| Bamiyan
Stone Buddhas (built 4th or 5th century AD, demolished
March 2001) |
Bamiyan, Afghanistan |
Click on an image to enlarge
The Bamiyan Buddhas were among the most impressive Buddhist monuments in western Asia before their demolition in March 2001. No one knows exactly when they were constructed, but it was likely that they were erected sometime in the 4th or 5th century AD. For many centuries they stood sentinel to groups of wandering monks and merchants along the famous "silk road" from Rome to China. Alongside the Buddhas, monasteries once existed here as places of sanctuary, but were abandoned in the 9th century as Islam displaced Buddhism in Afghanistan.
The two Buddha figures were commonly classified as the larger and smaller one (53 and 38 meters, respectively). They were once covered with a mixture of mud and straw that had worn away long ago. The straw was covered with plaster and painted to model the rich expressions of the face, hands, and robes. Long before their destruction this year, both the plaster covering and the surrounding cave paintings were rubbed away.
The Buddhas were destroyed
following the Taliban's assertion that the statues were idolatrous.
With the swift collapse of the Tabliban in November, 2001, a team of Swiss
preservationists has announced plans to restore the statues using precise
three-dimensional data collected in the 1970s. However, the United
Nations recommended in early 2002 that the monuments not be restored as
a reminder of the Taliban's destructive legacy.
| Right: Destruction of the larger Buddha
in March, 2001 (Reuters/AP/APTN)
Bibliography: Images copyright 2001 The Center for Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha. Used with permission. |
 |