As
a convenience to our readers,
the
article appearing below was copied verbatim
from
the following web page:
Original
Internet Source Page
and
Original
Internet Source Page
NOTE:
Because
web sites are often revised by their owners,
the
above link might result in a File Not Found notice
if
said web page was nuked or re-named by the owner.
|
Editorial Note:
this
article was linked to by the Q&A:
Did
you hear Dumbledore is gay?
published
on November 4, 2007
The
Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan
They
were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban
SYNOPSIS:
Also known as the Buddhas of Bamyan, these
were two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of
a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, situated 230 km (143
miles) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2500 meters (8,202 feet).
The two big standing Buddhas statues and a
small of a seated Buddha were carved out of the sedimentary rock of the
region. They 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 two massive Buddha images, which stood
about a quarter of a mile apart, were carved out of a high stretch of cliff
facing the widest part of the valley. These colossal images were between
the largest Buddhist sculptures in the world. Basically they were cut from
the sandstone cliffs and covered with mud and straw mixture to model the
expression of the face, the hands and the folds of the robes. They were
plastered and finally they were painted. The lower parts of their arms
were constructed using mud supported on wooden armatures while the upper
parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks. The two giants
were painted in gold and other colours, and they were decked in dazzling
ornaments.
They were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban.
The Taleban people was a fundamentalist Islamic militia that has governed
most of Aghanistan from 1996 to December 2001.
Against international protests and appeals,
the supreme Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered their destruction
as part of a campaign to rid the land of all un-Islamic graven images.
The leader issued an edict declaring the statues (and therefore the ancient
Buddhas) as insulting to Islam. This means that all idolatrous images of
humans and animals and all those idols considered by them to be an insult
to Islam had to be destroyed. Taleban leader rejected also a proposal
to build a concrete wall in front of the two Buddhas statues instead of
their destruction.
By March 12, 2001, these giant Buddhas have
been destroyed by the use of mortars, dynamite, tanks, anti-aircraft weapons
and rockets. Now they are nothing but piles of sandstone rubble and clay
plaster. The Taleban destroyed also other buddhist images in Afghanistan,
such as ancient statues and relief carvings.
The Buddhist, the world community and UNESCO,
failed to convince the Talebans to leave such artifacts and everybody expressed
horror at the Buddhas' destruction. And many Mullahs in Islamic countries
condemned Taleban's operations as wrong-headed and damaging to the image
of Islam.
Preface
to 2001 destruction, under the Taliban
In July 1999, Mullah Mohammed Omar issued
a decree in favor of the preservation of the Bamyan Buddhas. Because Afghanistan's
Buddhist population no longer existed, which removed the possibility of
the statues being worshiped, he added: "The government considers the Bamyan
statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan
from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamyan shall not be
destroyed but protected."
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 Islamic
law [6].
In March 2001, according to Agence France
Presse in Kabul, a decree declared, "Based on the verdict of the clerics
and the decision of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan)
all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed. All the statues in
the country should be destroyed because these statues have been used as
idols and deities by the non-believers before. Only God, the Almighty,
deserves to be worshiped, not anyone or anything else."
Dynamiting
and destruction, March 2001
The statues were destroyed by dynamite
over the course of weeks starting in early March.
On March 6, the London Times quoted Mullah
Mohammed Omar as stating, "Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It
has given praise to God that we have destroyed them." He had clearly changed
his position from being in favor of the statues to being against them.
During a March 13 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 Buddha statues in accordance with Islamic law and
it is purely a religious issue".
On March 18, 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 New York Times 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."
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 single Swedish monuments expert
proposed to restore the statues' heads. Hashimi is reported as saying:
"When the Afghani 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".
|
