Bamiyan Buddhas

Last week was Wesak day, a day to commerate the birth, enlightening and death of Lord Buddha. This year also happens to be the 8th year that the two Bamiyan Buddha statues were bombed and destroyed by Taleban in Afghanistan, due to fanaticism and intolerance. The monumental statues were carved out from a sandstone cliff in the beautifully stunning Bamiyan Valley and its still a shocker to see the huge voids that the statues once stood for more than 1500 years. Funny enough though, Bamiyan still has enough precious ruins to make it into the Unesco heritage list but now has losts its marvel without its most significant wonder. The valley is located along the silk route, drawings its heritage from the ancient west Asia and China.

The larger of the two statues was 55 meters high or approximately 12 stories high while the smaller one was 37 meters high or 8 stories. They have always been an awesome sight to behold before the destruction. The current Afghan government has proposed to restore the statues because they wanted to cash-in on the tourist revenues but it might just proved a little too late. Not everything that has been destroyed can be repaired, especially not historically steep heritage sites. Sri Lanka has offered to buy the rubbles of the statues to build a replica of it in their country so that the history will not be completely lost.
As for now, 2001 will be year the Bamiyan Buddha status ceased to exist after 1500 years of overlooking and protecting the people of Bamiyan Valley. The only chance for us to appreciate the statues will only be in photos and posters.
The photos below are extracted from http://www.npr.org/
Taleban on the offense against the defenceless statue (Top)After the destruction...(Top)
Location of Bamiyan in afghanistan (Top)
The rubbles from the statues (Top)

The Stunning View of The Bamiyan Valley with the void on far left and right (Top).