| The Buddhas of Bamiyan |
Location
History |
| Buddhism |
| The statues |
| Destruction |
| Reconstruction |
| Animations |
| Links |
| In the center of Afghanistan, the town of Bamiyan, situated ca. 200 km NW of Kabul at an altitude of approximately 2500 metres, is considered an oasis in the center of a long valley that separates the big chains of Hindu Kush mountains. Bamiyan functioned as one of the greatest Buddhist centers for nearly five centuries. |
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At the border of Bamiyan cliff there were two big standing Buddha statues which stood about one km apart while in the center was carved a smaller image of a sitting Buddha. A series of caves were also carved between these monolithic images and beyond the bigger statue many caves of varying size were used as chapels for both private and communal worship.
For centuries, Bamiyan lay at the heart of the Silk Road, offering
rest to caravans carrying goods across the area between China
and the Roman Empire. Strategically situated in a central location for travelers from North and South and East and West, Bamiyan was a common meeting place for many ancient cultures.
And for 500 years, the Bamiyan valley was one of the major Buddhist centers from the second century up to the time that Islam entered the valley in the ninth century.
All along the valley, three big statues and many caves were carved out from the hill.
The two big images of the Buddha were begun in the second century A.D.
under the patronage of Emperor Kanishka and probably finished around the fourth
and fifth centuries A.D.. The myriad of caves carved in the Bamiyan's cliffs were
home to thousands of Buddhist monks and served as a kind of 'hotel' for
traveling merchants, monks, and pilgrims. The caves were full of paintings and were carved in the same period as the statues;
all the caves were stretched for about 1 km between the two gigantic
Buddha images set in niches at the eastern and western ends of the cliffside.
The valley can be divided in three part:
the western part, where the bigger Buddha image (ca. 55 meters) was carved and that contain the most rich and painted caves; the central part, where a small image and many caves were digged in the hill; and
the eastern part of the valley, with another standing Buddha statue (ca. 38 meters high).
Artistic influences from China to the Mediterranean can be found in the sculptures and paintings at Bamiyan, a testament to the importance of this area within the nexus of trade routes that connected the Greco-Roman world to India, Central Asia and China.
The giant Buddhas were among Asia's great archaeological treasures.
On Monday March 12, 2001, the Director General of UNESCO,
Koichiro Matsuura said in a statement released at the UN cultural organization's Paris headquarters that the UN Envoy to Afghanistan has confirmed that the ancient Buddha statues at Bamiyan have been destroyed by the ruling Taliban militia.
The region of Bamiyan, with the monasteries and the massive statues carved out of a sand rock, were the wonder of tourists, schools and connoisseurs of art for many centuries.
This cultural heritage goes back over two thousand years and was protected by UNESCO.
The demolition of the over 2,000-year-old figures was "a crime against culture"
and its loss is irreversible.
