The
Buddhas of Bamiyan (
Persian:
بت های باميان –
but hay-e bamiyan) were two 6th-century
[1] monumental statues of standing
buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the
Bamyan valley in the
Hazarajat region of central
Afghanistan, 230 km (140 mi) northwest of
Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Built in 507 AD (smaller) and 554 AD (larger),
[1] the statues represented the classic blended style of
Gandhara art.
[2]The main bodies were hewn directly from the
sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with
stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted
carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors.
[3]The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. Rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco.
They were
dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the
Taliban, on orders from leader
Mullah Mohammed Omar,
[4] after the Taliban government declared that they were
idols.
[5] An envoy visiting the United States in the following weeks explained that they were destroyed to protest international aid exclusively reserved for statue maintenance while Afghanistan was experiencing famine,
[6] while the Afghan Foreign Minister claimed that the destruction was merely about carrying out
Islamic religious iconoclasm. International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which in the following years was primarily viewed as an example of the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban.
Japan and
Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.
[7]History
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Drawing of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by Alexander Burnes 1832
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Taller Buddha in 1963 and in 2008 after destruction
Bamiyan lies on the
Silk Road, which runs through the Hindu Kush mountain region, in the Bamiyan Valley. The Silk Road has been historically a caravan route linking the markets of China with those of the Western world. It was the site of several
Buddhist monasteries, and a thriving center for religion, philosophy, and art. Monks at the monasteries lived as
hermits in small caves carved into the side of the Bamiyan cliffs. Most of these monks embellished their caves with religious statuary and elaborate, brightly colored
frescoes. It was a Buddhist religious site from the 2nd century up to the time of the
Islamic invasion in the later half of the 7th century. Until it was completely conquered by the
Muslim Saffarids in the 9th century, Bamiyan shared the culture of
Gandhara.
The two most prominent statues were the giant standing Buddhas
Vairocana and
Sakyamuni, identified by the different
mudras performed. The Buddha popularly called "Solsol" measures 53 meters tall, and "Shahmama" 35 meters – the niches in which the figures stand are 58 and 38 meters from bottom to top.
[8][9] Before being blown up in 2001 they were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world (the 8th century
Leshan Giant Buddha is taller,
[10] but the statue is sitting). Since then the
Spring Temple Buddha has been built in China, and at 128 m (420 ft) it is the
tallest statue in the world. Plans for the construction of the Spring Temple Buddha were announced soon after the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas and China condemned the systematic destruction of the Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan.
The smaller of the statues was built between 544 and 595, the larger was built between 591 and 644.
[11] The larger figure was also said to portray
Dīpankara Buddha. They were perhaps the most famous cultural landmarks of the region, and the site was listed by
UNESCO as a
World Heritage Site along with the surrounding cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley. Their color faded through time.
[12]Chinese Buddhist pilgrim
Xuanzang visited the site on 30 April 630 AD,
[13][14][15] and described Bamiyan in the
Da Tang Xiyu Ji as a flourishing Buddhist center "with more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks". He also noted that both Buddha figures were "decorated with gold and fine jewels" (Wriggins, 1995). Intriguingly, Xuanzang mentions a third, even larger, reclining statue of the Buddha.
[3][15][16] A monumental seated Buddha, similar in style to those at Bamiyan, still exists in the
Bingling Temple caves in China's
Gansu province.
The destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas became a symbol of oppression and a rallying point for the freedom of religious expression. Despite the fact that most Afghans are now Muslim, they too had embraced their past and many were appalled by the destruction.
[17][18][19]Attacks on the Buddha's statue
11th to the 20th century[edit]
In 1221 with the advent of
Genghis Khan "a terrible disaster befell Bamiyan,"
[20][21] nevertheless, the statues were spared. Later, the Mughal emperor,
Aurangzeb, tried to use heavy artillery to destroy the statues. Another attempt to destroy the Bamiyan statues was made by the 18th century Persian king Nader Afshar, directing cannon fire at them.
[22]The enormous statues, the male Salsal ("light shines through the universe") and the (smaller) female Shamama ("Queen Mother"),
[23] as they were called by the locals, did not fail to fire the imagination of Islamic writers in centuries past. The larger statue reappears as the malevolent giant Salsal in medieval Turkish tales.
[24]Afghan king
Abdur Rahman Khan destroyed its face during a military campaign against the Shia Hazara rebellion.
[25] A Frenchman named Dureau had pictured it in 1847.
[26]Preface to 2001, under the Taliban
Abdul Wahed, a Taliban commander operating in the area, announced his intention to blow up the Buddhas in 1997 even before he had taken control of the valley. Once he was in control of Bamiyan in 1998, Wahed drilled holes in the Buddhas' heads for explosives. He was prevented from taking further action by the local governor and direct order of Mullah Omar, although tyres were burnt on the head of the great Buddha.
[27] In July 1999, Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a decree in favor of the preservation of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Because Afghanistan's Buddhist population no longer exists, so the statues are no longer worshipped, he added: "The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected."
[28] In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set.
[29]However, Afghanistan's radical clerics began a campaign to crack down on "un-Islamic" segments of Afghan society. The Taliban soon banned all forms of imagery, music and sports, including television, in accordance with what they considered a strict interpretation of
Sharia.
[30]Information and Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told
Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. "They came out with a consensus that the statues were against Islam," said Jamal.
According to UNESCO Director-General
Koïchiro Matsuura, a meeting of ambassadors from the 54 member states of the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was conducted. All OIC states – including
Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates, three countries that officially recognised the Taliban government – joined the protest to spare the monuments.
[31] Saudi Arabia and the UAE later condemned the destruction as "savage".
[32] Although
India never recognised the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,
New Delhi offered to arrange for the transfer of all the artifacts in question to India, "where they would be kept safely and preserved for all mankind." These overtures were rejected by the Taliban.
[33] Pakistani president
Pervez Musharraf sent
Moinuddin Haider to Kabul to try to prevent the destruction, by arguing that it was un-Islamic and unprecedented.
[34] According to Taliban minister,
Abdul Salam Zaeef, UNESCO sent the Taliban government 36 letters objecting to the proposed destruction. He asserted that the Chinese, Japanese and Sri Lankan delegates were the most strident advocates for preserving the Buddhas. The Japanese in particular proposed a variety of different solutions to the issue, these included moving the statues to Japan, covering the statues from view and the payment of money.
[35]A statement issued by the ministry of religious affairs of Taliban regime justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law.
[36] Abdul Salam Zaeef held that the destruction of the Buddhas was finally ordered by Abdul Wali, the Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
[37]Dynamiting and destruction, March 2001
![]()
Destruction of the site by the
Taliban![]()
Site of the larger statue after it was destroyed
![]()
Site of the smaller statue in 2005 after it was destroyed
The statues were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on 2 March 2001,
[38] carried out in stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them. During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, "this work of destruction is not as simple as people might think. You can't knock down the statues by shelling as both are carved into a cliff; they are firmly attached to the mountain."
[39] Later, the Taliban placed anti-tank mines at the bottom of the niches, so that when fragments of rock broke off from artillery fire, the statues would receive additional destruction from particles that set off the mines. In the end, the Taliban lowered men down the cliff face and placed explosives into holes in the Buddhas.
[40] After one of the explosions failed to completely obliterate the face of one of the Buddhas, a rocket was launched that left a hole in the remains of the stone head.
[41]On 6 March 2001
The Times quoted Mullah Mohammed Omar as stating, "Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them."
[42] During a 13 March interview for Japan's
Mainichi Shimbun, Afghan Foreign Minister
Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the destruction was anything but a retaliation against the international community for economic sanctions: "We are destroying the statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious issue".
On 18 March,
The New York Times reported that a Taliban envoy said the Islamic government made its decision in a rage after a foreign delegation offered money to preserve the ancient works. The report also added, however, that other reports "have said the religious leaders were debating the move for months, and ultimately decided that the statues were idolatrous and should be obliterated."
[43]Then Taliban
ambassador-at-large Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi said that the destruction of the statues was carried out by the Head Council of Scholars after a Swedish monuments expert proposed to restore the statues' heads. Hashimi is reported as saying: "When the Afghan head council asked them to provide the money to feed the children instead of fixing the statues, they refused and said, 'No, the money is just for the statues, not for the children'. Herein, they made the decision to destroy the statues"; however, he did not comment on the claim that a foreign museum offered to "buy the Buddhist statues, the money from which could have been used to feed children."
[44]The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas despite protests from the international community has been described by Michael Falser, a heritage expert at the Center for Transcultural Studies in Germany, as an attack by the Taliban against the globalising concept of "cultural heritage".
[45] The director general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Koichiro Matsuura called the destruction a "...crime against culture. It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity."
[46]Commitment to rebuild
Though the figures of the two large Buddhas are almost completely destroyed, their outlines and some features are still recognizable within the recesses. It is also still possible for visitors to explore the monks' caves and passages that connect them. As part of the international effort to rebuild Afghanistan after the Taliban war, the
Government of Japan and several other organizations, among them the Afghanistan Institute in
Bubendorf, Switzerland, along with the
ETH in
Zurich, have committed to rebuilding, perhaps by
anastylosis, the two larger Buddhas.
Developments since 2002
In May 2002, a sculpture of the Buddha was carved out of a mountain in
Sri Lanka. It was designed to closely resemble one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.
In September 2005,
Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, Taliban governor of Bamiyan province at the time of the destruction and widely seen as responsible for its occurrence, was elected to the Afghan Parliament. On 26 January 2007, he was assassinated in Kabul.
Swiss filmmaker
Christian Frei made a 95-minute documentary titled
The Giant Buddhas (released in March 2006) on the statues, the international reactions to their destruction, and an overview of the controversy. Testimony by local Afghans validates that
Osama Bin Laden ordered the destruction and that, initially, Mullah Omar and the Afghans in Bamiyan opposed it.
[47]Since 2002, international funding has supported recovery and stabilization efforts at the site. Fragments of the statues are documented and stored with special attention given to securing the structure of the statue still in place. It is hoped that, in the future, partial
anastylosis can be conducted with the remaining fragments. In 2009,
ICOMOSconstructed scaffolding within the niche to further conservation and stabilization. Nonetheless, several serious conservation and safety issues exist and the Buddhas are still listed as
World Heritage in Danger.
[48]In the summer of 2006, Afghan officials were deciding on the timetable for the re-construction of the statues. As they wait for the Afghan government and international community to decide when to rebuild them, a $1.3 million UNESCO-funded project is sorting out the chunks of clay and plaster—ranging from boulders weighing several tons to fragments the size of tennis balls—and sheltering them from the elements.
Discoveries
After the destruction of the Buddhas, 50 caves were revealed. In 12 of the caves, wall paintings were discovered.
[49] In December 2004, an international team of researchers stated the wall paintings at Bamiyan were painted between the 5th and the 9th centuries, rather than the 6th to 8th centuries, citing their analysis of radioactive isotopes contained in straw fibers found beneath the paintings. It is believed that the paintings were done by artists travelling on the Silk Road, the trade route between
China and the West.
[50]Scientists from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in
Tokyo (Japan), the Centre of Research and Restoration of the French Museums-
CNRS (
France), the Getty Conservation Institute (
United States) and the ESRF (the European Synchrotron radiation facility) in
Grenoble analysed samples from the paintings,
[51] typically less than 1 mm across.
[52] They discovered that the paint contained
pigments such as vermilion (red
mercury sulfide) and lead white (
lead carbonate). These were mixed with a range of binders, including natural resins, gums (possibly animal skin glue or egg)
[52] and oils, probably derived from walnuts or poppies.
[50] Specifically, researchers identified drying oils from murals showing Buddhas in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures as being painted in the middle of the 7th century.
[49] It is believed that they are the oldest known surviving examples of
oil painting, possibly predating oil painting in Europe by as much as six centuries.
[50] The discovery may lead to a reassessment of works in ancient ruins in
Iran, China, Pakistan,
Turkey and India.
[50]Initial suspicion that the oils might be attributable to contamination from fingers, as the touching of the painting is encouraged in Buddhist tradition,
[52] was dispelled by
spectroscopy and
chromatography giving an unambiguous signal for the intentional use of drying oils rather than contaminants.
[52] Oils were discovered underneath layers of paint, unlike surface contaminants.
[52]Scientists also found the translation of the beginning section of the original
Sanskrit Pratītyasamutpāda Sutra translated by
Xuanzang that spelled out the basic belief of Buddhism and said all things are transient.
[53]Another giant statue unearthed
On 8 September 2008 archeologists searching for a legendary 300-metre statue at the site of the already dynamited Buddhas announced the discovery of an unknown 19-metre (62-foot)
reclining Buddha, a pose representing Buddha's
Parinirvana.
[54]Restoration
The UNESCO Expert Working Group on Afghan cultural projects convened to discuss what to do about the two statues between 3–4 March 2011 in
Paris. Researcher Erwin Emmerling of
Technical University Munich announced he believed it would be possible to restore the smaller statue using an
organic siliconcompound.
[11] The Paris conference issued a list of 39 recommendations for the safeguarding of the Bamiyan site. These included leaving the larger Western niche empty as a monument to the destruction of the Buddhas, a feasibility study into the rebuilding of the Eastern Buddha, and the construction of a central museum and several smaller site museums.
[55] Work has since begun on restoring the Buddhas using the process of
anastylosis, where original elements are combined with modern material. It is estimated that roughly half the pieces of the Buddhas can be put back together according to Bert Praxenthaler, a German art historian and sculptor involved in the restoration. The restoration of the caves and Buddhas has also involved training and employing local people as stone carvers.
[56] The project, which also aims to encourage tourism to the area, is being organised by UNESCO and the
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The work has come under some criticism. It is felt by some, such as human rights activist Abdullah Hamadi, that the empty niches should be left as monuments to the fanaticism of the Taliban, while
NPR reported that others believe the money could be better spent on housing and electricity for the region.
[57] Some people, including Habiba Sarabi, the provincial governor, believe that rebuilding the Buddhas would increase tourism which would aid the surrounding communities.
[57]See also
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