Skip to content

Our blog

Last news about Asian antiques and Buddha images

Primary Menu
  • HOME
  • Sample Page
  • Home
  • Uncategorized
  • 2 Giant Buddhas Survived 1,500 Years. Fragments, Graffiti and a Hologram Remain.

2 Giant Buddhas Survived 1,500 Years. Fragments, Graffiti and a Hologram Remain.

azibaza2 2019-06-19 6 min read

2 Giant Buddhas Survived 1,500 Years. Fragments, Graffiti and a Hologram Remain.

A 3D light projection last month in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, of how a destroyed Buddha, known as Solsol to locals, might have looked in its prime.CreditCreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times

By Rod Nordland

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Here is a reminder to someone with the initials A.B., who on March 8 climbed inside the cliff out of which Bamiyan’s two giant Buddhas were carved 1,500 years ago.

In a domed chamber — reached after a trek through a passageway that worms its way up the inside of the cliff face — A.B. inscribed initials and the date, as hundreds of others had in many scripts, then added a little heart.

It’s just one of the latest contributions to the destruction of the World Heritage Site of Bamiyan’s famous Buddhas.

The worst was the Taliban’s effort in March 2001, when the group blasted away at the two giant statues, one 181 feet and the other 125 feet tall, which at the time were thought to be the two biggest standing Buddhas on the planet.

It took the Taliban weeks, using artillery and explosive charges, to reduce the Buddhas to thousands of fragments piled in heaps at the foot of the cliffs, outraging the world.

Since then, the degradation has continued, as Afghanistan and the international community have spent 18 years debating what to do to protect or restore the site, with still no final decision and often only one guard on duty.

One recent idea came from a wealthy Chinese couple, Janson Hu and Liyan Yu. They 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.

The local authorities bring it out on special occasions, but rarely, as Bamiyan has no city power supply, other than fields of low-capacity solar panels. The 3D-image projector is power-hungry and needs its own diesel generator.

Most of the time, the remains of the monument are so poorly guarded that anyone can buy a ticket ($4 for foreigners, 60 cents for Afghans), walk in and do pretty much whatever he wants. And many do.

Souvenir-hunters pluck pieces of painted stucco decorations from the network of chambers or take away chunks of fallen sandstone. Graffiti signatures, slogans, even solicitations for sex abound.

Anyone can, as A.B. did, crawl through the passageways surrounding the towering niches in the cliff, through winding staircases tunneled into the sandstone and up steps with risers double the height of modern ones, as if built for giants.

At the end of this journey, you arrive above the eastern niche, which housed the smaller Buddha, and stand on a ledge just behind where the statue’s head once was, taking in the splendid Buddha’s eye view of snow-capped mountains and the lush green valley far below.

The soft sandstone of the staircases crumbles underfoot, so that the very act of climbing them is at least in part a guilty pleasure — though no longer very dangerous. Twisted iron banisters set in the stone make the steep inclines and windows over the precipices more safely navigable, if not as authentically first millennium.

When the Taliban demolished the Buddhas, in an important sense they botched the job.

The Buddhas, built over perhaps a century from 550 A.D. or so, were just the most prominent parts of a complex of hundreds of caves, monasteries and shrines, many of them colorfully decorated by the thousands of monks who meditated and prayed in them.

In the 1990s, the caves around the Buddha complex in Bamiyan were home to mujahedeen factions that burned wood for heating. As hard-line Islamists, they were against Buddhism, slapping their shoes on the cave walls out of disrespect.CreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Even without the Buddhas themselves, their niches remain, impressive in their own right; the Statue of Liberty would fit comfortably in the western one.

Unesco has declared the whole valley, including the more than half-mile-long cliff and its monasteries, a World Heritage Site.

“If the Taliban come back again to destroy it, this time they would have to do the whole cliff,” Aslam Alawi, the local head of the Afghan culture ministry, said.

Unesco has also declared the Bamiyan Buddhas complex a “World Heritage Site in Danger,” one of 54 worldwide. The larger western niche is still at risk of collapsing.

Most archaeologists oppose restoration, arguing that the damage was too great and that the cost would be prohibitive. Estimates range from $30 million for one Buddha to $1.2 billion for the whole complex.


Tourists from Ghazni Province making their way through winding staircases carved from crumbly sandstone at the Buddha complex.CreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Others argue that the destruction itself has become a historical monument, and that the ruins should be preserved as is, a visible reminder of Taliban iconoclasm.

A scientific conference in Tokyo in 2017 — involving Afghans, Unesco, scientists and donors — met to study the matter, and to discuss Afghanistan’s formal request for money to rebuild the eastern Buddha. A diplomatically worded final statement called for more study and an indefinite pause in restoration work.

Or, as the Unesco field officer Ghulam Reza Mohammadi in Bamiyan put it, “The Buddhas will never be rebuilt.”

The important thing is stabilization and conservation of the remains as they are, Mr. Mohammadi said.

“The government can’t even afford to pay for five guards they promised,” he said.

No work has been done on the eastern niche since 2013, when a German archaeology team began rebuilding the feet of the smaller Buddha, using new materials and raising an international archaeological hue and cry that brought the work to an abrupt end.
Sign up for The Interpreter

Subscribe for original insights, commentary and discussions on the major news stories of the week, from columnists Max Fisher and Amanda Taub.

A view of snow-capped mountains and the lush green valley below where a Buddha statue stood.CreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Officials say money has run out to work on the western niche, where scaffolding has filled the vast space for at least five years.

Mr. Alawi, while in charge for his ministry, does not even have a key to the door blocking a passageway to the top of the western niche; he said a German archaeologist took it with him.

Elsewhere on the site, pieces of the Buddhas are in locked cabinets, along with artifacts recovered from the caves, but the Afghans do not have the keys to the locks. A French archaeologist took those, then retired, and has not responded to official requests to return them, Mr. Alawi said.

“Somebody buys your dinner, they get to tell you what to eat,” Mr. Alawi said, quoting a Persian saying.

Another problem is that no one is really sure a restored Buddha would be safe, given Afghanistan’s continuing war and its government’s declining fortunes.

Bamiyan’s governor, M. Tahir Zohair, favors rebuilding the smaller Buddha. But he admitted, “The international community is worried the Taliban might come back and destroy it again.”

So that leaves the hologram.

After sunset on a recent Monday, Mr. Alawi set up the projector for a demonstration and for 15 minutes filled the deep darkness of the western niche with the huge image of Solsol, left palm forward, visible from across the valley.

Arif Taquin, 28, an artist in town, rushed over to the site. “The first time I saw this I cried,” he said. “Every time I see it again I am so moved in new ways, and it is only 3-D. To think we had the real thing, and now it is gone.”

When the generator died and the light flickered off, what was left to see in the niche was, as Mr. Taquin put it, “all that ugly scaffolding.”

Rod Nordland

Fatima Faizi contributed reporting.

Continue Reading

Previous: Seven-Hundred-Year-Old Secrets
Next: World’s largest Buddha painting unveiled in eastern Taiwan

Related Stories

Buddha’s foster mother profoundly shaped the life of the orphaned prince and remains an enduring inspiration for Buddhists on Mother’s Day.
4 min read

Buddha’s foster mother profoundly shaped the life of the orphaned prince and remains an enduring inspiration for Buddhists on Mother’s Day.

2025-05-08
China. The Mogao Caves: Where History, Art, and Devotion Converge.
2 min read

China. The Mogao Caves: Where History, Art, and Devotion Converge.

2025-04-30
India, 8th century Buddhist sculpture discovered in Jajpur temple
1 min read

India, 8th century Buddhist sculpture discovered in Jajpur temple

2025-04-29

Recent Posts

  • Buddha’s foster mother profoundly shaped the life of the orphaned prince and remains an enduring inspiration for Buddhists on Mother’s Day.
  • China. The Mogao Caves: Where History, Art, and Devotion Converge.
  • India, 8th century Buddhist sculpture discovered in Jajpur temple
  • India. Ratnagiri dig throws up more surprises on Buddhist heritage
  • Ancient Xinjiang Grottoes Reopen with Stunning AR Makeover. China

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • February 2017

    Categories

    • Blog
    • Uncategorized

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

    You may have missed

    Buddha’s foster mother profoundly shaped the life of the orphaned prince and remains an enduring inspiration for Buddhists on Mother’s Day.
    4 min read

    Buddha’s foster mother profoundly shaped the life of the orphaned prince and remains an enduring inspiration for Buddhists on Mother’s Day.

    2025-05-08
    China. The Mogao Caves: Where History, Art, and Devotion Converge.
    2 min read

    China. The Mogao Caves: Where History, Art, and Devotion Converge.

    2025-04-30
    India, 8th century Buddhist sculpture discovered in Jajpur temple
    1 min read

    India, 8th century Buddhist sculpture discovered in Jajpur temple

    2025-04-29
    India. Ratnagiri dig throws up more surprises on Buddhist heritage
    2 min read

    India. Ratnagiri dig throws up more surprises on Buddhist heritage

    2025-04-13
    Copyright © All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.