Posted on 12/04/2004 11:41:00 AM PST by blam
Find stirs Sleeping Buddha talk
By Maseeh Rahman
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — French archeologists searching for the colossal Sleeping Buddha in Bamiyan province have uncovered what could be the long-missing statue's foot, raising hopes of a major new discovery from Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist past. Ever since the fundamentalist Taliban destroyed Bamiyan's 1,500-year-old Standing Buddhas in 2001 because they were "un-Islamic," attention has been focused on the hunt for the much larger Sleeping Buddha, described in the travel diary of the seventh-century Chinese monk Xuan Zang and depicted in cave paintings at the historic site in the Hindu Kush mountains west of Kabul.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
GGG Ping.
05.12.04
by Catherine Masters
In the small town of Bamiyan in Afghanistan you can buy postcards for 50 cents which show Taleban tanks firing at ancient giant Buddhas carved into the cliff.
The regime decided the Buddhas, which had stood for 1800 years, were un-Islamic. They were false idols and had to be destroyed.
With the statues standing at 53 metres and 35 metres, this did not prove an easy task. In early 2001, the Taleban worked on them for weeks, proudly announcing they were using "everything at our disposal to destroy them".
They hacked at them with spades and pick-axes. They launched anti-tank rockets and fired anti-aircraft guns. They lobbed grenades and missiles and apparently even fired at them from aircraft. Eventually, they stuffed explosives in them and blew them sky high. Great piles of rubble lay where they fell.
But with a little help from the New Zealand Army, the ancient Buddhas may yet have the last laugh. A project is under way to save what can be saved and piece them back together, and New Zealand soldiers are in Bamiyan to help.
Lieutenant Colonel Greg Davies is deputy commander of a team which usually reconstructs buildings such as schools. Now, he and a few of his team have been working with German archaeologist Bert Praxenthaler, who specialises in restoring sculptures and stonework.
It was an unexpected call for help but one they could not turn down. Some of the pieces are so big and heavy, a crane was needed to shift them into a shelter before the winter set in - the Buddhas are made of sandstone which deteriorates quickly in the wet.
"The local guy who was operating the crane hurt his foot.
"So they got another guy up from Kabul who didn't know how to operate the crane and he managed to drop one of the big boulders on to the crane itself and damaged part of it."
Luckily, one of the New Zealand soldiers is a qualified crane operator and was happy to step in. Others helped with rigging up the rocks and strapping them securely.
Davies does not know much about the next phase of the reconstruction, but Praxenthaler - an authentic Raiders of the Lost Ark-type archaeologist ("he's got like a panama hat, little round glasses, and he's unshaven") - is due back next year.
Davies admits the job looked almost impossible. There was a lot of rubble and only some of it worth saving. "How they fill in the gaps I'm not sure, so it looks like an impossible task, but it appears they might have a plan.
"They're quite hopeful that, once they've pulled everything out, they may be able to find the feet at the bottom intact, which would be good."
The locals are in favour of the reconstruction. A few Taleban supporters are still around but many have converted and are now ex-Taleban.
Some within the Taleban were horrified at the destruction of the Buddhas and the spree of devastation carried out at museums around the country, where anything representing a human form was ruthlessly smashed. It is estimated half the ancient heritage of Afghanistan has been destroyed.
The pieces of the giant Buddhas are carefully guarded. Davies has not heard of a black market for the remnants, but many national treasures were understood to have been sold for high prices outside Afghanistan.
Davies says he experiences a sense of sadness and loss when gazing up at the empty niches indented into the cliff walls from where the Buddhas were cut.
"You wonder why someone would have wanted to damage them, given they were 1800 years old.
"It's never going to be the same, I guess. I know they're trying to reconstruct it, they're probably trying to go back to what it once was but I guess it's never going to be the real thing."
Ping.
How many times did you check your spelling?
"There's also the question of which Buddhas to rebuild," said Mr. Nagaoka: "As the statues were in the seventh century [when they were partly covered with brass], or as they were just before the Taliban destroyed them?"
A novel idea: The French, Japanese and New Zealand experts could consult with the local residents about which Buddhas to rebuild, then train the locals to do virtually all the work. $50 million would be added to the local economy.
The destruction of those magnificent statues is a shining expample of Islam, the religion of pieces.
.
Ha, ha. I was worried about the word Buddah. (Checked it at least 3 times - LOL)
They (the taliban) were/are horrid. I for one would have supported an invasion of Afghanistan long before Sept. 11th.
My one and only hope is we crush these people under our heels. They are a vicious death-cult, nothing better.
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From another article...
Ancient Traveler’s Accounts
Tarzi says he learned from his restoration work in the 1970s that the descriptions of the two standing Buddhas provided by Xuanzang’s 1,400-year-old journal were extremely accurate. So accurate, in fact, that he couldn’t help wondering all these years about Xuanzang’s descriptions of a giant reclining Buddha nearby.
“I am searching now for a Buddha that I think is about 300 meters long and was built in a sleeping or lying position — [originally within a very large temple complex]. We have been able to locate [what we think is] the right temple, and excavations are continuing. This is not a small compound. So we have not been able to finish our excavations even within a year or two. We need to be patient and do this the right way,” Tarzi says.
“The temple is about 1.5 kilometers east of the ancient royal city of Bamiyan. That temple was discovered by my archaeological team. We are now studying the travel journal of a Chinese tourist from the year 632 A.D. to see if descriptions of a third giant Bamiyan Buddha are accurate.
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