Afghan Buddha Reconstruction Possible: Scientists

BERLIN — German scientists said Monday it may be possible to reconstruct one of two giant 1,500 year-old Buddha statues dynamited by the Taliban in central Afghanistan 10 years ago, which prompted a worldwide outcry and left behind only towering cliff caverns.

Researchers have studied several hundred fragments of the sandstone statues that once towered up to 180 feet (55 meters) high in Bamiyan province, and found that they were once brightly colored in red, white and blue, said Erwin Emmerling of Munich's Technical University.

The professor of restoration and conservation science, who visited the UNESCO world heritage site about 15 times since 2007, says research has shown that the smaller one of the pair – some 125 feet high (38 meters)_ could be reconstructed with the recovered parts even though there are "political and practical obstacles" to overcome.

"Conservation of the fragments would require the construction of a small factory in the Bamiyan Valley – alternatively some 1,400 rocks weighing up to two tons each would have to be transported to Germany," the university said in a statement Friday.

Emmerling is to present the findings at a UNESCO conference on the Buddha statues' future starting Wednesday in Paris. The Afghan government, whose representatives are also attending the expert meeting, will ultimately decide on the statues' fate.

The Taliban destroyed the towering Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley in March 2001, less than a year before international forces toppled their government.

The Bamiyan Valley, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) west of Kabul at an altitude of some 8,000 feet (2440 meters), once formed a branch of the Silk Road, which contributed to the diffusion of Buddhism from India to the region.

Emmerling's team says mass spectrometer tests have allowed them to better determine the statues' age. Organic material in the fragments' clay layers were found to date from between 544 and 595 for the smaller Buddha and between 591 and 644 for the big one.

The statues' fragile sandstone fragments left over from the explosions are currently covered on the site or stored in a warehouse in Bamiyan province awaiting the Afghan government's decision.

Comments

[gregory57]

05:16 PM on 03/21/2011

This site should be left as is and rededicated as a monument to the utter stupidity of religious intolerance.

[dayzee10]

11:18 AM on 03/04/2011

Great idea! Let's rebuild Afghanistan while america's infrastructure continues to crumble.

[Dracu Lin]

08:36 AM on 03/04/2011

You build, they will destroy again! Heritage means nothing to Muslims unless they are Islamic Sad!

[mamamab]

02:39 AM on 03/04/2011

The Buddha himself would just laugh at the whole thing.

[Johann Q]

06:12 PM on 03/03/2011

With the effort and money they gonna put into that reconstruction, they could build a lot of streets and schools. Considering Afghanistan won't become a tourist destination anytime soon, what is probably the more sensible thing to do?!?

[joedawg88]

04:41 PM on 03/03/2011

The Taliban should burn in the afterlife for all eternity because of this atrocity perpatrated against all civilization.

[EndangeredJackalope]

10:27 AM on 03/03/2011

so sad, a stupid waste. Theft of future generations

[Anahita1]

09:51 AM on 03/03/2011

I applaud the efforts to rebuild the destroyed Buddhas. North Indian history too is replete with accounts of Hindu and Buddhist temples being destroyed by Muslim invaders from Central Asia and Turkey. Islam when on the offensive has always sought to wipe clean the cultural & religious memories of conquered peoples. Temples, deities, buildings - these served to remind and reinforce identities that were not Islamic. So they were annihilated. But a far more insidious form of destruction going on in our time, in my view, are predatory conversions mainly by evangelical Christians in non-Christian cultures. They may not physically destroy the buildings and statues themselves but look to eliminate and annihilate by conversions the religions, cultures and philosophies that inspire these in the first place. Evangelical Christians are hyperactive in Thailand for example - a predominantly Buddhist country. Had there been no Buddhism there, we wouldn't have the beautiful Buddhist temples. Far more important it is for well-meaning Westerners to come to the rescue of the living cultures that are being destroyed by Christianity and unethical proselytizing than to simply rebuild destroyed statues.

[AJOHMSS]

01:40 AM on 03/03/2011

Let's not forget the desecration of Roman and Greek sculpture over the centuries by Christian zealots.

I'm not excusing the Taliban, just pointing out that they were not the only ones.

[sandalwood]

05:49 PM on 03/02/2011

Read this BBC article to see how much more than the giant Buddhas was destroyed by the Taliban, as per an official dictate.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12599726

The Taliban's disdain for pre-Islamic art became clear for all to see with the destruction of the giant Buddhist statutes at Bamiyan in 2001.

They ruled, the same year, that all pre-Islamic art in the country must be destroyed and set up a special group to carry out task.

Mr Massoudi estimates that they destroyed about 2,500 works of art.

"These barbaric acts, which filled the heart of every decent Afghan with anger, represented an irreplaceable loss," Mr Massoudi writes in the exhibition guidebook.

"Terrible damage was caused at every archaeological site in the country. Neither oncoming generations of Afghans nor human history will forget this era of tyranny and destruction."

[Erewhon7]

01:55 PM on 03/02/2011

What's the point? Islamic fanatics will just take it down again.

[EvilBananaPt]

07:10 PM on 03/02/2011

I'm sure that they don't plan to reconstruct them in the middle of the war...

[IndieBlue]

12:24 AM on 03/03/2011

So in a few hundred years then?

[Forester]

06:12 PM on 03/01/2011

As painful as it was to witness, the destruction is part of history and something that has been going on for thousands of years when different regimes gain power. The whole issue of Buddhist iconography was considered controversial just as soon as Siddhartha had finished his nap under the tree. The wheel and tree were for centuries the only acceptable symbols of the Gautama because he eschewed idol worship.

Maybe they could create a solar powered holographic projection from old photographs in the niche?

[Chris Fraas]

09:49 AM on 03/02/2011

Nap under a tree? If you mean when he became enlightened after sitting under a bunyan tree, please keep in mind that he wasn't napping.
I agree that this happening is part of history, but restoration is also part of history. I think it's wonderful that the Germans want to restore the statues, but I do think that a projection like you mentioned is a fitting testament to what the mindless, narrow-viewed Taliban did.

[Forester]

11:40 AM on 03/02/2011

Of course I was joking, the prince was starving to death, not napping.

I would argue that restoration of a religious icon destroyed in a political/military struggle like this, and then restored for by a third party government not affiliated with the icon (beyond it's interest in historical resources) is VERY unusual. Please show me other examples where this has happened. I don't think the French ever fixed their damage to the iconography in Egypt, and that was just vandalism. Your problem is you are fixating on the "evils" of the Taliban, and not viewing this event with a longer perspective. There always have been, and always will be these types of events, and you cannot pretend we are somehow separated from history.

[xMoonWalkerx]

05:35 PM on 03/01/2011

Islamists destroy historical symbols so as to make the people forget that their forefathers are not Islamic. Death sentence for apostasy is more tactic to keep the faithful in line

[Gurg]

02:26 PM on 03/02/2011

I don't know what "Islamists" means but I tend to agree with your general statement. The exact goal of the Taliban in destroying these statues was to destroy the rich culture and history of the Afghan people. It's alot easier to rule a people with history than ones with a rich culture and tradition.

[Gurg]

02:27 PM on 03/02/2011

I meant to say it's easier to rule a people with no history.

[Myoho Mod]

02:15 PM on 03/01/2011

These statues should NOT be rebuilt. any Buddhist who under stands the teachings of Buddhism know that everything passes and rebuilding them is clinging. Besides rebuilding them would just maintain the stereo type that we worship statues which is not Buddhism.

[EvilBananaPt]

05:13 PM on 03/01/2011

Common, reflecting about impermanence doesn't mean not to built new or old things. It's not clinging unless you make it so. Their reconstruction can be a reminder of both goodness and preserverance. After the intolerance of some of our kin has destroyed them, the good will of these same kin will rebuilt them.

I like the idea.

[Myoho Mod]

06:07 PM on 03/01/2011

You don't think the money would be better spent on the war orphans? It is totally a lesson in impermanence and beside it is a statue that doesn't encapsulate the Buhhda's life force and become a false object of devotion. Shakiamuni Buddha never wanted statues of him built.

[American Air]

04:17 AM on 03/02/2011

Thats why the Germans are rebuilding it.

[3echo9]

11:06 AM on 03/01/2011

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic Buddha. The Bamiyan Valley Buddha will be that Buddha. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster."