MORE THAN SIMPLY STONES

"Afghanistan's Taliban has destroyed the two towering statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley (March 19). The assertion of a Taliban leader that "all we are crushing are stones" is amazing. Isn't the holy city of Mecca made of stones, too? How would millions of Muslim hajj pilgrims feel if a Buddhist fanatic took revenge by blowing up Mecca's "stones"? As an imperfect Buddhist bound by vows and aspirations, I can only sit calmly through my frustrations and exercise reluctant tolerance. But l do wonder if I haven't given in to a bully yet again in the name of compassion."

D.J. Khyentse Rinpoche
Leader, United Non-Sectarian Buddhist Front
Paro, Bhutan

in the news - photo images & museum collections - historical perspectives

IN THE NEWS

Rebuilding the Bamiyan Buddhas - The new Afghan government hopes to restore the archeological treasures destroyed by the Taliban (Newsweek)

Destroyed Buddhas to get another life (Chicago Tribune)

Taleban gone, Bamiyan Buddhas come back - (Pravda)

Ancient Buddha revives Tajikistan's pride - The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas has sparked pride as Ajina Tepe, 300 kilometers north of Bamiyan, now claims to have the largest ancient stone Buddha in the region. Twenty meters long, the 1600 year old carving depicts the Buddha Siddartha Gautama lying on his side, his face an image of perfect serenity as he senses the nearness of Nirvana moments before his death. (The Age, Australia)

Buddha Reborn - After the dust clears from the wrecked statues at Bamiyan, another ancient Buddha reappears. When Afghanistan's Taliban declared its intention to destroy the ancient Buddhas at Bamiyan, it only added impetus to the restoration of a unique 5th century stone statue of Buddha that had lain hidden for decades in neighbouring Tajikistan. (Far Eastern Economic Review)

PHOTO IMAGES & MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

The AIIS slide show of the Bamiyan Buddhas - American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology Photo Archive (Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago)

Bamiyan - This is a really wonderful virtual tour of what was at Bamiyan - highly recommended. (The Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Related Art, Ohio State University)

Lost and Stolen Images: Afghanistan - Works from the Kabul Museum (scroll down to bottom half of the web page) (The Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Related Art, Ohio State University)

The Buddhas of Bamiyan - Photographs taken in 1934 by Robert Byron (Conway Collection at the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, London)

Afghanistan 1969-1974 - Volker Thewalt photographic collection.

Bamiyan images (Stringer Photo)

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

The Bamiyan Tragedy - Staten Island Buddhist Vihara

Why the Taliban are destroying Buddhas by W.L. Rathje in Discover Archaeology Magazine (reproduced by USAToday)

The Buddhas of Bamiyan - Challenged Witnesses of Afghanistan's Forgotten Past by Jet Van Krieken, published in The International Institute for Asian Studies 2000 (reproduced by Purabudaya)

Bamiyan Buddhas in Persian Literature - by Mohammad Ali Eslami Nodushan in Bokhara; Literary & Cultural Bimonthly (reproduced by NetIran).

Buddhism and Its Spread Along the Silk Road - Silkroad Foundation. A broader view of the significance of Bamiyan and Gandhara in the context of the history of buddhism:

"Contact with the Hellenized Gandharan culture resulted in the development of a new art form, the Buddha statue, sometimes referred as a Buddha image. Before Buddhism reached Gandhara in the 3rd century BC, there had been no representation of the Buddha, and it was in the Gandharan culture that the use of Buddha images had begun."

"Among Kushan/Bactrian Buddhist centers the most important one was Bamiyan, 240 kilometers northwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. It became one of the greatest Buddhist monastic communities in all Central Asia by the 4th century. At the west stands the 53 meter Buddha, still the largest statue in the world. With its strategic location at the intersection of roads to Persia, India, Tarim basin, and China, it developed an art style with a fusion of Iranian, Indian, Gandharan and local style into an independent mode of its own. This style of Buddhist art traveled eastward and was quickly adopted at Kizil, Xinjiang and ultimately Dunhuang. Buddhism reached the height of its power in the 8th and 9th centuries in Afghanistan before it fell to the Arabs."