت شاهد حضور سنگین نیروهای امنیتی در خیابان ها و محلاتی است که مردم برای برگزاری جشن نوروز تجمع کرده اند.

امیر بریال خبرنگار بی بی سی در شهر مزار شریف می گوید که نیروهای پلیس و ارتش به همراه تانک ها در خیابانهای این شهر برای تامین امنیت مستقر شده اند.

محب مدثر، دیگر خبرنگار بی بی سی در مزار شریف می گوید که مردم از سراسر افغانستان برای شرکت در جشن نوروز به مزار شریف رفته اند و مردم صبح زود از خانه ها به سوی محل برگزاری جشن نوروز به راه افتادند.

گفته می شود که امسال حدود نیم میلیون مهمان از سراسر افغانستان برای شرکت در مراسم جشن نوروز در شهر مزار شریف حضور یافته اند.

در روز نوروز به طور سنتی مقامهای ارشد دولتی در میان مردم در صحن آرامگاه منسوب به حضرت علی حضور می یابند و دستور برافراشتن علم منسوب به حضرت علی را صادر می کنند.

اما جشن نوروز در مزار شریف با برگزاری جشن های حاشیه ای دیگر تا چهل روز دیگر با عنوان "جشن گل سرخ" ادامه می یابد.

از روز نوروز تا چهل روز دیگر صحن زیارتگاه سخی (آرامگاه منسوب به حضرت علی) شاهد حضور صدها خانواده از سراسر مناطق شمالی افغانستان در روزهای چهارشنبه است.

این خانواده ها ضمن زیارت کردن مزار سخی، در طول روز به تفریح و سرگرمی در باغ زیارت سخی می پردازند.

نوروز در مرکز و جنوب افغانستان

جشن نوروز امسال تحت تدابیر ویژه امنیتی برگزار شد.

اما در هزاره جات، در مرکز افغانستان مردم با برگزاری جشن های ویژه در روزهای پیش از نوروز و با حرکت "کمپیرک" از دهی به دهی دیگر به استقبال نوروز می روند.

نوروز امسال در هزاره جات در حالی فرارسیده که دره ها و کوههای این منطقه زیر برف سنگین است و هنوز در بسیاری از ولسوالی ها (شهرستانها) از بهار خبری نیست.

در مناطق جنوبی افغانستان که در سالهای گذشته نوروز با محدودیت هایی به همراه بود، امسال مردم جشن نوروز را به گرمی برگزار کرده اند.

احمد امید اخپلواک، خبرنگار بی بی سی در ارزگان می گوید که نوروز امسال در این ولایت ناآرام با حضور گسترده مردم برگزار شده است.

در هلمند، ناآرام ترین ولایت جنوبی افغانستان نوروز با اجرای کنسرت چند آوازخوان برگزار خواهد شد.

عزیز احمد شفیع، خبرنگار بی بی سی در هلمند می گوید پنج آوازخوان از کابل به شهر لشکرگاه، مرکز ولایت هلمند رفته و عصر روز نوروز در این شهر به اجرای کنسرت خواهند پرداخت.

به گفته خبرنگار ما، این نخستین بار در ده سال اخیر است که جشن نوروز در هلمند به گونه گسترده و با حضور آوازخوانها و اجرای کنسرت برگزار می شود.

او می افزاید که جشن نوروز امسال در شهر لشکرگاه با امنیت نسبی به همراه است و نیروهای امنیتی در خیابانهای لشگرگاه سرگرم گشت زنی هستند.

قرار است حامد کرزی، رئیس جمهوری افغانستان تا ساعات دیگر به مناسبت نوروز سخنرانی کند.

آقای کرزی در این سخنرانی خود روند انتقال مسئولیت تامین امنیت چند منطقه را از نیروهای ناتو به نیروهای امنیتی افغانستان به طور رسمی اعلام خواهد کرد.

Source,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/2011/03/110321_k02-nowrouz-afghanistan.shtml

Is Bamiyan Ready

Three powerful perspectives on Afghanistan

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista
March 20, 2011

I couldn't afford to give in to jet lag after my arrival in Afghanistan this morning after 3 flights and layovers totaling 40 hours before reaching my floor space in a Kabul office of a small nonprofit human rights organization formed by some very dedicated Afghan women eight months ago. I did nap for about an hour before Hakim showed us a new five minute video he had just created from yesterday's historic peace walk through the streets of Kabul.

It was a group of more than 20 international nonviolent peace activists and at least a dozen Afghan counterparts that crowded into the 12' x 16' office room and overflowed into the adjoining space. After a few minutes for introductions and several more for logistics and a look at the proposed schedule for our week here, Hakim, the mentor, translator, and prime mover of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV) begins to share about yesterday's historic event.


About 40 Afghan young people, primarily in their teens and early 20s donned bright blue scarfs and carried banners as the inter-ethnic group marched from the Iranian Embassy to the Embassy for the United Nations in the busy area of central Baghdad. [I'll hopefully be able to post the video of the walk after I return to the US.] Hakim shows us the video before explaining that " 'Peace' is a dirty word to Afghans". President Obama won the 'Peace Prize' in 2009, the same political leader who has increased the level of foreign military occupiers (both uniformed armed forces as well as 'contractors' and other mercenaries under the pay and control of the Pentagon or US State Department). "Peace" is the term used (or more accurately, abused) by everyone to excuse or justify anything. Many, many Afghans have been killed in the name of "peace".

"We have had non-stop occupation and war; Afghans can't trust each other because of decades of war", Hakim tells us. We get a lot of 'lip-service' to the causes of peace by others - but then they 'don't show up', he continues. "How do we restore hope; how do we begin to build up trust?" He observes there is not a culture of questioning here in Afghanistan (at least out loud, not in public). "War mongers have misused the word of peace" - to the point there is no trust. It is left to us, foreigners, who must encourage Afghans to find their own voice, this trained Public Health medical doctor from Singapore tells us. He started working in public health with refugees first in Pakistan and then accompanied them back to the Bamiyan area of central Afghanistan 8 years ago when he decided his role to encourage and nurture the ideals of the local young people was more pressing and in line with his deep commitment to Gandhian nonviolence then his medical practice.

"It is easy for politicians to talk about peace - but nothing is working here. Violence is a failing strategy. Every family here has someone who has been killed [in these wars]" - if not in the immediate family, then certainly in the extended one. There is no clear plan by any leader that is nonviolent he laments but goes on to say that there are only two leaders that these young people trust: Malalia Joya, an out-spoken woman activist, and Dr. Ramazon Barshardost, a humanist Member of Parliament who states categorically "It is wrong to kill" but is readily dismissed by many of his compatriots as "the mad (crazy) one." Joya tells these young people, "If you truly walk this path [of peace and nonviolence], you will be killed one day." We are told that the US government has just refused to give her a visa to come to the US for a planned speaking trip that was to begin next week.

Three years ago at a college in Bamiyan, Hakim led a 3 month workshop with students and their conclusion was "Peace is not possible in Afghanistan" - so, what do we do? He helped organize an effort to get an inter-ethnic group to live together for a semester and 16 students did. However controversy arose near the end of the time and Hakim started receiving death threats. He spoke to the "authorities", he traveled from village to village, meeting people and listening. A group of boys coalesced and he helped supervise them in building a peace park in Bamiyan. The boys did a 7 day vigil to try to deliver a peace message to Obama. They recently sent gifts of some things they made to Pashtun people in Kandahar. A gift from some Hazaras and other ethnic tribes to Pashtuns stunned the recipients. "I can't believe that there can be such love" was one of the responses Hakim heard. [Please go to the AYPV website to learn more about them.]

Zahra Mobtaker, an amazingly strong, 23 year old Afghan woman who spoke out during the peace march shared with us next. As the director of Open Society, a nonprofit working to empower Afghans -"helping ordinary people overcome their fears to give voice to their experiences", she is focusing on human rights and democracy. She said they quickly found themselves very much alone. They sponsored a festival to help their fellow citizens overcome their fear and speak the truth. She has displayed photos of victims of the wars in gatherings to facilitate conversation about the reality of today's Afghanistan.

This tiny (25 members) but bold non-profit has helped form a singing group with the intention of bringing a message of peace through song- especially to the many illiterate in the rural villages. They support their work primarily through their own personal funds - recognizing that their "aims might be sidetracked" by outside donors. This is often the reality of many NGOs here in Afghanistan - especially those getting the predominance of their funds from US AID, the UN, or other funding mechanisms tied to governmental agencies or large bureaucracies. (Note: this Open Society has no connection to the George Soros organizations which also take the Open Society moniker.) This group just operates in Kabul and Afghanistan. Open Society has also used film-making as a vehicle for peace and change. "The Night of the Cartoon-makers" used cartoons drawn on walls of public places, including mosques, as an educational tool. They were pleased that many of the cartoons have been "protected" by the people from defacement- a sign of the growing empowerment the group strives for.

They are also using web blogs (www.opensociety.af@blogspot.com) and yesterday's march was their first public partnership/ joint venture with the AYPV. "Thank you for coming to this exceptionally frightening country", she told us. We felt her warmth and welcome and we are so grateful for her courage and eloquence.

Our heads and our hearts were already full before Larry Warren from Catholic Relief Sevices (CRS) dropped in to meet with us. He was pleasantly surprised to discover one of the international peace delegates he was to address included a Maryknoll priest who he had worked with in Cambodia many years before! Warren had just joined the CRS work in Afghanistan two months ago and is responsible for their program in 3 of Afghanistan's northern provinces, Bamiyan, Herat, and Ghor. CRS has a long history in this country and focuses on 4 main program areas: an agriculture-based program in Herat which primarily works with girls and women developing sustainable methods; community-based education with a focus on girls; watershed management featuring gravity-flow spring management and work to prevent run-off and erosion; and emergency work with an aim to transition to sustainable development. This last program entails road construction and road snow clearance, especially the mountain passes which are cleared by shovel under a cash-for-work plan. One critical pass on the national highway between Herat- Bamiyan - Kabul must be cleared in a timely fashion to allow any traffic to flow, getting supplies to remote areas.

CRS maintains a strict policy and reputation for not proselytizing and they don't use any armed guards. Warren talked with dismay about the almost complete failure of the US/NATO military forces and privatized "contractors" (he said we call them 'Beltway Bandits' referring to the corruption in Washington, DC) to rebuild needed infrastructure. He said the saying among NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) is "where progress begins, the Taliban ends", referring to the on-going struggle against forces of fear and repression. However, what CRS has observed is with every contract with US AID (Agency for International Development, the "foreign aid" arm of the US State Department), funds are siphoned off in kick-back style payments, even in the written agreement itself. He recommended we read Descent Into Chaos by Hamad Rashad about this practice and lamented that he sees a "perfect storm of US AID, "contractors", and local corruption" as a spiral leading to frustration, despair, and a culture of corruption which infects most things happening in Afghanistan.

A lot to think about on my first day in the war zone.


Steve Clemens
I'm a resident of Minneapolis and a peace and social justice activist.

Source,

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/steve-clemens/three-powerful-perspectives-afghanistan

NZ turns unhappy valley into skifield

MICHAEL FIELD Last updated 05:00 20/03/2011

Photo: Reuters Snow business: Ecotourism could create income in a poor region.
Relevant offersNEW ZEALAND taxpayers are building a ski field in a war zone largely inaccessible to tourists.

The odd scheme on Afghanistan's ancient Silk Road offers adventurous skiing in Bamiyan, the same province where New Zealand soldiers have suffered casualties.

New Zealand aid is also building two guesthouses in the mountains and a camping ground at the remote Band-e Amir lakes.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs aid programme said that this year it would spend $100,000 developing skiing in Bamiyan, targeting the elite population from Kabul, 130km away.

"Ecotourism offers one of the few existing opportunities for economic development and poverty reduction in Bamiyan," a programme spokeswoman told the Sunday Star-Times.

"New Zealand is helping to maximise Bamiyan's sustainable returns from the tourism sector and build commercially viable enterprises."

The three summits of Koh-e-Baba, Bamiyan's ski area, overlook the cliffs where a decade ago the Taliban destroyed large Buddha statues carved into rock.

Agence France Presse, reporting on the skiing aid, described travelling to the ski slopes as "a risky business due to the adverse security situation in the war-torn country".

AFP says "while it is short on apres-ski and lifts, organisers are hopeful that adventurous travellers could have their interest piqued by Bamiyan's dramatic beauty and the promise of wild, ungroomed runs".

Visiting Pakistan-born British writer and intellecutal Tariq Ali, who is critical of foreign involvment in Afghanistan, described the New Zealand aid project as "so absurd...the peasants will be just queuing up to go".

New Zealand's skiing aid is "a new initiative part" of the Bamiyan Ecotourism Programme, which also gets funding from the Bamiyan provincial government and the Aga Khan Foundation.

As well as skiing, New Zealand is paying for information brochures, a tourist information centre and establishing a tourism website.

Twenty-two young male and female Afghans were trained under the scheme to become professional tour guides.

"Bamiyan's comparative security and unparalleled natural and manmade attractions means it is well placed to provide income opportunities for local communities through ecotourism initiatives targeted primarily towards Afghan nationals, and international residents living in Afghanistan," Mfat said.

Henry Charles, a British security worker who skis Bamiyan, told AFP that demand was growing for country skiing without crowds of people on the same slopes.

"That is a trend, and Bamiyan is all about that... you get your own line in fresh powder snow, that's great.

"We're at 2500 metres so the snow stays very well, like sugar, for several days."

Before the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Bamiyan used to attract 65,000 tourists a year, many to see the Buddhas.

Last year just 3300 tourists got to the area, include 805 foreigners.

The roads are infamously bad – just 3km of them are paved – and there are no commercial airlinks.


Source,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/4788453/NZ-turns-unhappy-valley-into-skifield

michael.field@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

Afghanistan's oppressed Hazaras dread Taliban return

By Emmanuel Duparcq (AFP) –

YAKAWLANG, Afghanistan — Ibrahim still has vivid nightmares about the slaughter on the morning of January 11, 2001 that he miraculously escaped.

Pumped up by victory after seizing control of Ibrahim's home district of Yakawlang, blood-thirsty Taliban fighters set upon Afghanistan's most oppressed ethnic group, the Hazaras, in typically ruthless fashion.

"They lined us up in two rows and started shooting us one by one," said Ibrahim, a Hazara who is 32 but looks 10 years older in his worn black tunic and brown jacket, topped off by a white turban.

"I couldn't stand the sight of all that blood, and I fainted," he told AFP.

Ibrahim was one of the lucky ones -- the United Nations and other rights organisations say the insurgents killed around 350 Hazaras on that day.

He and one other wounded survivor headed for the mountains, where they hid until the fall of the Taliban more than nine months later.

Ten years on, the central province of Bamiyan is one of the most peaceful in war-torn Afghanistan and for that reason is expected to be among the first to come under the control of Afghan security forces.

But Hazaras like Ibrahim fear that when NATO troops withdraw, the way will be open for the rebels they call "animals" to return.

As Shia Muslims, the Hazaras, who make up much of the population of central Afghanistan, were a prime target for the mainly Sunni Taliban.

The Taliban famously blew up Bamiyan's historic Buddha statues, but they also destroyed what little sense of security the Hazaras, who occupy the bottom rung of Afghan society, used to enjoy.

From the victims shot so many times their heads were left pulverised to the tribal elders who were cut to shreds with knives, accounts of Taliban brutality abound in this province, around 130 kilometres (80 miles) west of Kabul.

In the minds of Bamiyan's residents, the threat of the militants' return is ever-present.

"The Taliban are the worst creatures that God has ever created. We haven't heard from them for 10 years, but we are still afraid," said Sayed Zia of Koshkak village, high in the mountains that surround the provincial capital, also called Bamiyan.

"For us, the Taliban are just animals, or even worse," added his neighbour Afzal.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to announce on Monday which will be the first provinces to be handed over to Afghan security forces this summer, the first stage of a transition process that will see foreign troops pull out by 2014.

The Hazaras of Bamiyan do not believe the Taliban will return immediately if NATO forces leave the province.

"The Taliban are not active in the province because no one supports them," said 36-year-old Nasrullah Waezi, a young mullah from the provincial capital.

But they do fear that if NATO leaves Afghanistan altogether, the Taliban could surround Bamiyan and close in on the province, as they did in 2001.

"Once NATO leaves the country the Taliban will be here in a week," said Asif, 30, who fought against the insurgents in Yakawlang in 2001.

Bamiyan's deputy governor Hadji Qasim Kazemi echoed his fears, saying NATO must stay on if the fruits of a decade of peace, including new government buildings and the province's first proper roads, are to continue.

"We want NATO to stay," he told AFP. "Hazaras are peaceful people, but if intruders like Al-Qaeda or the Taliban come, they will fight."

In the centre of the provincial capital, Ali Zafar, the imposing head of the local anti-Taliban militia, still goes by the title "commander."

He now runs a hotel and says he has a comfortable life, but would not hesitate to take up arms again.

His friend, a tall, elegant man dressed in a traditional flat hat and a long grey coat, serves tea and smiles: "We have kept plenty of weapons, just in case."

But the fight appears to have gone out of Ibrahim, who had one son at the time of the slaughter but now has two more and two daughters.

"I am no longer as brave as I was," he said.

Source,

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDZQaM7FErxV6XAubD2gVrBAEyBA?docId=CNG.1411cd01df64d8f14a45e3962493fb9a.5f1

The Bamiyan Buddhas symbolised complexity of Afghan identity

Hamida Ghafour

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2011


Bamiyan is a place of promise and potential. It recalls an Afghanistan of young girls who skip to school, women who work in the potato fields without worry, tourists who hike in the mountains in the summers, and of the two giant Bamiyan Buddhas, who would watch benignly over the inhabitants of their valley as they have done for centuries.

But the idols carved into the Hindu Kush mountains 1,500 years ago no longer exist. The empty sandstone niches that housed them stand as silent, permanent reminders of Taliban savagery.

They were destroyed 10 years ago this month upon the orders of Mullah Mohammed Omar, who issued an edict explaining that because the idols were once worshipped they may be again and so must be torn down.

The destruction shocked the world and cemented Afghanistan's reputation as a place of barbarism inhabited by a people without respect for culture. A former cabinet minister in Kabul once told me he tried to reason with the moderates in the Taliban movement in 2000 but by then, Osama bin Laden's influence on Mullah Omar was so strong that any negotiations to save the Buddhas were useless.

For al Qa'eda's fighters, Afghanistan was, and is, cheap real estate to raise and train militants. Destroying the Buddhas was a taste of what they were capable of in their quest to establish a supposedly Islamic state.

For me, the Buddhas symbolised Afghanistan's identity in all its amazing complexity. Our intricate culture is not one of warring tribesmen harbouring ancient hatreds and practising medieval codes of honour. This is also the country of Behzad of Herat, famous for his school of miniature paintings, and of Kharwar, the sprawling Pompeii of Central Asia in the south. That the outside world does not know this is to be expected, but the greater tragedy is that Afghans are also forgetting who they are.



I have visited Bamiyan several times since 2001, often staying with some cool French kids who ran a small aid organisation. They listened to electronica music, hiked in the demined hills and taught their Afghan cook how to make creamy scrambled eggs and a divine salad dressing.

It was idyllic and indeed Bamiyan can be said to represent Afghanistan's struggle to find peace.

One summer I met Zemaryalai Tarzi, a French-trained Afghan archaeologist and one of the world's experts in pre-Islamic Afghanistan. Guided by the memoirs of a 7th century Chinese monk who travelled in Bamiyan, Mr Tarzi has been carrying out excavations at the foot of the destroyed statues convinced that a third Buddha, perhaps 300 metres long, was buried here in a reclining position, representing the last earthly moments of the Buddha's life before entering the state of nirvana.

"I want to tell people our grandfathers were not smugglers. They were artists. They had honour," he told me.

Bamiyan was a wealthy trading post in the ancient world, the "Manhattan of the Silk Road" as Mr Tarzi liked to call it. The great Afghan Buddhist king, Kanishka, who had grown wealthy from the trade, wanted to popularise the Buddhist religion by giving it a human form. Until then Buddha had been represented by footprints or a Bodhi tree. Kanishka invited artists from Rome who merged their skills with eastern philosophy and the human form of the Buddha was created in Bamiyan for the first time in the second century CE.



The statues were built between 544 and 644CE.

The residents of the valley, the Hazaras, have traditionally been at the bottom of Afghan society but have benefited from post-Taliban rule. They are equal before the law, vote in great numbers (particularly the women), send their girls to school and many stand for public office. The governor of the province is a woman. Not surprisingly, they refuse to give the insurgents refuge. They have already lost much - but still have much to lose.

Bamiyan, then, is an inspiring place. It is also a land of extraordinary, unearthly beauty. The entrance to the lush green valley is framed by steep black- and ruby-coloured mountains rich in iron-ore deposits. The light is like nowhere else, a thin, golden veil that saturates every surface.

The Buddha statues stood at the end of an avenue lined with poplar trees. The leaves flash silver and green when the wind blows and Afghans say during a full moon the pale outline of the Buddhas' figures are still visible. For hundreds of years, Buddhist faithful from all over the world came to pray and meditate in the hive of 600 cells and monasteries carved into the cliffs.

I once climbed up the cliffs to the top of the smaller Buddha. A warm earthy smell lingered in the passages connecting assembly halls with vaulted ceilings, cells, balconies. I tried to imagine yellow-robed monks praying and meditating. My guidebook described paintings that were a fusion of Indian, Iranian and Sassanian style.

But barely anything remains. They have been chipped or torn away. There was no Buddha wearing a maroon-coloured robe walking in fields of flowers, no white horses drawing the Sun God's chariot across a blue sky. The silken canopies, the fluttering robes and the flowering fields have disappeared in the black soot of the fires lit by cave squatters.

I reached the very top and walked across a platform held up by scaffolding above the Buddha's head and gazed across the valley. The light passed through the afternoon sky, glowing warm and flooding the fields and the mountains in gold, caramel and pink. Below, a column of boys walked home from school. Women in blue and red dresses bent over their wheat harvests in the green and gold fields.

"Bamiyan is a purified place and when we are in Bamiyan we should have pure hearts." Mr Tarzi's words echoed in my head. "It is a place of meditation. It is not for lying, crime or killing."

Hamida Ghafour is a former senior reporter for The National and author of The Sleeping Buddha: The Story of Afghanistan Through the Eyes of One Family.

Source,

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/the-bamiyan-buddhas-symbolised-complexity-of-afghan-identity?pageCount=0