The Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, tucked away in a corner of the Hindu Kush Mountains, was listed as one of the three most precious relics of the Buddhist arts because of the numerous caves hewn out of solid rock by Buddhist monks, and two gigantic statues, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, one of which stood 53 meters [175 feet] tall. However, on March 9, 2001, the Buddhas of Bamiyan were sabotaged and reduced to rubble at the order of the Taliban rulers. The Taliban regime represents a hard-line fundamentalist Islamic movement which controls about ninety percent of Afghanistan. The pictures shown in this article were taken in May 1998 by Wang Chih-hung, editor-in-chief of Rhythms Monthly magazine. They may be the last records of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

Due to a change in the interpretation of the fundamental tenets of Islam, Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban rulers issued an edict on March 1, 2001, to destroy all non-Islamic statues and idols, including the world's tallest standing buddhas, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The Taliban leaders said that there is only one God in Islam, that non-Islamic statues are "insulting" to Islam, and that they should therefore be destroyed to avoid future idolatry.

UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura condemned the actions of the Taliban as a "crime against culture" and a violation against the common good of human civilization. He also pointed out that destruction of non-Islamic statues was an isolated action taken by the Taliban, without the support of other Islamic countries.

After years of neglect, the Bamiyan buddhas again made the front pages of international news. However, this time they appeared in a kind of obituary notice. The two giant buddhas, over 1,500 years old, had been recommended for the UNESCO World Heritage list by the Afghan government in 1982. Within a few short days after the Taliban's threat to destroy the statues was made public, they were blown to pieces. What a cruel act to mark the beginning of a new millennium!

When I learned of the situation in early March, I prayed that the Taliban regime's threat to destroy the Bamiyan buddhas and other non-Islamic cultural properties was a mere strategy to draw world attention to the problem of famine in Afghanistan. After all, this was not the first time such threats had been made.

As far as I am concerned, the destruction of the buddhas is more than just a piece of hot news about some event in a remote, strange land. As a matter of fact, I have had some personal contact with the Buddhas of Bamiyan. It all goes back to May 1998, when I traveled with my colleagues from the Tzu Chi Foundation to Afghanistan on a disaster relief mission. At that time, Afghanistan, torn by civil war, was said to have the densest concentration of land mines anywhere in the world. It was only after overcoming great difficulties that we finally gained entry into the Bamiyan region to bring medicine to the people of Hazara.

The Bamiyan valley is located about 250 kilometers [155 miles] west of Kabul and about 2,500 meters [8,250 feet] above sea level. On the south of the Bamiyan valley, the red Hindu Kush mountains extended as a continuous cliff about three kilometers [1.9 miles] in length. Spreading across the cliff walls were small dugouts and caverns once used by Buddhist monks and pilgrims for meditation and religious practices. The two towering statues were carved into the cliff faces, the larger one situated just above the town of Bamiyan and the smaller one about one kilometer further down.

Hsuan Tsang's Records

Depending on the position of the sun, the rock cliffs subtly changed in color. In early morning, the grayish pink of dawn intermingled with smoke wafting from the chimneys of yellow mud houses in the valley. Later in the morning, the sun appeared and tinged the sandstone walls red. At high noon the sun shone directly onto the surface of the cliffs, sending out strong, blinding rays of gold and brown. Then finally at dusk, the color of the cliffs gradually turned to mauve, in contrast to the setting sun. No wonder the valley was once known as "the Valley of the Gods."

The cultural richness of the Bamiyan valley during its heyday was said to have been about ten times the grandeur of the Dunhuang caves. In the old times, caravans of merchants, travelers and monks traveled through it, carrying with them silk from China, glassware from Greece, bronze statues from Rome and ivory from India. From the lush green Bamiyan valley, the caravans could travel on to the Silk Road, which led westward to the Mediterranean and eastward to central Asia, and eventually to China.

Master Hsuan Tsang, the famous Chinese monk of the Tang dynasty, journeyed through Bamiyan in 632 a.d. In his famous Buddhist Records of the Western World, his description of the two standing statues of Bamiyan are the only historical record of those Buddhist relics. "The country of Fanyenna, more than 2,000 li [620 miles] from east to west, and over 300 li [93 miles] from south to north, is situated among mountains covered by snow... In the northwest of Fanyenna stands a Buddhist statue about 150 chih [165 feet] in height. It radiates golden rays and is decorated with dazzling, glittering jewelry... To the east of that buddha stands a statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha more than 100 chih [109 feet] in height. It was created piece by piece and then assembled into a whole statue..."

Between the third and ninth centuries, the Bamiyan valley was part of a Buddhist state. In its prime, as many as seven thousand monks studied Buddhist scriptures here. They carved out a labyrinthine network of grottoes, niches, paths and verandas in the sandstone cliffs which overlooked the whole valley.

The rise and decline of Buddhism in Bamiyan

The most remarkable achievement of the Bamiyan monks was that they managed to carve out two monumental statues in the precipitous sandstone cliffs. One of the statues, a 38-meter [125-foot] Sakyamuni Buddha, was completed about 1,800 years ago; the other, 53 meters [175 feet] in height, was completed about 1,500 years ago and was considered the tallest standing buddha in the world. Over a thousand caves and grottoes surrounded the two standing buddhas. These caves were like the Thousand-Buddha Caves of Dunhuang, filled with frescos and Buddhist sculptures of clay or stone. Many modern archaeologists hold that the Buddhist relics of Bamiyan combine influences from India, Persia, Greece and Rome, and are the archetype of Chinese stone carvings such as those found in the Dunhuang caves.

Buddhism in Bamiyan began its decline in the ninth century, mainly due to the insecurity of the trading routes, invasions of pagans, the looting of neighboring regions by the Mongols, and the strict prohibition of idol worship by Moslems. Gradually the honeycomb-like grottoes became shelters for shepherds and their herds from bad weather and harsh winters. Rain and sandstorms eroded the cliffs and their surfaces started to peel off. Two hundred years ago, iconoclasts even scraped away the faces of the two buddhas.

Almost a millennium passed before the Buddhas of Bamiyan received public notice again. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of archaeologists discovered the valley of Bamiyan, a historical treasure located in central Asia. Fifty years ago, two archaeologists, A. Godard and J. Hickin, conducted a large-scale exploration in this area and also set out to preserve some of the badly peeling frescos in the caves.

Inconsolable regret

In 1969, a team of archaeologists from India joined hands with the Afghans to implement a plan to repair the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Restricted by harsh weather conditions, it was only possible to work four months a year. In 1973, repairs to the smaller statue were completed, but the repair work carried out on the larger statue proceeded at a slow pace. It eventually came to a full stop in 1979 due to the outbreak of war.

If we compare what we know of the two standing buddhas with Master Hsuan Tsang's records, we know that their faces had been scraped flat, the legs of the taller buddha had been knocked off, and there was nothing left of the gold paint or decorative jewels on the statues. Now, only our imagination can bring back the resplendent bygone glory of the two buddhas.

In 1998, the ancient relics of Bamiyan were once again brought to the world's attention when Taliban troops threatened to blow up the two statues once the valley fell into their hands. After that, many efforts were made to stop the Taliban from committing such an outrageous crime, but all were in vain. The two Buddhas of Bamiyan, which were listed along with the Dunhuang caves and the caves at Ajanta, India, as the three most precious Buddhist relics in the world, were blown to pieces by Taliban troops on March 9, 2001.

Since then many countries have expressed outrage over such an act of wanton destruction. Iran described it as inhumane, an Indian leader saw the demolition as a satanic action, and Germans compared it to the burning of Jewish books during the reign of the Nazis. The world equates the Taliban regime with barbarism. To all Chinese people, this incident is nothing less than a twenty-first century "cultural revolution."

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." The Buddhas of Bamiyan, which were built to promote religion, were also reduced to rubble for the sake of religion. I cannot help wondering--for what possible reason can anyone destroy a cultural heritage that belongs to all of humanity? May the Buddhas of Bamiyan not become simply a regret that we must forever mourn.

Who are the Taliban?

The Taliban regime, also known as Islamic clerical soldiers of Central Asia, is comprised primarily of Afghans who studied Islam and received military training while they were refugees in Pakistan. Most of them are Pushtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime proclaimed that their goal was to establish the purest Islamic country in the world. Movies, music, television, and all kinds of entertainment are strictly prohibited; amputations and death penalties are carried out against criminals. The Taliban also prohibit women from receiving any education or from working outside of their homes. However, these conservative Islamic fundamentalists do not have the recognition of the international community, the majority of which still regard the minority Rabbani government as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.