Buddhas rise again from the ruins - with a bit of Kiwi help

[Bonobo]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=9001641

The regime decided the Buddhas, which had stood for 1800 years, were un-Islamic. They were false idols and had to be destroyed.

With the statues standing at 53 metres and 35 metres, this did not prove an easy task. In early 2001, the Taleban worked on them for weeks, proudly announcing they were using "everything at our disposal to destroy them".

They hacked at them with spades and pick-axes. They launched anti-tank rockets and fired anti-aircraft guns. They lobbed grenades and missiles and apparently even fired at them from aircraft. Eventually, they stuffed explosives in them and blew them sky high. Great piles of rubble lay where they fell.

But with a little help from the New Zealand Army, the ancient Buddhas may yet have the last laugh. A project is under way to save what can be saved and piece them back together, and New Zealand soldiers are in Bamiyan to help.

[scarletwoman]

1. It's rather ironic...

Impermanence is at the core of Buddhist teachings.

sw

[Xithras]

2. It's impossible

I've seen photos of the rubble field. The Buddhas were carved at that spot because the soft sandstone cliffs made it a relatively simple job. They lasted 1800 years because the original carvers had the foresight to recess the carvings into the cliff face, protecting them from the weather.

The simple reality is that the majority of the statues were blasted back into loose sand by the explosives and the subsequent 100+ foot fall. The larger chunks that did survive the fall (mostly fron the lower portions of the statues), have been exposed to the weather for nearly four years now, and the water has broken the sandstone down further.

If the Bamiyan Buddhas were granite, this job might have been possible, but with so much of them now literally turned to dust, anything they build will be more re-creation than reconstruction.

Besides, the article is fudging the truth when it says that the area is being guarded. The Bamiyan area is one of the most underdeveloped in Afghanistan, and people LIVE in the caves now. At one time nearly all of the tunnels were covered with Buddhist paintings, but between the Taliban and the locals looking for something to sell, more than 98% of the original wall coverings have been stripped or destroyed. All that's left today are a handful of paintings in high, dark spots that have been overlooked by the Taliban and the looters, and even those are slowly vanishing under soot from the residents campfires or looters knives.