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So did they ever reconstruct the

inquisitiveinquisitive
edited October 2010 in General Banter
Buddhist statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Comments

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited October 2010
    No.
  • andyrobynandyrobyn Veteran
    edited October 2010
    The two large statues dated around the 7th Century AD were destroyed in 2001 and in 2008 archeologists unearthed another 62-foot Buddha statue in a sleeping position, dated to the 3rd Century !, along with other relics including coins and ceramics near the demolished statues which may never have been discovered.
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    edited October 2010
    From the Wikipedia entry on the Buddhas of Bamyan:

    "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 the passages which 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 largest Buddhas."
  • ChrysalidChrysalid Veteran
    edited October 2010
    I have to wonder what the point would be. Afganistan isn't a Buddhist country, the original statues have already been destroyed. Re-creating them just seems like sentimentality or nostalgia.
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    edited October 2010
    Chrysalid wrote: »
    I have to wonder what the point would be. Afganistan isn't a Buddhist country, the original statues have already been destroyed. Re-creating them just seems like sentimentality or nostalgia.

    My thoughts exactly. After all, they are just statues, carvings of stone made to represent Gautama Buddha. And while they were historically interesting, they were not crucial. I bet the monks that lived in those tunnels would have moved on fairly quickly.
  • robotrobot Veteran
    edited October 2010
    From a Buddhist perspective the destruction of the statues seems like the sweeping away of a sand mandala, we should thank the Taliban for the lesson on impermanence. Repairing them would be like patching up Mount Rushmore, good for tourism.-P
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