Shattered Buddhas open gateway to discovery
New York Times, 7 December 2006
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THE empty niches that once held Bamiyan's colossal Buddhas now gape in the rock face — a silent cry at the terrible destruction wrought on this fabled valley and its 1500-year-old treasures, once the largest standing Buddha statues in the world.
It was in March 2001 when the Taliban and their al-Qaeda sponsors were at the zenith of their power in Afghanistan, that militiamen, acting on an edict to take down the "gods of the infidels," laid explosives at the base and the shoulders of the two Buddhas and blew them to pieces.
To the outraged outside world, the act encapsulated the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalist government. Even Genghis Khan, who laid waste to this valley in the 13th century, had left the Buddhas standing.
Five years after the Taliban were ousted, Bamiyan's Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate. Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south, and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?
This valley about 225 kilometres north-west of Kabul, where in the sixth century tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to worship at its temples and monasteries and meditate in its rock caves, is attracting new international attention.
In 2003, the United Nations designated the Bamiyan ruins a World Heritage site, but also listed them as endangered, because of their fragile condition, vulnerability to looters and pressures from a post-Taliban boom in construction and tourism. Intensive efforts have been under way to stabilise what remains of the cliff sculptures and murals.
Meanwhile, archaeologists have been taking advantage of the greatly increased access that became possible once the statues were gone to make new discoveries and to pursue ancient tales of a third giant Buddha, possibly buried between the two that were destroyed.
"The history of Bamiyan is beginning to be revealed, in a concrete sense, for the first time through both works of conservation and excavations of archaeological remains," said Kasaku Maeda, a Japanese historian who has studied Bamiyan for more than 40 years.
UNESCO has been overseeing a program of emergency repairs to the niches over the last few years, drawing teams of archaeologists and conservationists from all over the world.
"The site is in danger," said Masanori Nagaoka, a cultural program specialist at UNESCO's Kabul office.
