Buddhas of Bamiyan

Commissioning

Bamiyan lies on the Silk Road, which runs through the Hindu Kush mountain region in the Bamiyan Valley. The Silk Road has been historically a caravan route linking the markets of China with those of the Western world. It was the site of several Buddhist monasteries, and a thriving center for religion, philosophy, and art. Monks at the monasteries lived as hermits in small caves carved into the side of the Bamyan cliffs. Most of these monks embellished their caves with religious statuary and elaborate, brightly colored frescoes, sharing the culture of Gandhara.

The Great Buddhas of Bamiyan were built around 600 CE during the time of the Hephthalites, who ruled as principalities in the areas of Tokharistan and northern Afghanistan.^[4][19] However it must be noted that the Hephthalites did not always follow the Buddhist faith. For instance, during the time of Song Yun, who visited the chief of the Hephthalite nomads at his summer residence in Badakhshan and later in Gandhara, observed that they had no belief in the Buddhist law and served a large number of divinities."^[20] Regardless, Bamiyan had been a Buddhist religious site since the 2nd century CE under the Kushans, and remained so up to the time of the Muslim conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Mahdi in 770 CE. It became again Buddhist from 870 CE until the final Islamic conquest of 977 CE under the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty.^[1] Murals in the adjoining caves have been carbon dated from 438 to 980 CE, suggesting that Buddhist artistic activity continued down to the final occupation by the Muslims.^[1]

The two most prominent statues were the giant standing sculptures of the Buddhas Vairocana and Sakyamuni (Gautama Buddha), identified by the different mudras performed. The Buddha popularly called "Solsol" measured 55 meters tall, and "Shahmama" 38 meters. The niches in which the figures stood are 58 and 38 meters respectively from bottom to top.^[21][22] Before being blown up in 2001, they were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world (the 8th century Leshan Giant Buddha is taller,^[23] but is sitting).

Following the destruction of the statues in 2001, carbon dating of organic internal structural components found in the rubble has determined that the two Buddhas were built c. 600 CE, with narrow dates of between 544 and 595 CE for the 38-meter Eastern Buddha, and between 591 and 644 CE for the larger Western Buddha.^[1] Recent scholarship has also been giving broadly similar dates based on stylistic and historical analysis, although the similarities with the Art of Gandhara had generally encouraged an earlier dating in older literature.^[1]

Historic documentation refers to celebrations held every year attracting numerous pilgrims, with offers being made to the monumental statues.^[24] They were perhaps the most famous cultural landmarks of the region, and the site was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the surrounding cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamyan Valley. Their colour faded through time.^[25]

Pre-modern era

Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang visited the site on 30 April 630,^[26][27][28] and described Bamyan in the Da Tang Xiyu Ji as a flourishing Buddhist center "with more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks". He also noted that both Buddha figures were "decorated with gold and fine jewels" (Wriggins, 1995). Intriguingly, Xuanzang mentions a third, even larger, reclining statue of the Buddha.^[12][28] A monumental seated Buddha, similar in style to those at Bamyan, still exists in the Bingling Temple caves in China's Gansu province.

• 
  Engraving of the Buddhas, 19th century
• 
  Local men standing near the larger "Salsal" Buddha statue, c. 1940
• 
  Photographed by Françoise Foliot
• 
  Smaller, 38 meter Buddha in 1977
• 
  Possible reconstitution of the original appearance of the Western Buddha (Vairocana)
• 
  Bamiyan themed postage stamp (1951) issued by Postes Afghanes (Afghan Post)

Eastern Buddha (built c. 544–595 CE)

Ceiling of the smaller 38 meter Buddha
(7th century CE)

Central medallion: Sun God on his chariot

Lateral rows of attending Kings and dignitaries

Sun God in tunic and boots, on a charriot pulled by two horses. Vault of the 38 meter Buddha (now destroyed).^[30][31] This image of the Sun God is framed by two rows of King, dignitaries and Buddhas.^[32]

Most of the surfaces in the niche housing the Buddha must have been decorated with colourful murals, surrounding the Buddha with many paintings, but only fragments were remaining in modern times. For the 38 meter Eastern Buddha, built between 544 and 595 CE, the main remaining murals were the ones on the ceiling, right above the head of the Buddha. Recent dating based on stylistic and historical analysis confirms dates for these mural which follow the carbon-rated dates for the construction of the Buddhas themselves: the murals of the Eastern Buddha have been dated to the 6th to 8th century CE by Klimburg-Salter (1989), and post 635/645 CE by Tanabe (2004).^[1] As late as 2002, Marylin Martin Rhie argued a 3rd–4th century date for the Eastern Buddha, based on artistic criteria.^[33]

Western Buddha (built c. 591–644 CE)

A few murals also remained around the taller 55 meter Western Buddha on the ceiling and on the sides. Many are more conventionally Buddhist in character. Some of the later mural paintings show male devotees in double-lapel caftans.^[39]

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  Paintings of celestial beings in the niche of the 55 meter large Buddha.
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  Western Buddha, Niche, ceiling, east section E1 and E2.^[40]
• 
  Bodhisattva, ceiling of the niche of the Great Western Buddha, early 7th century, Bamiyan
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  Devotee in double-lapel caftan, left wall of the niche of the Western Buddha.^[40][41] He has also been described as a Hephthalite.^[42]

Adjoining caves

Later mural paintings of Bamiyan, dated to the 7th–8th centuries CE, display a variety of male devotees in double-lapel caftans.^[39] The works of art show a sophistication and cosmopolitanism comparable to other works of art of the Silk Road, such as those of Kizil, are attributable to the sponsorship of the Western Turks (Yabghus of Tokharistan).^[39] The nearby Kakrak caves also have some works of art.

• 
  Bodhisattva Maitreya, ceiling of the cave E, late 7th early 8th century, Bamiyan
• 
  Buddha wearing a crown and a chamail cape. Painting in niche "I" at Bamiyan, 7th century CE
• 
  Devotee in double-lapel caftan, next to the Buddha. Cave G, Bamyan (detail)
• 
  Reconstructed mural of Cave G, Bamyan

After the destruction of the Buddhas, 50 more caves were revealed. In 12 of the caves, wall paintings were discovered.^[43] In December 2004, an international team of researchers stated that the wall paintings at Bamyan were painted between the 5th and the 9th centuries, rather than the 6th to 8th centuries, citing their analysis of radioactive isotopes contained in straw fibers found beneath the paintings. It is believed that the paintings were done by artists travelling on the Silk Road.^[44]

Scientists from the Tokyo Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan, the Centre of Research and Restoration of the French Museums in France, the Getty Conservation Institute in the United States, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, analysed samples from the paintings,^[45] typically less than 1 mm across.^[46] They discovered that the paint contained pigments such as vermilion (red mercury sulfide) and lead white (lead carbonate). These were mixed with a range of binders, including natural resins, gums (possibly animal skin glue or egg),^[46] and oils, probably derived from walnuts or poppies.^[44] Specifically, researchers identified drying oils from murals showing Buddhas in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures as being painted in the middle of the 7th century.^[43] It is believed that they are the oldest known surviving examples of oil painting, possibly predating oil painting in Europe by as much as six centuries.^[44] The discovery may lead to a reassessment of works in ancient ruins in Iran, China, Pakistan, Turkey, and India.^[44]

Initial suspicion that the oils might be attributable to contamination from fingers, as the touching of the painting is encouraged in Buddhist tradition,^[46] was dispelled by spectroscopy and chromatography giving an unambiguous signal for the intentional use of drying oils rather than contaminants.^[46] Oils were discovered underneath layers of paint, unlike surface contaminants.^[46]

Scientists also found the translation of the beginning section of the original Sanskrit Pratītyasamutpāda Sutra translated by Xuanzang that spelled out the basic belief of Buddhism and said all things are transient.^[47]

Taliban incursions (1998–2001)

During the Afghan Civil War, the area around the Buddhas was initially under the control of the Hezbe Wahdat—part of the Northern Alliance—who were against the Taliban. However, Mazar-i-Sharif fell in August 1998, and the Bamyan valley was entirely surrounded by Taliban.^[48] The town was captured on 13 September 1998 after a successful blockade.^[49][50]

Abdul Wahed, a local Taliban commander who had long before announced his intentions to obliterate the Buddhas, drilled holes in the Buddhas' heads into which he planned to load explosives.^[51] He was prevented from proceeding by Mohammed Omar, the de facto leader of the Taliban:^[51] According to United Nations representative Michael Semple:

Mullah Omar appointed Maulawi Muhammad Islam of Ru-ye Doab as Bamian governor. As a Tatar from neighbouring Samangan Province, the Maulawi had connections with all the commanders of Bamian from the jihad era. Whatever his other sins, Bamian was also a part of Maulawi Islam's heritage. His deputies described to me how, when they saw what Abdul Wahed was doing, they contacted Mullah Omar in Kandahar and he gave the order to stop further drilling.^[51]

Other people blew off the head of the smaller Buddha using dynamite, aimed rockets at the larger Buddha's groin, and burnt tires at the latter's head.^[51] In July 1999, Omar decreed in favour of preserving the statues, and described plans to establish a tourism circuit.^[52] In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for the UN's assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around the tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set.^[51]

Destruction by the Islamic Emirate

Decision to destroy

On 1 March 2001, the Taliban announced that all statues depicting humans in Afghanistan would be destroyed. Work to destroy the Buddhas began the next day, on 2 March, and continued for several weeks.^[53][8] Various theories have sought to explain what prompted Taliban leader Mullah Omar to order the destruction of the statues, further complicated by seemingly shifting narratives of the events as relayed by Omar and senior Taliban officials.

On 6 March 2001, British newspaper The Times quoted Omar as stating "Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them."^[54]

During a 13 March interview for Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the destruction was anything but a retaliation against the international community for economic sanctions: "We are destroying the statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious issue." A statement issued by the ministry of religious affairs of the Taliban regime justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law.^[55]

Later, on 18 March 2001, then Taliban ambassador-at-large Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi said that the destruction of the statues was carried out by the Head Council of Scholars after a Swedish monuments expert proposed to restore the statues' heads. Rahmatullah Hashemi is reported as saying: "When the Afghan head council asked them to provide the money to feed the children instead of fixing the statues, they refused and said, 'No, the money is just for the statues, not for the children'. Herein, they made the decision to destroy the statues"; however, he did not comment on the claim that a foreign museum offered to "buy the Buddhist statues, the money from which could have been used to feed children".^[56] Rahmatullah Hashemi added: "If we had wanted to destroy those statues, we could have done it three years ago," referring to the start of U.S. sanctions. "In our religion, if anything is harmless, we just leave it. If money is going to statues while children are dying of malnutrition next door, then that makes it harmful, and we destroy it."^[57] Hashemi denied any religious grounds in the justification of the statues' destruction.^[56]

In 2004, following the American invasion of Afghanistan and his exile, Omar explained in an interview:

I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings—the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha's destruction.^[58]

There is additional speculation that the destruction may have been influenced by al-Qaeda in order to further isolate the Taliban from the international community, thus tightening relations between the two; however, the evidence is circumstantial.^[59] Abdul Salam Zaeef held that the destruction of the Buddhas was finally ordered by Abdul Wali, the Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.^[60]

Current status (2002–present)

Though the figures of the two large Buddhas have been destroyed, their outlines and some features are still recognisable within the recesses. It is also still possible for visitors to explore the monks' caves and passages that connect them. As part of the international effort to rebuild Afghanistan after the Taliban war, the Japanese government and several other organisations—among them the Afghanistan Institute in Bubendorf, Switzerland, along with the ETH Zurich—have committed to rebuilding, perhaps by anastylosis, the two larger Buddhas. The local residents of Bamyan have also expressed their favour in restoring the structures.^[79]

In April 2002, Afghanistan's post-Taliban leader Hamid Karzai called the destruction a "national tragedy" and pledged the Buddhas to be rebuilt.^[80] He later called the reconstruction a "cultural imperative".^[78]

In September 2005, Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, Taliban governor of Bamyan province at the time of the destruction and widely seen as responsible for its occurrence, was elected to the Afghan Parliament. He blamed the decision to destroy the Buddhas on Al-Qaeda's influence on the Taliban.^[81] In January 2007, he was assassinated in Kabul.

Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei made a 95-minute documentary titled The Giant Buddhas on the statues, the international reactions to their destruction, and an overview of the controversy, released in March 2006. Testimony by local Afghans validates that Osama bin Laden ordered the destruction and that, initially, Mullah Omar and the Afghans in Bamyan opposed it.^[82]

Since 2002, international funding has supported recovery and stabilisation efforts at the site. Fragments of the statues are documented and stored with special attention given to securing the structure of the statue still in place. It is hoped that, in the future, partial anastylosis can be conducted with the remaining fragments. In 2009, ICOMOS constructed scaffolding within the niche to further conservation and stabilization. Nonetheless, several serious conservation and safety issues exist and the Buddhas are still listed as World Heritage in Danger.^[83]

In the summer of 2006, Afghan officials were deciding on the timetable for the re-construction of the statues. As they waited for the Afghan government and international community to decide when to rebuild them, a $1.3 million UNESCO-funded project was sorting out the chunks of clay and plaster—ranging from boulders weighing several tons to fragments the size of tennis balls—and sheltering them from the elements.

The Buddhist remnants at Bamyan were included on the 2008 World Monuments Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund.

In 2013, the foot section of the smaller Buddha was rebuilt with iron rods, bricks and concrete by the German branch of ICOMOS.^[84] Further constructions were halted by order of UNESCO, on the grounds that the work was conducted without the organisation's knowledge or approval. The effort was contrary to UNESCO's policy of using original material for reconstructions, and it has been pointed out that it was done based on assumptions.^[85][86]

In 2015, a wealthy Chinese couple, Janson Hu and Liyan Yu, 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 its prime. The image was beamed into the niche one night in 2015; later the couple donated their $120,000 projector to the culture ministry.^[87][88]

Shortly after the 2021 Taliban offensive that saw the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the return of Taliban to the government, tourists were again granted permission to visit the site. While the Taliban promised to preserve the Bamyan valley, preservation work was ceased indefinitely.^[89] UNESCO's Afghan operations were stymied, largely due to foreign investors' fears that continued support of cultural preservation projects in the country would run afoul of international sanctions. In February 2023, UNESCO's restoration work resumed when the Italian government approved new funding.^[90]

Rise of the Buddhas with 3D light projection

After fourteen years, on 7 June 2015, a Chinese adventurist couple Zhang Xinyu and Liang Hong filled the empty cavities where the Buddhas once stood with 3D laser light projection technology. The projector used for the installation, worth approximately $120,000, was donated by Zhang and Liang, who were saddened by the destruction of the statues. With the desire of paying tribute, they requested permission from UNESCO and the Afghan government to do the project. About 150 local people came out to see the unveiling of the holographic statues.^[95][96]

Replicas

The destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan inspired attempts to construct replicas of the Bamyan Buddhas.^[97] These include the following.

• In 2001 in China, carving of a 37 metres (121 ft) high Buddha was initiated in Sichuan, which is the same height as the smaller of the two Bamiyan Buddhas. It was funded by a Chinese businessman, Liang Simian.^[98] The project appears to have been given up for unknown reasons.^[99]
• In Sri Lanka, a full-scale replica has been created, which is now known as the Tsunami Honganji Viharaya at Pareliya. It is dedicated to the victims of the 2005 tsunami in the presence of Mahinda Rajapaksha. It was funded by Japan's Hongan-ji Temple of Kyoto and was inaugurated in 2006.^[100]
• In Poland, the Arkady Fiedler Museum of Tolerance has a replica of a Bamiyan Buddha.^[101]
• An 80 feet (24 m) stone Buddha was inaugurated at Sarnath in India in 2011. It stands within the Thai Buddhist Vihara.^[102][103]