50-meter high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan
Posted on 05/19/2002 9:30:06 PM PDT by tallhappy
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50-meter high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan
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The Museum of World Religions, established in Taiwan, announced the first step towards the rebuilding of the giant Buddha statues destroyed last year by the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. The announcement comes just over a year after the giant Buddha sculptures in Bamiyan were reduced to rubble on the orders of the Taleban regime. Buddhist communities in Asia raised the money, and are donating around $130,000, through the Museum of World Religions, to Afghanistan.
The Dharma Master Hsin Tao, the organization's founder and leader, handed over a check to the Afghan ambassador to UNESCO in a ceremony on Thursday.
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Taleban blow up statues, March 2001
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He calls the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas last year an assault on the human spirit. The Buddhist cleric says the initiative for the rebuilding the sculptures, or erecting replicas, was made in the hope that religions will work together to foster understanding among all religions. Religious leaders around the world, including Islamic leaders, have voiced strong support for the initiative.
Bawa Jain is the secretary-general of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.
"I got overwhelming support from the Islamic leaders of the world," he said. "When I spoke to them, they all condemned this senseless act, and said this was not in the name of religion. As an international community of people of faith, we had to come together to do something."
What that something will be is not certain. Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai said earlier this year the country hoped to rebuild the statues. Experts estimate that would cost around $25 million. But whether actual full-scale replicas of the statues are to be built is still up for discussion.
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Area where the buddhas once stood
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Joining the conference from Kabul, Mohammad Zahir Aziz, the Afghan ambassador to UNESCO, said a decision will be made on the feasibility of reconstruction during a conference later this month. He said rebuilding the giant Buddha statues may prove to be an impossible task. Whatever the decision, he said, the site will be honored with a memorial and an institution devoted to the study of the statues and the surrounding areas.
This is not wise.
There is an Almighty God your emperor used to worship once a year at the idolless Temple of Heaven in Beijing and before that at the border of the country--once a year in a very Jewish sort of ceremony sacrificing a bull or lamb and taking on himself the sins of all China and pleading personally for forgivness and blessing for all of China from the God above all Gods.
This God is not amused by powerless man-made forms reared for worship. He is gearing up to crash all of them. I suggest you avoid incurring greater wrath by seeking to rebuild these in Afghanistan. Your island is already scheduled for some very, very devastating quakes to hit Taipei. . . and those a lot sooner than most anyone thinks.
Taipei is built largely on silt. Not a good situation. Authorities are concerned but can essentially do nothing. There aren't close to enough dog teams available.
Those giving money to this rebuilding cause are likely to see their fortunes, companies etc. crash harder than the original statues did.
I was waiting for a post like this. So according to you, the Taliban were an instrument of the Christian god, doing his work? That's pretty warped.
A Taliban sympathesizer I'm the furthest from.
I believe they are or were humans made in the image of God--most of whom seem to have worked hard erasing or mangling all evidence of such.
Check back with me in 5-35 years and we'll see how many such statues are still standing.
The "Christian god?"
Try Almighty God.
You might be a bit surprised by ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS which documents many cases where even shammen in tribal cultures were used of God to prepare the way for His Gospel of Salvation through The Precious shed sacrificial Blood of Jesus The Christ. Many of them have no other explanation other than that a supernatural God was at work in "mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."
I prefer to think in terms of the idols, that God will shatter them Himself. But, it's conceivable that He will use the AntiChrist to do so and then God will "merely" shatter all the images of the AntiChrist. Should be interesting when one is not in survival mode.
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