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Download high resolution version (526x707, 131 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. This applies worldwide. http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/afghanistan.shtml File history Legend: (cur) = this is the...

One of the Buddhas of Bamiyan before destruction, Afghanistan

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two monumental statues of standing For other uses, see Buddha (disambiguation). A stone image of the Buddha. Buddha (Sanskrit, Pali, others: literally Awakened One, Enlightened One, from the Sanskrit: √budh, to awaken) can refer to the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, or to anyone who has attained the same depth and quality of enlightenment. Buddhism... Buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamiyan province is one of the thirty_four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the centre of the country. Its capital city is also called Bamiyan. Bamiyan city is the largest city in the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan, and is the cultural capital of the Hazara ethnic group that predominates in... Bamiyan valley of central Afghanistan (Pashtu/Dari-Persian: Afğānistān افغانستان) is a country in Central Asia. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the... Afghanistan, situated 230 km northwest of Kabul (Kâbl, in Persian کابل) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population variously estimated at 2 to 4 million. It is an economic and cultural center strategically situated in a narrow valley along the Kabul River, high in the mountains before... Kabul at an altitude of 2500 meters. Most likely built in the (4th century - 5th century - 6th century - other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events Rome sacked by Visigoths in 410. Attila the Hun conquers large parts of Europe, threatens to attack Rome in 452 Vandals conquer Carthage in 439, sack Rome... fifth or (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the... sixth centuries, the statues represented a classic blending of Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE. Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century... Greek and Buddhist art.

The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modelled in mud mixed with straw, coated with Stucco is a fine plaster or cement used as a coating for walls or for decoration. It may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials such as concrete blocks, steel, or adobe. Modern stucco is made of sand, water and Portland cement. Some craftsmen add lime, others consider... stucco. This coating, practically all of which was worn away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks, or casts. The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs which served to stabilize the outer stucco.

History

Lying on the The Silk Road (Traditional Chinese: 絲綢之路; Simplified Chinese: 丝绸之路; pinyin: sī chóu zhī lù) was an interconnected series of routes through Southern Asia traversed by caravan and ocean vessel, and connecting Changan, China with Antioch, Syria, as well as other... Silk Road linking This article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see ... China (disambiguation). ... ... The The Great Wall of China (TC: 長城; SC: 长城, Pinyin: Chángchéng), also known in China as the Great Wall of 10,000 Li¹ (SC: 万里长城, Pinyin: W... China and The Republic of india is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of over one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. India has grown significantly, both in population and in strategic importance in the last two decades. The Indian economy is the... India to the west, Bamiyan developed as a center of religion and philosophy and was the site of several Buddhist monasteries. The area is important for being where eastern and western cultures blended together to create new forms of Buddhism Terms and concepts History People Schools and sects Texts Temples Culture Buddhism by country Timeline List of topics Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Græco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central... Greco-Buddhist art. It was one of the major Buddhist centres from the second century up to the time that Islam entered the valley in the ninth century. Monks at the monasteries would reside as A hermit, also known as an anchorite or anchoress, is a person living in voluntary seclusion, often for religious reasons. Hermits in the past have most often lived in caves, forests, or deserts, but some of them preferred an isolated cell in a monastery. Male hermits are more common than... hermits in small caves carved into the side of cliffs along the Bamiyan valley. Many of these monks carved statuary in the caves. There were many statues of sitting and standing Buddhas of different sizes along the face of the cliff, and many of the caves were decorated by the monks with elaborate and brightly-colored A XIV Century fresco featuring Saint Sebastian Note: Fresco is the NATO reporting name of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17. In painting, the term fresco (pl. frescoes) comes from the Italian phrase buon fresco, (really fresh) a technical term in opposition to in secco (on dry surface). True, or buon... frescoes. The two most prominent statues were the giant, standing Buddhas, measuring 55 and 37 meters high respectively, the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world. They were cultural landmarks for many years, the site being listed among UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. The Organization’s main objective is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to... UNESCO's Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated for the international World Heritage... World Heritage Sites.

Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsüan-tsang ( Xuanzang, Dunhuang cave, 9th century. Xuanzang (Chinese: 玄奘; pinyin: xuán zàng;, Wade-Giles: Hsüan-tsang, Cantonese IPA: jyn4dzɔŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping:jyun4zong1) (602 - 644/664) was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk. Xuanzang was born near Luoyang, Henan in 602 as Chen Yi (陳褘... Xuanzang) passed through the area around Years: 626 627 628 629 - 630 - 631 632 633 634 Decades: 600s 610s 620s - 630s - 640s 650s 660s Centuries: 6th century - 7th century - 8th century Events Muhammad captures Mecca (January). Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recaptures Jerusalem from the Persians Chinese Buddhist monk Xuan Zang reaches India Births Deaths Categories: 630 ... 630 AD and described Bamiyan as a flourishing Buddhist centre "with more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks", and he noted that both Buddha figures were "decorated with gold and fine jewels" (Wriggins, 1996).

Legends and Symbolism of Names and Numbers

• The numbers 3, 5 and 8 (endless) are very important in Buddhism ( Buddhism Terms and concepts History People Schools and sects Texts Temples Culture Buddhism by country Timeline List of topics The Four Noble Truths (Pali, cattari ariya saccani) are taught in Buddhism as the fundamental insight or enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), which led to the formulation of the... Four Noble Truths and Buddhism Terms and concepts History People Schools and sects Texts Temples Culture Buddhism by country Timeline List of topics The Noble Eightfold Path, according to Buddhism and as taught by Gautama Buddha, is the way to the cessation of suffering, the fourth part of the Four Noble Truths. It is... Noble Eightfold Path)

• Buddha's inspiration was at the age of 35 years
• The distance between the two standing giant statues amounts to 800 units
• 1. The 53 units (1) long statue, the largest statue in Bamiyan is callad Solsol (Father of King) or "Khonok But" (white statue) is a symbol for man.
• 2. The 35 units high Statue as "reflection" is callad Shahmama ("King's mother") or "Sorch But" (red statue) is a symbol of woman
• 3. The 8 units high Statue in the Middle of boths is a symbol of child (2)
• 4. The 323 units Sleeping Buddha http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2239423.stm) is as symbol of grandparents

The sum of the digits of all four statues is 8 and equivalent. The family is played a important part in this region too, including to current Afghanistan.

• (1) At that time exist not decimal system
• (2) Onsuri, a Poet of The Ghaznavid Empire was a state in the region of todays Afghanistan that existed from 977 to 1186. It was created by Turks under Khan Sebük Tigin with the city Ghazna (Ghazni) as capital, replacing the Samanids. Sebük Tigin made himself lord of nearly all the present... Ghaznavid Empire, wrote in the 11th century a song love story under "Sorch but" and "Khonok but". The child of the both was in the roll of Rostam. Rostam is a figure of Shahnameh Shahnameh The Shahnama (Book of Kings) also written Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, is the national epic of Iran and one of the definite classics of world literature. The contents and the poets style in describing the events takes the readers back to the ancient times... Shahnama

Destruction & Rebuilding

When Mahmud of Ghazni (971-April 30, 1030), also know as Yamin ul-Dawlah Mahmud (in full: Yamin ul-Dawlah Abd ul-Qasim Mahmud Ibn Sebük Tigin) was the ruler of Ghazni from 997 until his death. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of... Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Afghanistan (Pashtu/Dari-Persian: Afğānistān افغانستان) is a country in Central Asia. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the... Afghanistan in the (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant... 12th century, the Buddhas and frescoes were miraculously spared from destruction. Still, over the years Muslim Literally, an iconoclast is a person who destroys icons, that is, sacred paintings or sculpture. An example of an iconoclast in this meaning of the word would be Byzantine emperor Leo III, who ordered the destruction of all icons of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints in his empire... iconoclasts hacked away at some of the statues' details, mostly the facial features and hands. Finally in 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of the Volunteer The United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations Years: 1998 1999 2000 - 2001 - 2002 2003 2004 Decades: 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s Centuries: 20th century - 21st century - 22nd... 2001, after surviving intact for over 1,500 years, the Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. It holds Islam is not only a religion, but a political system that also governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. The goal of Islamism is to re-shape the state by implementing... Islamist The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. Flag flown by the Taliban. It is white, with the shahadah written in black. The Taliban (Pashtun and Persian: طالبان; students of Islam), also transliterated as Taleban, is an... Taliban government, claiming to be offended that UNESCO and foreign NGOs were putting resources into renovating these statues when there were, they felt, so many more pressing problems in Afghanistan, decreed that the statues were Idolatry is a term used by many religions to describe the worship of a false deity, which is an affront to their understanding of divinity. Many religions consider the beliefs or practices of other religions to be idolatrous. The concept of giving worship to icons or images is called iconolatry... idolatrous and destroyed them with dynamite and tank barrages. [1] (http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8468) In 2001 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Events: Saturday, March 24 - Apple Computer releases Mac OS X version 10.0. Categories: 2001 by month ... March 2001 the two largest Buddhas were demolished after almost a month of intensive bombardment.

During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, "this work of destruction is not as easy as people might think. You can't knock down the statues by shelling as both are carved into a cliff; they are firmly attached to the mountain."

Even though the figures of the two large Buddhas are almost completely destroyed, their outlines and some features are still recognizable within the recesses. It is also still possible for visitors to explore the monks' caves and the passages which connect them. As part of the international effort to rebuild Afghanistan after the Taliban war, the For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation). 日本国 (Nippon/Nihon-koku) Dual status seal. See National and Imperial Seal for more of this issue. (Flag of Japan) Official language Japanese Capital Tokyo Largest City Tokyo Emperor Akihito Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 60th 377... Japanese Government has committed itself to rebuilding the two largest Buddhas.

Recent Developments

In 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for May, 2002. See also: Afghanistan timeline May 2002 Contents // 1 May 31, 2002 2 May 30, 2002 3 May 28, 2002 4 May 26, 2002 5 May 24... May 2002, a mountainside sculpture of the Buddha was carved out of a mountain in The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala / இலங்கை in Tamil) (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. The island was known in ancient times... Sri Lanka. It was designed to closely resemble one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

In 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → < December 2004 > S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21... December 2004, For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation). 日本国 (Nippon/Nihon-koku) Dual status seal. See National and Imperial Seal for more of this issue. (Flag of Japan) Official language Japanese Capital Tokyo Largest City Tokyo Emperor Akihito Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 60th 377... Japanese researchers discovered that the wall paintings at Bamiyan were actually painted between the (4th century - 5th century - 6th century - other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events Rome sacked by Visigoths in 410. Attila the Hun conquers large parts of Europe, threatens to attack Rome in 452 Vandals conquer Carthage in 439, sack Rome... 5th and the (8th century - 9th century - 10th century - other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant people 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events Beowulf might have been written down in this century, though it could also have been in the 8th century Viking attacks on Europe begin Oseberg ship burial... 9th centuries, rather than the (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the... 6th to (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Contents // 1 Events 2 Significant persons 3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 4 Decades and years Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there... 8th centuries as previously believed. The discovery was made by analysing radioactive isotopes contained in straw fibers found beneath the paintings. Further discoveries are expected to be made after comparing the painting's dates and styles.

References

• Japanese researchers make breakthrough on destroyed Bamiyan paintings (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200412/11/20041211p2a00m0dm006001c.html). The Mainichi Shimbun (毎日新聞, lit. Daily News) is one of the largest newspapers in Japan. The Tokyo main office of the newspaper is located in Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, and the Osaka main office in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka. The newspaper was formed by the merger of... Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, 2004-12-11.
• Wriggins, Sally Hovey. Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996
• - Introduction and Pictures (http://www.teosofiskakompaniet.net/BamianTeosofiHPB2001.htm)