The tragic destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, 2001

The tragic destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, 2001

The Bamiyan Buddhas were two giant statues of Buddhas located in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan. The Buddhas were likely sculpted in the 6th or 7th century. The Bamiyan Valley is located along the Silk Road, an important trade route through Asia, which allowed Buddhists to settle there. Buddhists do not need to worship at a temple; they can worship freely and often create idols or shrines of their own. The small holes in the cliffs are little caves the Buddhists carved out to live in.

There were two Buddha statues. One was 175 feet, and the other was 125 feet. At the feet of the statues, there was space to walk around them in circles. This is called Circumambulation, and it involves Buddhists walking around an object of worship in circles, an essential ritual in their religion.

Both statues were adorned with gems and other precious metals at their inception. Different merchants passing the Buddhas would pray for prosperity and blessedness.

However, as the Taliban grew to power in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a campaign began to remove idols of religious figures around the country. In Islam, the worship of idols is looked down upon, and the Taliban were not pleased with Western currencies going into the Bamiyan area, as tourists from the Western world flocked to see these beautiful structures.

Tragically, the Taliban destroyed the two statues in 2001 with explosives. These actions were heavily criticised globally. There have been debates about whether it is right to rebuild the statues. Occasionally, projectors have lit up the sites with images of the statues. It is considered one of the most significant losses in the historical world to radical ideology.

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