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Buddhas of Bamiyan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coordinates: 34.8320°N 67.8267°E

Main page The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th- Buddhas of Bamiyan
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Current events century[3] monumental statues of UNESCO World Heritage Site
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Donate carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan
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Carbon dating of the structural Smaller 38 meter Eastern Larger 55 meter Western
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What links here components of the Buddhas has The Buddhas of Bamiyan (shown before 2001), were
Related changes carbon-dated to 544-595 AD and 591-644 AD
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determined that the smaller 38 m (125 ft) respectively.[1][2]

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"Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 Location Bamyan, Afghanistan

Cite this page Part of Cultural Landscape and Archaeological

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AD, and the larger 55 m (180 ft) "Western Remains of the Bamyan Valley
Criteria Cultural: i, ii, iii, iv, vi.
Print/export Buddha" was built around 618 AD, which Reference 208-001
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would date both to the time when the Inscription 2003 (27th Session)
Printable version
Endangered 2003–present

In other projects
Hephthalites ruled the region.[4][2] Area 105 ha

Wikimedia Commons Buffer zone 225.25 ha

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The statues represented a later evolution Coordinates 34.8320°N 67.8267°E

Languages
of the classic blended style of Gandhara
‫العربية‬ art.[5] The statues consisted of the male
!"#$"
Čeština Salsal ("light shines through the universe")
Español
Esperanto and the (smaller) female Shamama
िहन्दी
ြမန်မာဘာသာ ("Queen Mother"), as they were called by
!"#$
the locals.[6] The main bodies were hewn Location of Buddhas of Bamiyan in
Afghanistan
Show map of Afghanistan
63 more directly from the sandstone cliffs, but Show map of West and Central Asia
Show map of South Asia
Edit links details were modeled in mud mixed with Show map of Tokharistan
Show all
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.[7] The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the
same mud-straw mix supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that
the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks.[2]
The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs held wooden pegs
that stabilized the outer stucco.
The Buddhas are surrounded by numerous caves and surfaces decorated
with paintings.[8] It is thought that the period of florescence was from the
6th to 8th century AD, until the onset of Islamic invasions.[8] These works
of art are considered as an artistic synthesis of Buddhist art and Gupta art
from India, with influences from the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine
Empire, as well as the country of Tokharistan.[8]
The statues were blown up and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban,
on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar,[9] after the Taliban
government declared that they were idols.[10] International and local
opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas. Some
Taliban sources credited Omar's decision to blow up the Buddha statues
to the growing influence of Osama bin Laden.[11]
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Commissioning
1.2 Pre-modern times
1.3 1998 to 2001 — Taliban
1.3.1 Destruction
1.3.1.1 International reaction
1.4 2002 - Current
2 Mural paintings
2.1 Eastern Buddha (built in AD 544 to 595)
2.1.1 Sun-God
2.1.2 Hephthalite donors
2.2 Western Buddha (built between AD 591 and 644)
2.3 Adjoining caves
3 Restoration
3.1 Rise of Buddhas with 3D light projection
3.2 Replicas
4 Gallery
5 In popular culture
5.1 In poetry
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links

History [ edit ]
Further information: Buddhism in
Afghanistan

Commissioning [ edit ]

Bamyan lies on the Silk Road, which runs

through the Hindu Kush mountain region, in
the Bamyan Valley. The Silk Road has been 38 m (125 ft) Eastern 55 m (180 ft) Western
Buddha Buddha
historically a caravan route linking the The Buddhas of Bamiyan in 1886, as published by
P.J. Maitland, The Illustrated London News.
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, sharing the
culture of Gandhara.
Bamiyan was a Buddhist religious site from the 2nd century AD up to the
time of the Islamic invasion of the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Mahdi in
AD 770. It became again Buddhist from AD 870 until the final Islamic
conquest of AD 977 under the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty.[1] Murals in the
adjoining caves have been carbon dated from AD 438 to AD 980,
suggesting that Buddhist artistic activity continued down to the final
occupation by the Muslims.[1]
The two most prominent statues were the giant standing sculptures of
Buddhas Vairocana and Sakyamuni, identified by the different mudras
performed. The Buddha popularly called "Solsol" measured 55 meters tall,
and "Shahmama" 38 meters—the niches in which the figures stood are 58
and 38 meters respectively from bottom to top.[12][13] 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,[14] but that
statue is sitting). 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.
Following the destruction of the statues in 2001,
carbon dating of organic internal structural
components found in the rubble has determined
that the two Buddhas were built circa AD 600, with
narrow dates of between AD 544 to 595 for the 38
meter Eastern Buddha, and between AD 591 and Mapping of the 38 meter smaller
Eastern Buddha, dated to AD 591 to

644 for the larger Western Buddha.[1] Recent 644, and its surrounding caves and
chapels.[1]

scholarship has also been giving broadly similar

dates based on stylistic and historical analysis, although the similarities
with the Art of Gandhara had generally encouraged an earlier dating in
older literature.[1]
Historic documentation refers to celebrations held every year attracting
numerous pilgrims and that offers were made to the monumental
statues.[15] 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.[16]

Pre-modern times [ edit ]

Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang visited the site on 30 April AD

630,[17][18][19] 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.[7][19] A monumental seated Buddha, similar in style to those at
Bamiyan, still exists in the Bingling Temple caves in China's Gansu
province.

Local men standing near the larger Photographed by Françoise Foliot Smaller, 38 meter Buddha in 1977
"Salsal" Buddha statue, c. 1940

Possible reconstitution of the original

appearance of the Western Buddha
(Vairocana). Two monks at his feet, for
scale.

1998 to 2001 — Taliban [​ edit ]

During the Afghan Civil War, the area around the

Buddhas was initially under the control of the
Hezbe Wahdat — part of the Northern Alliance —
who were against the Taliban. However, Mazar-i-
Sharif fell in August 1998, and the Bamyan valley
was entirely surrounded by Taliban.[23] The town Taller, 55 meter Buddha in 1963 and
in 2008 after destruction

was captured on 13 September 1998 after a

successful blockade.[24][25]
Abdul Wahed, a local Taliban commander who
had long before announced his intentions to
obliterate the Buddhas, drilled holes in the
Smaller, 38 meter Buddha, before
Buddhas' heads into which he planned to load and after destruction. The paintings of
Hepthalite royal sponsors on the ceiling
explosives.[26] He was prevented from proceeding also have disappeared.[20][21][22]

by Mohammed Omar, the de-facto leader of the

Taliban:[26]

Mullah Omar appointed Maulawi Muhammad Islam of Ru-ye Doab

as Bamian governor. As a Tatar from neighbouring Samangan
Province, the Maulawi had connections with all the commanders of
Bamian from the jihad era. Whatever his other sins, Bamian was
also a part of Maulawi Islam’s heritage. His deputies described to
me how, when they saw what Abdul Wahed was doing, they
contacted Mullah Omar in Kandahar and he gave the order to stop
further drilling.[26]

Other people blew off the head of the smaller Buddha using dynamite,
aimed rockets at the larger Buddha's groin, and burnt tires at the latter's
head.[26] In July 1999, Omar decreed in favor of preserving the statues,
and described plans to establish a tourism-circuit.[27] In early 2000, local
Taliban authorities asked for the UN's assistance to rebuild drainage
ditches around the tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set.[28]

Destruction [ edit ]
In an interview, Taliban leader Mullah Omar provided an ostensible
explanation for his order to destroy the statues:

I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some

foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the
repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly
damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous
people have no regard for thousands of living human beings—the
Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned
about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely
deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come
for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha's
destruction.[29]

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."[30] 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." A
statement issued by the ministry of religious affairs of the Taliban regime
justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law.[31]
On 18 March 2001, 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".[32]
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".[33] Rahmatullah Hashemi added
"If we had wanted to destroy those statues, we could have done it three
years ago," referring to the start of U.S. sanctions. "In our religion, if
anything is harmless, we just leave it. If money is going to statues while
children are dying of malnutrition next door, then that makes it harmful,
and we destroy it."[32]
There is speculation that the destruction may have been influenced by al-
Qaeda in order to further isolate the Taliban from the international
community, thus tightening relations between the two, however the
evidence is circumstantial.[34] 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.[35]
The statues were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on
2 March 2001.[36][37]
The destruction was 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".[38] 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.[39] After one of the
explosions failed to obliterate the face of one of the Buddhas, a rocket
was launched that left a hole in the remains of the stone head.[40]
A local civilian, speaking to Voice of America in 2002, said that he and
some other locals were forced to help destroy the statues. He also
claimed that Pakistani and Arab engineers "were involved" in the
destruction.[41] Mullah Omar, during the destruction, was quoted as
saying, "What are you complaining about? We are only waging war on
stones".[42] The destruction of the Bamiyan 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.[43]

International reaction [ edit ]

The Taliban's intention to destroy the statues,
declared on 27 February 2001, caused a wave of
international horror and protest. According to
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, a
Destruction of the site by the Taliban

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.[44]
Saudi Arabia and the UAE later condemned the
destruction as "savage".[45] Although India never
recognised the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Site of the larger statue after it was
destroyed
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.[46] Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf
sent a delegation led by Pakistan's interior
minister Moinuddin Haider to Kabul to meet with
Omar and try to prevent the destruction, arguing
that it was un-Islamic and unprecedented.[47] As
recounted by Steve Coll: Site of the smaller statue in 2005

Haider quoted a verse from the Koran that

said Muslims should not slander the gods of
other religions. ... He cited many cases in
history, especially in Egypt, where Muslims
had protected the statues and art of other
religions. The Buddhas in Afghanistan were
older even than Islam. Thousands of Muslim
soldiers had crossed Afghanistan to India
over the centuries, but none of them had
ever felt compelled to destroy the Buddhas.
"When they have spared these statues for
fifteen hundred years, all these Muslims
who have passed by them, how are you a
different Muslim from them?" Haider asked.
"Maybe they did not have the technology to
destroy them," Omar speculated.[48]

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.[49][50] The second edition of the Turkistan Islamic
Party's magazine Islamic Turkistan contained an article on Buddhism, and
described the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan despite attempts by
the Japanese government of "infidels" to preserve the remains of the
statues.[51] The exiled Dalai Lama said he was "deeply concerned".[52]
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".[53] The
director general of the UN 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."[54] Ahmad Shah
Massoud, leader of the anti-Taliban resistance force, also condemned the
destruction.[55]
In Rome, the former Afghan King, Mohammed Zahir Shah, denounced
the declaration in a rare press statement, calling it "against the national
and historic interests of the Afghan people." Zemaryalai Tarzi, who was
Afghanistan's chief archeologist in the 1970s, called it an "unacceptable
decision."[56]

2002 - Current [ edit ]

Pilgrimage to
Though the figures of the two large Buddhas Buddha's Holy Sites
have been destroyed, their outlines and some
features are still recognizable within the
recesses. It is also still possible for visitors to The Four Main Sites
Bodh Gaya · Kushinagar · Lumbini · Sarnath
explore the monks' caves and passages that
Four Additional Sites

connect them. As part of the international effort Rajgir · Sankissa · Shravasti · Vaishali
Other Sites
to rebuild Afghanistan after the Taliban war, the Amaravati · Chandavaram · Devdaha
Gaya · Kapilavastu · Kesaria
Japanese Government and several other Kosambi · Nalanda · Pataliputra
Pava · Varanasi

organizations—among them the Afghanistan Later Sites

Ajanta Caves · Barabar Caves · Bharhut
Institute in Bubendorf, Switzerland, along with Ellora Caves · Lalitgiri · Mathura
Nasik Caves · Piprahwa · Pushpagiri
the ETH in Zurich—have committed to Ratnagiri · Sanchi · Udayagiri · Vikramashila
V ·T ·E

rebuilding, perhaps by anastylosis, the two larger

Buddhas. The local residents of Bamiyan have also expressed their favor
in restoring the structures.[57]
In April 2002, Afghanistan's post-Taliban leader Hamid Karzai called the
destruction a "national tragedy" and pledged the Buddhas to be rebuilt.[58]
He later called the reconstruction a "cultural imperative".[42]
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. He blamed the decision to destroy the Buddhas on Al-
Qaeda's influence on the Taliban.[59] In 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.[60] A novel titled An Afghan Winter provides a fictional
backdrop to the destruction of the Buddhas and its impact on the global
Buddhist community.[61]
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, ICOMOS constructed 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.[62]
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.
The Buddhist remnants at Bamiyan were included on the 2008 World
Monuments Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World
Monuments Fund.
In 2013, the foot section of the smaller Buddha was rebuilt with iron rods,
bricks and concrete by the German branch of ICOMOS.[63] Further
constructions were halted by order of UNESCO, on the grounds that the
work was conducted without the organization's knowledge or approval.
The effort was contrary to UNESCO's policy of using original material for
reconstructions, and it has been pointed out that it was done based on
assumptions.[64][65]
In 2015, a wealthy Chinese couple, Janson Hu and Liyan Yu, financed the
creation of a Statue of Liberty-size 3D light projection of an artist's view of
what the larger Buddha, known as Solsol to locals, might have looked like
in his prime. The image was beamed into the niche one night in 2015;
later the couple donated their $120,000 projector to the culture
ministry.[66][67]

Mural paintings [ edit ]

The Buddhas are surrounded by numerous caves and surfaces decorated

with paintings.[8] It is thought that the period of florescence was from the