Dynamited by Taliban Buddhas of Bamiyan resurrect in Afghanistan

[East or West India Best]

Still not as dark as your shiv ling:

Kali maa shakthi de

 

[Sliver]

was one of the saddest days of my life when it was blown up. i think there are some hardcore fanatics in here - suporting vanadlism in the name of religion. the loss of those buddhas is simply irreparable.

 

[samv]

 

[SHAMK9]

Why don't they rebuild it?

 

[Hindustani78]

The 3rd-5th century AD hilltop monastery at Fondukistan (left), excavated by French archaeologists during the 1930s, contained many museum-quality artifacts. This Buddha Dipankara (right) was transported from Fondukistan to the Kabul Museum and was stolen in 1992. Its present location is unknown. Photos courtesy DAFA

Why don't they rebuild it?

Bamiyan Buddhas are in Hindu Kush Mountain ranges.

Can't be as black as the Shiv ling in your mandir.

Now bend over and pray.

Bodh Gaya is in Bihar State .

Voters in Bihar

 

[SHAMK9]

Bamiyan Buddhas are in Hindu Kush Mountain ranges.

That doesnt answer my question but okay

 

[Azizam]

Lankan Mard-e-momin
Sharia for Sri Lanka

He was being sarcastic genius.

Why don't they rebuild it?

To be blown up again? Japan even offered to hide it or move it to their country but they blew it up anyway.

 

[Hindustani78]

That doesnt answer my question but okay

He was being sarcastic genius.


To be blown up again? Japan even offered to hide it or move it to their country but they blew it up anyway.

Rakhaldas Sengupta, 75, a retired archaeologist in New Delhi.

In 1969, he became head of an Indo-Afghan team to restore the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan. They were crumbling from age. And, over the centuries, they had taken substantial abuse. The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan ordered a cannon attack.

''One of the Buddhas suffered a broken right leg below the knee and took a shot to the left leg up to the thigh,'' Mr. Sengupta said.

In the 17th century, the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb ordered an attack on the Buddhas. ''Parts of the wooden frame were burned, and there was damage to the upper part of the face and the lower lip and the hands,'' Mr. Sengupta said.

*********
Taliban were trying to recoginaton and during that time only UN sanctions were placed for hosting Osama Bin Laden.

 

[Azizam]

Rakhaldas Sengupta, 75, a retired archaeologist in New Delhi.

In 1969, he became head of an Indo-Afghan team to restore the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan. They were crumbling from age. And, over the centuries, they had taken substantial abuse. The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan ordered a cannon attack.

''One of the Buddhas suffered a broken right leg below the knee and took a shot to the left leg up to the thigh,'' Mr. Sengupta said.

In the 17th century, the Moghul emperor Aurangzeb ordered an attack on the Buddhas. ''Parts of the wooden frame were burned, and there was damage to the upper part of the face and the lower lip and the hands,'' Mr. Sengupta said.

*********
Taliban were trying to recoginaton and during that time only UN sanctions were placed for hosting Osama Bin Laden.

What's your point? According to you many people tried to destroy and rebuilding it will only mean that it will be destroyed again.

 

[Manindra]

He was being sarcastic genius.

Check his post history
He is a Lankan Muslim aka your Mard-e-momin to deal with for you

 

[madooxno9]

God bless this couple. They are doing such a wonderful job.

 

[Hindustani78]

What's your point? According to you many people tried to destroy and rebuilding it will only mean that it will be destroyed again.

Sengupta says the face and half a limb of the bigger Buddha was not there when they had taken up the work in 1969. The upper garments of the statutes were also degenerating.

"The faces were destroyed as the invaders burnt them, he said explaining that the facial expressions to the statues were made with the help of wooden frames, which were later plastered with a unique mix of lime, mud, wool and straw for the final shape. "The plaster, which speaks volumes for the craftsmanship of the people of that age, was required because sculpting the mountain was very difficult. It was not just sandstone but also made of pebbles which rendered chiselling impossible," explained Sengupta, who was decorated with Padmashree for the monumental task.

 

[Hindustani78]

Afghanistan`s Bamiyan on frontline of warzone tourism | Zee News
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 10:13


Bamiyan: Trudging halfway up a jagged goat trail, guide Mohammad Ibrahim extolled the panoramic view -- a vast, ancient landscape of russet-hued cliffs that is on the frontline of Afghan efforts to jumpstart warzone tourism.


Bamiyan -- famous for empty hillside niches that once sheltered giant Buddha statues that were blown up by the Taliban -- is a rare oasis of tranquility that has largely been spared the wrenching conflict that afflicts the rest of Afghanistan.

Once a caravan stop along the fabled Silk Road, the central Afghan city was recently named this year`s cultural capital of South Asia, igniting hopes of restoring its place on the global tourism map.

One obstacle, however, remains: Bamiyan is hemmed in by war.

Figuring out how to get to the ancient city -- endowed with stunning landscapes but wedged between volatile provinces -- itself is a challenge.

But that doesn`t stop Ibrahim, head of the local tourism association with a penchant for Indiana Jones-style straw hats, from making his sales pitch.

"Bamiyan has caves with the world`s oldest oil paintings, the country`s first national park and during winter it`s home to Afghanistan`s only ski slopes," he said, sounding like a walking tourism brochure.

Hiking up to the ruined ramparts of Shahr-e-Gholghola -- the City of Screams, which was destroyed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century -- Ibrahim stopped to catch his breath and picked up a spent bullet shell from the ground, one of many Soviet-era casings that litter the windswept trail overlooking the sandstone cliffs and snow-clad pyramids of the Hindu Kush range.

"Bamiyan is the envy of Afghanistan -- it has peace," he said.Pre-civil war days are a subject of whispered nostalgia in Bamiyan, when it wielded control over strategic mountain passes connecting trade routes from India, China and Persia and the local markets swarmed with stoned backpackers hopping overland on the so-called "hippie trail".

It has failed to revive the heyday of tourism after decades of war, including the Taliban`s 1996-2001 reign when they destroyed two massive Buddha statues carved into sandstone cliffs, labelling them an affront to Islam -- an act globally condemned as "cultural terrorism".

Reliable statistics are hard to come by but officials admit that the number of foreign tourists has fallen off a cliff in recent post-Taliban years as pessimism abounds about the state of Afghanistan, trapped in a quagmire of escalating violence.

But in an effort to lure tourists, especially from the sub-continent, Bamiyan was last month inaugurated as the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) cultural capital for 2015 -- a move welcomed by local hoteliers and shopkeepers, though few are optimistic.

Bamiyan`s single-runway airport can only accommodate small aircraft, with just one commercial airline operating thrice weekly flights from Kabul.

And both land routes connecting it to the capital -- through the mountainous Ghorband valley in neighbouring Parwan province and Wardak province in the south -- can be deadly.

Travellers who cannot afford the $200 round-trip air fare say Taliban militants harass them with impunity.

"If you are an Afghan travelling by road, wear a ragged tunic, abandon all government ID and say your prayer," quipped Umaidullah Azad, a tourist in Band-e Amir, widely known as "Afghanistan`s Grand Canyon" for its azure lakes and rolling limestone cliffs.

"If the Taliban flag you down, you have a good chance of surviving if you look like a country bumpkin. But no chance if you have government or foreign connections," said Azad, 24, a telecom official who recently made the perilous journey from Kabul.Mohammad Sajad Mohseni, a prominent cleric recognised as the "Facebook mullah" for his connections with the Afghan youth on social media, was in Bamiyan when the Taliban pummelled the Buddha statues.

When days of shooting and cannon fire failed to destroy them, the Taliban drilled holes into the idols and filled them up with explosives, he recalled.

"What they blew up weren`t just stones. They were our history," he said.

"In 2001, US warplanes forced the Taliban to go on the run, hide in caves. Within 13 years, they have spread into almost every city, every village."

But few expect a spillover of the insurgency into Bamiyan, dominated by ethnic Hazaras, Asiatic descendants of Genghis Khan who suffered extensively under the Taliban.

Unmoored from turmoil, the quiet in Bamiyan is broken only by the echoes of muezzins and the occasional slamming of a rocket in neighbouring towns.

Security men bristling with weapons are few, a rare sight in a country synonymous with snipers, checkpoints and suicide bombings.

A common refrain among local residents, though, is that "security is good but economy is bad".

The moribund economy offers few employment options other than potato farming.

A large replica of a candle lantern adorns the city square -- a mocking symbol erected by activists to highlight that Bamiyan has no power grid, with students forced to study under solar-lit street lamps.

Shops selling trinkets and rugs emblazoned with images of buzkashi -- a rugged equestrian game -- admit living a slow death until tourism blossoms.

"Tourists are unlikely to come to Bamiyan," said antiques shopkeeper Ghulam Ali, "until the war outside Bamiyan ends."

AFP

 

[Jaanbaz]

And then everyone is back on table to talk to these animals.

 

[Hindustani78]

An Afghan couple poses in front of the empty site of two Buddha statues, which were destroyed by the Taliban, in Bamiyan.(AFP Photo)

An Afghan man walks at the Shahr-e-Gholghola on a hilltop over looking Bamiyan. (AFP Photo)