What Will Happen to Ancient Art in the Taliban's Swat?

Archaeology ^ | Friday, February 20, 2009 | Beyond Stone & Bone Archive

[SunkenCiv]

For centuries, the Swat River valley was a Buddhist haven. According to tradition, Buddha himself journeyed to Swat during his last reincarnation, and preached to the local villagers. And by the 6th-century A.D, Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as China flocked to the Swat valley, a beautiful lush land of orchards and rushing mountain streams. One early Chinese account describes as many as 1400 Buddhist monasteries perched along the valley walls in the 7th century.

Devout Buddhist artists left an incredibly rich legacy in Swat. Since the valley lay along a major route of the Silk Road -- which stretched from China to the Mediterranean -- they were greatly influenced by ideas from elsewhere, and gracefully blended foreign styles in their art. They chiseled beautiful, haunting statues of Buddha into the cliffsides, and left many stupas and other Buddhist relics scattered across the countryside.

The region's new Taliban rulers regard this legacy, and particularly the images of Buddha, as an affront to Islam, and they have already taken action against them. In 2008, they set off dynamite charges to erase the face of a 23-foot-high Buddha carved into a cliff near Jehanabad in the Swat River valley, an act of terrible vandalism that recalled the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Afghanistan's Taliban. In a separate attack, they badly damaged parts of the Swat Museum -- which which holds an important collection of Buddhist art -- and issued threats to the staff of the museum.

[TigersEye]

I like that “T-Shirt Buddhists”.

Thank you very much. I just coined that. I'm afraid I wasn't being original with the "cafeteria spirituality" comment. I stole that directly from the infamous phrase "Cafeteria Catholics." Some people like to pick and choose within one tradition. Some want a slice of this and a spoonful of that from a variety of traditions. It's a great concept for a restaurant. lol

“Pacifists are among the most immoral of men - they make no distinction between aggression and defense. Therefore, pacifism is one of the greatest allies an aggressor can have.” - Patrick Henry.

That's it! That hits the nail on the head. My favorite Founder's quotes come from Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine. They had a way of bottom-lining things.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. Speaking of Dennis Miller; he did the best take on water boarding on BoR one night that I have ever heard. Something like; 'Why the controversy? To me water boarding is a golden gift. It does no physical harm and gets hardened terrorists to sell out their mothers in a few minutes.' That is exactly how I have thought about it since I first heard of it. I couldn't find a Youtube of it but maybe there is now. It was funny but absolutely true.

[incredulous joe]

Dennis has done his bit on waterboarding on his program; he did a couple segments in the same day with discussion from callers. It was great!

I don’t call in radio shows, but I gave it a try that day ~ didn’t make it through.

I had a question, which I have even floated her at FR, with no significant results; whatever happened to sodium pentathol (truth serum)? I had been told some time ago that this does work. It’s reliable and there is nothing that individuals can do to impede giving out information.

My guess is that if this method were to be implemented that the left would have a fit because it would entail making terrorists give away information that was potentially damaging to their cause.

Yeah, Patrick Henry was alright. One of my favorites. Sort of on the edge. I had the opportunity to visit the old House of Burgess’s chambers in Williamsburg, VA and it’s pretty cool to be in that space, thinking about how the crown dissolved the colonial government.

Makes one wonder how long the taxpayers (suckers) in America will continue to take it. Hopefully, the new American Revolution will take place peacefully in November of 2010.