Unesco Takes on the Taliban: The Fight to Save the Buddhas of Bamiyan

Eleanor Boggs

doi:10.21061/vtuhr.v5i1.39

Abstract

In early March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan under direction from Mullah Muhammed Omar. The Buddha statues, constructed fourteen centuries ago, were the largest Buddhist statues in the world. In September of 2000—less than a year before the destruction—Mullah Omar ordered the same statues protected due to their importance as significant artifacts of Afghan cultural heritage and also because they were a source of income for the country's tourism industry. However, on February 26, 2001 Mullah Omar reversed his declaration of preservation and sentenced the religious statues to destruction "so that no one can worship or respect them in the future." The Taliban's team, along with Pakistani and Arab engineers, drilled holes into the two statues and detonated explosives including dynamite and anti-aircraft weapons.

Highlights

For fifteen centuries they had stood here— towering above the valley, with their battered faces, broken-off arms and all, undisturbed in their cusped sandstone niches hewn out of the sheer cliffs of the Hindu Kush, spangled with a honeycomb of monasteries and chanting stupas—as a stairway to heaven
UNESCO’s efforts to in the United Nations, which communicate with the Taliban meets every two years to decide and amass global support to on policies, focused lines of work preserve the Buddha statues for the organization, and the demonstrated the role of budget
Even though in the cliff; the other statue of UNESCO did not prevent the the Buddha at thirty-eight meters demolition of the Buddha statues was shorter on the eastern side.20 at Bamiyan, the event acts as a Stupas were built throughout case study of how UNESCO

Summary

The Fight to Save the Buddhas at Bamiyan

Eleanor Boggs “Their golden color sparkles on every side,” said a traveler of the two vast standing Buddhas. UNESCO worked to prevent the destruction by bringing global and the Silk Road economy attention to the Buddhas and that transformed Bamiyan into communicating with the Taliban. UNESCO’s efforts to in the United Nations, which communicate with the Taliban meets every two years to decide and amass global support to on policies, focused lines of work preserve the Buddha statues for the organization, and the demonstrated the role of budget.. Even though in the cliff; the other statue of UNESCO did not prevent the the Buddha at thirty-eight meters demolition of the Buddha statues was shorter on the eastern side. at Bamiyan, the event acts as a Stupas were built throughout case study of how UNESCO other Buddhist centers in defines world heritage sites and the extent of its authority over. Its location straight nose and distinct brow, provided a pathway for Buddhism and their hair was wavy. There to travel along the Silk Road were Buddhist influences as well, and spread into the area that is Afghanistan. The cliffs of Bamiyan were Afghanistan’s most valuable archaeological seen through eyes with heavy lids, elongated ears, and a plump face. The giant Buddha statues represented a period of transition sites, exhibiting the largest for Buddhism and for Buddha statues in the world

Once Mullah Omar

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