today’s birthday: Francis Younghusband (1863)

Francis Younghusband (1863)

Younghusband was a British Army officer and explorer remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia. In 1887, he journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass of the Karakorum range. In 1904, he led a military expedition that participated in the massacring of Tibetan troops and forced a treaty upon Tibet that opened it to Western trade. Apparently, he later regretted his role in these events. What changed his mind? More… Discuss

Behavior of Military Lawyer in Boondoggle HQ Inquiry Under Scrutiny – ProPublica

Behavior of Military Lawyer in Boondoggle HQ Inquiry Under Scrutiny

Several U.S. Senators and military lawyers say they are concerned by Col. Norm Allen’s attempts to thwart an investigation into why the U.S. Military built an unneeded luxury headquarters in Afghanistan.

by Megan McCloskey

ProPublica, May 28, 2015, 12:13 p.m.

Most Read:

• How Arizona Cotton Is Fueling the West’s Water Crisis – Killing the Colorado

• Cruise Control

• Explore the River – Killing the Colorado

• Juror and Former Officer Raise Doubt About Patz Prosecution

• How A California Gang Law Turns Spray Painting Into A Murder Charge And More in MuckReads Weekly – P

• Bailout Scorecard

• Myth vs. Fact: Violence and Mental Health

• Deadly Force, in Black and White

• The Red Cross’ Secret Disaster

• Inside a New York Drug Clinic, Allegations of Kickbacks and Shoddy Care

Col. Norman F. Allen, right, receives the Legion of Merit from Gen. David M. Rodriguez in 2013. (Jim Hinnant, U.S. Army Forces Command Public Affairs)

An investigation released last week into why the U.S. military built a $25-million headquarters in Afghanistan that it never used condemned the behavior of one officer in particular: the top commander‘s lawyer.

In a series of emails to other officers in 2013 and 2014, Army Col. Norm Allen said that he wanted to “slow roll” investigators, that he wouldn’t personally cooperate out of loyalty to the command, and that he would consider it inappropriate for others to do so. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)

via Behavior of Military Lawyer in Boondoggle HQ Inquiry Under Scrutiny – ProPublica.

today’s image: Civil War Soldier Col. Alfred N. Duffie, 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, U.S.A

Civil War Soldier
Col. Alfred N. Duffie, 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, U.S.A. is poses for a photo during the American Civil War. Note the flag in the tent behind him.

Photo: Library of Congress

– See more at: http://www.historynet.com/picture-of-the-day#sthash.JWmKPwMR.dpuf

today’s birthday: Frederick Russell Burnham (1861)

Frederick Russell Burnham (1861)

Burnham was an American adventurer whose outdoorsmanship helped inspire the founding of the international scout movement. He was born on an Indian reservation to a missionary family and became a horseback messenger for Western Union Telegraph Company at age 13 and soon after a scout and tracker. After two decades of ranging in the Southwest and Mexico, he moved to Africa to become the British army’s chief of scouts during the Boer War. His tracking skills earned him what nickname in Africa? More… Discuss

word: bombast

bombast

Definition:	(noun) Grandiloquent, pompous speech or writing.
Synonyms:	claptrap, fustian
Usage:	He found that he could look back upon the brass and bombast of his earlier gospels and see them truly. Discuss.

The Right to Human Civilization Evolution and preservation of its past : Buddhas of Bamiyan

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Historic footage of Bamiyan statues

HSFAFilmClips

Uploaded on Jan 25, 2007

A sequence on the Bamiyan statues from “Adventure in Afghanistan” from Hal, Halla and David Linker’s television travelogue series, “The Wild, the Weird, and the Wonderful”, circa 1973. The Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003; it is noted as being a World Heritage Site in Danger. The film clip is from the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution collection of historical moving images.
http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/i…

Buddhas of Bamiyan

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Coordinates: 34°49′55.35″N 67°49′36.49″E

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Cultural Landscape and Archeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
The taller of the two Buddhas of Bamiyan in 1976
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii, iv, vi.
Reference	208
UNESCO region	Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	2003 (27th Session)
Endangered	2003–present

History of Afghanistan
Timeline
Ancient[show]
Medieval[show]
Modern[show]
Book Category Portal

The Buddhas of Bamiyan (Persian: بت های باميان – but hay-e bamiyan) were two 6th-century^[1] monumental statues of standing buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, 230 km (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Built in 507 AD (smaller) and 554 AD (larger),^[1] the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art.^[2]

The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors.^[3]

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. Rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco.

They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar,^[4] after the Taliban government declared that they were idols.^[5] An envoy visiting the United States in the following weeks explained that they were destroyed to protest international aid exclusively reserved for statue maintenance while Afghanistan was experiencing famine,^[6] while the Afghan Foreign Minister claimed that the destruction was merely about carrying out Islamic religious iconoclasm. International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which in the following years was primarily viewed as an example of the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban. Japan and Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.^[7]

History

Further information: Buddhism in Afghanistan

 Drawing of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by Alexander Burnes 1832

 

Taller Buddha in 1963 and in 2008 after destruction

 

Smaller Buddha in 1977

Bamiyan lies on the Silk Road, which runs through the Hindu Kush mountain region, in the Bamiyan Valley. The Silk Road has been historically a caravan route linking the markets of China with those of the Western world. It was the site of several Buddhist monasteries, and a thriving center for religion, philosophy, and art. Monks at the monasteries lived as hermits in small caves carved into the side of the Bamiyan cliffs. Most of these monks embellished their caves with religious statuary and elaborate, brightly colored frescoes. It was a Buddhist religious site from the 2nd century up to the time of the Islamic invasion in the later half of the 7th century. Until it was completely conquered by the Muslim Saffarids in the 9th century, Bamiyan shared the culture of Gandhara.

The two most prominent statues were the giant standing Buddhas Vairocana and Sakyamuni, identified by the different mudras performed. The Buddha popularly called “Solsol” measures 53 meters tall, and “Shahmama” 35 meters – the niches in which the figures stand are 58 and 38 meters from bottom to top.^[8][9] Before being blown up in 2001 they were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world (the 8th century Leshan Giant Buddha is taller,^[10] but the statue is sitting). Since then the Spring Temple Buddha has been built in China, and at 128 m (420 ft) it is the tallest statue in the world. Plans for the construction of the Spring Temple Buddha were announced soon after the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas and China condemned the systematic destruction of the Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan.

The smaller of the statues was built between 544 and 595, the larger was built between 591 and 644.^[11] The larger figure was also said to portray Dīpankara Buddha. They were perhaps the most famous cultural landmarks of the region, and the site was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the surrounding cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley. Their color faded through time.^[12]

Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang visited the site on 30 April 630 AD,^[13][14][15] and described Bamiyan in the Da Tang Xiyu Ji as a flourishing Buddhist center “with more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks”. He also noted that both Buddha figures were “decorated with gold and fine jewels” (Wriggins, 1995). Intriguingly, Xuanzang mentions a third, even larger, reclining statue of the Buddha.^[3][15][16] A monumental seated Buddha, similar in style to those at Bamiyan, still exists in the Bingling Temple caves in China’s Gansu province.

The destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas became a symbol of oppression and a rallying point for the freedom of religious expression. Despite the fact that most Afghans are now Muslim, they too had embraced their past and many were appalled by the destruction.^[17][18][19]

Attacks on the Buddha’s statue

11th to the 20th century

In 1221 with the advent of Genghis Khan “a terrible disaster befell Bamiyan,”^[20][21] nevertheless, the statues were spared. Later, the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, tried to use heavy artillery to destroy the statues. Another attempt to destroy the Bamiyan statues was made by the 18th century Persian king Nader Afshar, directing cannon fire at them.^[22]

The enormous statues, the male Salsal (“light shines through the universe”) and the (smaller) female Shamama (“Queen Mother”),^[23] as they were called by the locals, did not fail to fire the imagination of Islamic writers in centuries past. The larger statue reappears as the malevolent giant Salsal in medieval Turkish tales.^[24]

Afghan king Abdur Rahman Khan destroyed its face during a military campaign against the Shia Hazara rebellion.^[25] A Frenchman named Dureau had pictured it in 1847.^[26]

Preface to 2001, under the Taliban

Abdul Wahed, a Taliban commander operating in the area, announced his intention to blow up the Buddhas in 1997 even before he had taken control of the valley. Once he was in control of Bamiyan in 1998, Wahed drilled holes in the Buddhas’ heads for explosives. He was prevented from taking further action by the local governor and direct order of Mullah Omar, although tyres were burnt on the head of the great Buddha.^[27] In July 1999, Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a decree in favor of the preservation of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Because Afghanistan’s Buddhist population no longer exists, so the statues are no longer worshipped, he added: “The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected.”^[28] In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set.^[29]

However, Afghanistan’s radical clerics began a campaign to crack down on “un-Islamic” segments of Afghan society. The Taliban soon banned all forms of imagery, music and sports, including television, in accordance with what they considered a strict interpretation of Sharia.^[30]

Information and Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. “They came out with a consensus that the statues were against Islam,” said Jamal.

According to UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, a meeting of ambassadors from the 54 member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was conducted. All OIC states – including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three countries that officially recognised the Taliban government – joined the protest to spare the monuments.^[31] Saudi Arabia and the UAE later condemned the destruction as “savage”.^[32] Although India never recognised the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, New Delhi offered to arrange for the transfer of all the artifacts in question to India, “where they would be kept safely and preserved for all mankind.” These overtures were rejected by the Taliban.^[33] Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf sent Moinuddin Haider to Kabul to try to prevent the destruction, by arguing that it was un-Islamic and unprecedented.^[34] According to Taliban minister, Abdul Salam Zaeef, UNESCO sent the Taliban government 36 letters objecting to the proposed destruction. He asserted that the Chinese, Japanese and Sri Lankan delegates were the most strident advocates for preserving the Buddhas. The Japanese in particular proposed a variety of different solutions to the issue, these included moving the statues to Japan, covering the statues from view and the payment of money.^[35]

A statement issued by the ministry of religious affairs of Taliban regime justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law.^[36] Abdul Salam Zaeef held that the destruction of the Buddhas was finally ordered by Abdul Wali, the Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.^[37]

Dynamiting and destruction, March 2001

 Destruction of the site by the Taliban

 

Site of the larger statue after it was destroyed

 

Site of the smaller statue in 2005

The statues were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on 2 March 2001,^[38] carried out in stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them. During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, “this work of destruction is not as simple 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.”^[39] Later, the Taliban placed anti-tank mines at the bottom of the niches, so that when fragments of rock broke off from artillery fire, the statues would receive additional destruction from particles that set off the mines. In the end, the Taliban lowered men down the cliff face and placed explosives into holes in the Buddhas.^[40] After one of the explosions failed to completely obliterate the face of one of the Buddhas, a rocket was launched that left a hole in the remains of the stone head.^[41]

On 6 March 2001 The Times quoted Mullah Mohammed Omar as stating, “Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them.”^[42] During a 13 March interview for Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun, Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the destruction was anything but a retaliation against the international community for economic sanctions: “We are destroying the statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious issue”.

On 18 March, The New York Times reported that a Taliban envoy said the Islamic government made its decision in a rage after a foreign delegation offered money to preserve the ancient works. The report also added, however, that other reports “have said the religious leaders were debating the move for months, and ultimately decided that the statues were idolatrous and should be obliterated.”^[43]

Then Taliban ambassador-at-large Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi said that the destruction of the statues was carried out by the Head Council of Scholars after a Swedish monuments expert proposed to restore the statues’ heads. Hashimi is reported as saying: “When the Afghan head council asked them to provide the money to feed the children instead of fixing the statues, they refused and said, ‘No, the money is just for the statues, not for the children’. Herein, they made the decision to destroy the statues”; however, he did not comment on the claim that a foreign museum offered to “buy the Buddhist statues, the money from which could have been used to feed children.”^[44]

The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas despite protests from the international community has been described by Michael Falser, a heritage expert at the Center for Transcultural Studies in Germany, as an attack by the Taliban against the globalising concept of “cultural heritage”.^[45] The director general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Koichiro Matsuura called the destruction a “…crime against culture. It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity.”^[46]

Commitment to rebuild

Pilgrimage to
Buddha’s Holy Sites
The Four Main Sites
Bodh Gaya Kushinagar Lumbini Sarnath
Four Additional Sites
Rajgir Sankassa Sravasti Vaishali
Other Sites
Devadaha Gaya Kapilavastu Kesaria Kosambi Nalanda Pava Pataliputra Varanasi
Later Sites
Ajanta Caves Barabar Caves Bharhut Ellora Caves Lalitgiri Mathura Pandavleni Caves Piprahwa Ratnagiri Sanchi Udayagiri Vikramaśīla
v t e

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 passages that connect them. As part of the international effort to rebuild Afghanistan after the Taliban war, the Government of Japan and several other organizations, among them the Afghanistan Institute in Bubendorf, Switzerland, along with the ETH in Zurich, have committed to rebuilding, perhaps by anastylosis, the two larger Buddhas.

Developments since 2002

In May 2002, a sculpture of the Buddha was carved out of a mountain in Sri Lanka. It was designed to closely resemble one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

In September 2005, Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, Taliban governor of Bamiyan province at the time of the destruction and widely seen as responsible for its occurrence, was elected to the Afghan Parliament. On 26 January 2007, he was assassinated in Kabul.

Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei made a 95-minute documentary titled The Giant Buddhas (released in March 2006) on the statues, the international reactions to their destruction, and an overview of the controversy. Testimony by local Afghans validates that Osama Bin Laden ordered the destruction and that, initially, Mullah Omar and the Afghans in Bamiyan opposed it.^[47]

Since 2002, international funding has supported recovery and stabilization efforts at the site. Fragments of the statues are documented and stored with special attention given to securing the structure of the statue still in place. It is hoped that, in the future, partial anastylosis can be conducted with the remaining fragments. In 2009, ICOMOS constructed scaffolding within the niche to further conservation and stabilization. Nonetheless, several serious conservation and safety issues exist and the Buddhas are still listed as World Heritage in Danger.^[48]

In the summer of 2006, Afghan officials were deciding on the timetable for the re-construction of the statues. As they wait for the Afghan government and international community to decide when to rebuild them, a $1.3 million UNESCO-funded project is sorting out the chunks of clay and plaster—ranging from boulders weighing several tons to fragments the size of tennis balls—and sheltering them from the elements.

The Buddhist remnants at Bamiyan were included on the 2008 World Monuments Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund.

Discoveries

 

Grotto painting in 2008

After the destruction of the Buddhas, 50 caves were revealed. In 12 of the caves, wall paintings were discovered.^[49] In December 2004, an international team of researchers stated the wall paintings at Bamiyan were painted between the 5th and the 9th centuries, rather than the 6th to 8th centuries, citing their analysis of radioactive isotopes contained in straw fibers found beneath the paintings. It is believed that the paintings were done by artists travelling on the Silk Road, the trade route between China and the West.^[50]

Scientists from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo (Japan), the Centre of Research and Restoration of the French Museums-CNRS (France), the Getty Conservation Institute (United States) and the ESRF (the European Synchrotron radiation facility) in Grenoble analysed samples from the paintings,^[51] typically less than 1 mm across.^[52] They discovered that the paint contained pigments such as vermilion (red mercury sulfide) and lead white (lead carbonate). These were mixed with a range of binders, including natural resins, gums (possibly animal skin glue or egg)^[52] and oils, probably derived from walnuts or poppies.^[50] Specifically, researchers identified drying oils from murals showing Buddhas in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures as being painted in the middle of the 7th century.^[49] It is believed that they are the oldest known surviving examples of oil painting, possibly predating oil painting in Europe by as much as six centuries.^[50] The discovery may lead to a reassessment of works in ancient ruins in Iran, China, Pakistan, Turkey and India.^[50]

Initial suspicion that the oils might be attributable to contamination from fingers, as the touching of the painting is encouraged in Buddhist tradition,^[52] was dispelled by spectroscopy and chromatography giving an unambiguous signal for the intentional use of drying oils rather than contaminants.^[52] Oils were discovered underneath layers of paint, unlike surface contaminants.^[52]

Scientists also found the translation of the beginning section of the original Sanskrit Pratītyasamutpāda Sutra translated by Xuanzang that spelled out the basic belief of Buddhism and said all things are transient.^[53]

Another giant statue unearthed

On 8 September 2008 archeologists searching for a legendary 300-metre statue at the site of the already dynamited Buddhas announced the discovery of parts of an unknown 19-metre (62-foot) reclining Buddha, a pose representing Buddha’s Parinirvana.^[54]

Restoration

The UNESCO Expert Working Group on Afghan cultural projects convened to discuss what to do about the two statues between 3–4 March 2011 in Paris. Researcher Erwin Emmerling of Technical University Munich announced he believed it would be possible to restore the smaller statue using an organic silicon compound.^[11] The Paris conference issued a list of 39 recommendations for the safeguarding of the Bamiyan site. These included leaving the larger Western niche empty as a monument to the destruction of the Buddhas, a feasibility study into the rebuilding of the Eastern Buddha, and the construction of a central museum and several smaller site museums.^[55] Work has since begun on restoring the Buddhas using the process of anastylosis, where original elements are combined with modern material. It is estimated that roughly half the pieces of the Buddhas can be put back together according to Bert Praxenthaler, a German art historian and sculptor involved in the restoration. The restoration of the caves and Buddhas has also involved training and employing local people as stone carvers.^[56] The project, which also aims to encourage tourism to the area, is being organised by UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The work has come under some criticism. It is felt by some, such as human rights activist Abdullah Hamadi, that the empty niches should be left as monuments to the fanaticism of the Taliban, while NPR reported that others believe the money could be better spent on housing and electricity for the region.^[57] Some people, including Habiba Sarabi, the provincial governor, believe that rebuilding the Buddhas would increase tourism which would aid the surrounding communities.^[57]

See also

• Buddha Collapsed out of Shame
• List of colossal sculpture in situ
• List of statues by height—many of those that top the list are Buddhist
• Mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar, a mausoleum in Mali that was destroyed by Ansar Dine
• Armenian cemetery in Julfa, a medieval Armenian cemetery destroyed by the Republic of Azerbaijan
• Demolition of the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century Islamic mosque demolished by a Hindu group who claim it was built after destroying an ancient Hindu temple in India in 1992
• Somnath Temple, a Hindu temple which has been destroyed more than six times by Islamic rulers, and reconstructed and repaired several times.

References

Notes

• Gall, Carlotta (5 December 2006). “Afghans consider rebuilding Bamiyan Buddhas”. International Herald Tribune/The New York Times. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
• Morgan, Kenneth W. The Path of the Buddha. Pg.43 (Google Books). Retrieved 2 June 2009.
• Gall, Carlotta (6 December 2006). “From Ruins of Afghan Buddhas, a History Grows”. The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Bamiyan Valley
• “Why the Taliban are destroying Buddhas”. Usatoday.com. 22 March 2001. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “Taliban Explains Buddha Demolition”. The New York Times.
• Waduge, Shenali (14 March 2008). “Afghans destroy Buddhas, but cry foul over cartoons”. The Nation. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
• Research of state and stability of the rock niches of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in “Completed Research Results of Military University of Munich”
• “Computer Reconstruction and Modeling of the Great Buddha Statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan” (PDF). Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area”. Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Researchers Say They Can Restore 1 of Destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas. AOL News, 1 March 2011.
• “Bamiyan Buddhas Once Glowed in Red, White and Blue”. Sciencedaily.com. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Yamada, Meiji (2002). Buddhism of Bamiyan, Pacific World, 3rd series 4, 109-110
• “Bamiyan and Buddhist Afghanistan”. Depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “Xuan Zang and the Third Buddha”. Laputanlogic.com. 9 March 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Warsaw – Bamiyan”. Afghanembassy.com.pl. 26 February 2001. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “afghan_reaction.htm”. Institute-for-afghan-studies.org. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
• “Buddhas of Bamiyan”. Hazaristantimes.wordpress.com. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• TIM MCGIRK/Bamiyan (20 May 2002). “What Lies Beneath”. Time.com. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “Bamiyan and Buddhism Afghanistan”. Depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• “Remembering Bamiyan”. Kashgar.com.au. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Asian Art, chap. “History of attacks on the Buddhas”
• “booklet web E.indd” (PDF). Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Laban Kaptein, Eindtijd en Antichrist, p. 127. Leiden 1997. ISBN 90-73782-89-9
• “Ancient Buddhas Will Not Be Rebuilt – UNESCO”. Ipsnews.net. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Photogrammetric Reconstruction of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan
• Semple, Michael Why the Buddhas of Bamian were destroyed, Afghanistan Analysts Network 2 March 2011
• Harding, Luke (3 March 2001). “How the Buddha got his wounds”. London: The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 February 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
• Semple, Michael Why the Buddhas of Bamian were destroyed, Afghanistan Analysts Network 2 March 2011
• Vawda, Moulana Imraan. “The Destruction of Statues Displayed in an Islamic State”. Ask-Imam.com. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• “World appeals to Taliban to stop destroying statues”. CNN. 3 March 2001. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Bearak, Barry (4 March 2001). “Over World Protests, Taliban Are Destroying Ancient Buddhas”. The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2008.^{[dead link]}
• “General Assembly “Appalled” By Edict On Destruction of Afghan Shrines; Strongly Urges Taliban To Halt Implementation”. Un.org. 2 January 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• Zaeef, Abdul Salam, My Life with the Taliban eds Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, p.120, C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, ISBN 1-84904-026-5
• Zaeef p.127
• “Destruction of Giant Buddhas Confirmed”. AFP. 12 March 2001. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Zaeef p.126
• “Taliban destroy ancient Buddhist relics – International pleas ignored by Afghanistan’s Islamic fundamentalist leaders”
• Photos document destruction of Afghan Buddhas at the Wayback Machine (archived March 13, 2007)
• “Destruction and Rebuilding of the Bamyan Buddhas”. Slate Magazine.
• Bergen, Peter. “The Osama bin Laden I Know”, 2006. p. 271
• Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (2010). American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right. Polipoint Press. ISBN 1-936227-02-9.
• Crossette, Barbara (19 March 2001). “Taliban Explains Buddha Demolition”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Kassaimah, Sahar (12 January 2001). “Afghani Ambassador Speaks At USC”. IslamOnline. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Falser, Michael. “The Bamiyan Buddhas, performative iconoclasm and the ‘image’ of heritage”. In: Giometti, Simone; Tomaszewski, Andrzej (eds.): The Image of Heritage. Changing Perception, Permanent Responsibilities. Proceedings of the International Conference of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for the Theory and the Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration. 6–8 March 2009 Florence, Italy. Firenze 2011: 157-169.
• U.N. Confirms Destruction of Afghan Buddhas, 12 March 2001, ABC News.
• “Laden ordered Bamyan Buddha destruction”. The Times of India. 28 March 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
• Petzet, Michael (2010). “Safeguarding the Buddhas of Bamiyan”. In Christoph Machat, Michael Petzet and John Ziesemer (Eds.), “Heritage at Risk: ICOMOS World Report 2008-2010 on Monuments and Sites in Danger”.. Berlin: hendrik Bäßler verlag, 2010.
• “Scientitsts discover first-ever oil paintings in Afghanistan”. Earthtimes.org. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
• Highfield, Roger (22 April 2008). “Oil painting invented in Asia, not Europe”. London: Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2008.^{[dead link]} However, the press release picked up by media, clearly misdates the earliest uses of oil paint in Europe, which is fully described in a treatise by Theophilus Presbyter of 1100-1120, and may date back to the Ancient Romans. See: Rutherford John Gettens, George Leslie Stout, 1966, Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-21597-0 Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia (online text), p. 42 [1]
• “Ancient Buddhist Paintings From Bamyan Were Made Of Oil, Hundreds Of Years Before Technique Was ‘Invented’ In Europe”. Sciencedaily.com. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
• “Ancient Buddhas painted in oils”. nature.com. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
• “Secret sutra found in rubble of Bamiyan Buddha”. Buddhistchannel.tv. 12 November 2006. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• New Bamiyan Buddha find amid destruction, AFP, 8 November 2008.
• Expert Working Group releases recommendations for Safeguarding Bamiyan 27 April 2011
• Graham-Harison, Emma (16 May 2012)Stone carvers defy Taliban to return to the Bamiyan valley The Guardian

57. Kakissis, Joanna (27 July 2011). “Bit By Bit, Afghanistan Rebuilds Buddhist Statues”. National Public Radio. Retrieved 22 April 2013.

Further reading

• Cloonan, Michele V. “The Paradox of Preservation”, Library Trends, Summer 2007.
• Kassaimah, Sahar. “Afghani Ambassador Speaks At USC”, IslamOnline, 12 March 2001.
• Maniscalco, Fabio. World Heritage and War, monographic series “Mediterraneum”, vol. 6, Naples 2007, Massa Publisher “Catalogo: MEDITERRANEUM”. Massa Editore. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
• Noyes, James. “Bamiyan Ten Years On: What this Anniversary tells us about the New Global Iconoclasm”, “Telos”, 1 March 2010.
• Weber, Olivier, The Assassinated Memory (Mille et Une Nuits, 2001)
• Weber, Olivier, Tha Afghan Hawk: travel in the country of talibans (Robert Laffont, 2001)
• Weber, Olivier, On the Silk Roads (with Reza, Hoëbeke (fr), 2007)
• Wriggins, Sally Hovey. Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996
• Afghan who had statues destroyed killed at the Wayback Machine (archived 28 January 2007)
• “Afghanistan 1969-1974: February 2001”
• “Artist to recreate Afghan Buddhas”. BBC News, 9 August 2005.
• “Bamian Buddha Statues and Theosophy”
• “Japanese researchers make breakthrough on destroyed Bamyan paintings”. Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, 2004-12-11.
• “Pakistani, Saudi engineers helped destroy Buddhas” Daily Times, Sunday, 19 March 2006.
• “The Rediff Interview/Mullah Omar, 12 April 2004”

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buddhas of Bamiyan.

• Japan made Bamiyan Buddhas offer: Taliban memoir Bangkok post 26 February 2010
• News articles about the Buddhas of Bamyan
• Photos of the Buddhas of Bamyan
• Bamyan Afghanistan Laser Project
• World Heritage Tour: 360 degree image (after destruction)
• Bamyan Development Community Portal for cultural heritage management of Bamyan
• The World Monuments Fund’s Watch List 2008 listing for Bamyan
• Historic Footage of Bamyan Statues, c. 1973 on YouTube
• The Valley of Bamiyan A tourist pamphlet from 1967
• Researchers Say They Can Restore 1 of Destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas
• Secrets of the Bamiyan Buddhas, CNRS
• Bamiyan photo gallery, UNESCO
• Secrets of Bamiyan Buddhist murals. ESRF
• Photo Feature Covering Bamiyan Site

 

Related articles

• 4 Amazing World Heritage Sites (Video)
• China cracks down on ‘fake monks’

this day in the yesteryear: Singapore Established as a Trading Post (1819)

Singapore Established as a Trading Post (1819)

A trading center as early as the 14th century, Singapore was later part of Johor, a region of the southern Malay Peninsula. In 1819, the island of Singapore was ceded to the British East India Company, and the city was founded the same year by Sir Thomas Raffles. Under Raffles’ direction, Singapore developed a vital role in the lucrative China trade. Today, the city is one of the world’s biggest ports. The earliest known settlement on the island of Singapore was referred to by what name? More… Discuss

10.000 de întreprinderi sociale pot fi înființate în 2015— EuropeDirect Fagaras (@EDFagaras)

10.000 de întreprinderi sociale pot fi înființate în 2015 – http://t.co/6pJlEVfwQn #EuropeDirect #EDFagaras #peblog pic.twitter.com/A1LXA03F4h

— EuropeDirect Fagaras (@EDFagaras) January 28, 2015

just a thought: Make every moment a symbol of life being worth living!

just a thought:  Make every moment a symbol of life being worth living!
-George-B.

The best choice was clay, poetic thought by George-B (The Smudge and other poems)

The best choice was  clay, poetic thought by George-B
(The Smudge and other poems)

You are my clay statue now, my witness

I could have turn you to

stone
salt

oil

coal

sulphur

the enchanted tree:

just to keep the story,

the “once upon a time…” alive.

but it would have been too much work and
all those choices….

I decided then, it will be clay
soft,
warm,
cold,
humid,
provocatively pliable,
with the shape of the dead soil
impregnable, yet so fulfilling…

You’re at your best, now,
your best features… the cover story:
as it was,
so it will remain…

The best choice was  clay.

©George-B.

Find out  more HERE

 

Visit, subscribe, enjoy: Valentina Lisitsa, Pianist on YouTube

Valentina Lisitsa pianist visit her YouTube Channel (Click to access YouTube Channel)

What was so bad about a country trying to be civilized: The way Afghanistan was in the 60’s. Much has changed… #photography — Niume (@niume_official)

The way Afghanistan was in the 60’s. Much has changed. Read about this picture: http://t.co/skLApXksfq #photography pic.twitter.com/QgCdoOvCWx

— Niume (@niume_official) December 21, 2014

in the news: Massacre at Pakistan School (All we have to fear is fear itself: the sooner we remove the cause of fear, the more we can enjoy the rest of ourr days!)

Massacre at Pakistan School

Pakistani Taliban terrorists brutally attacked a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar yesterday, killing at least 132 children, 10 staff members, and three soldiers, and injuring more than 100. Pakistani officials said all nine attackers were killed after an eight-hour battle with security forces at the school, which is run by the military. The Pakistani Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it retaliation for the Pakistani military‘s recent operations against militants in the region. The attackers entered the school disguised as paramilitary soldiers. More… Discuss

Related articles

• U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan kills 11
• Drone strike in Afghanistan kills 4 Pakistani Taliban – official
• Drone strike in Afghanistan kills four Pakistani Taliban, official says
• Four Pakistani Taliban killed in Afghanistan drone strike
• Who’s behind the Pakistan terror attack?

‘The last straw’ — Pakistan turns against terror

‘The last straw’ — Pakistan turns against terror

‘This is the last straw!”: That’s the message that Pakistanis all across the political spectrum, in a rare show of unanimity, are trying to send after the worst Islamic terror attacks the nation has suffered in more than a decade.

Tuesday’s attack on a school near Peshawar (in northwestern Pakistan) claimed at least 141 lives, most of them schoolchildren and teachers.

Not surprisingly, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed credit for the carnage. What was new was that even a number of jihadist groups and fellow-travelers joined the nationwide chorus of condemnation.

via ‘The last straw’ — Pakistan turns against terror.

TALIBAN FLEXING MUSCLE High-profile attacks ahead of US Afghan drawdown|via TheTruth.com

TALIBAN FLEXING MUSCLE High-profile attacks ahead of US Afghan drawdown

The Taliban are flexing their muscle with a series of high-profile attacks in recent weeks, showing they are far from defeated as the U.S. prepares to withdraw most of its forces from Afghanistan at year’s end.

The Taliban have staged at least 12 attacks targeting foreigners in the past three weeks, many of them inside Kabul.

Although the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, has said any talk of a Taliban resurgence is “absolutely false,” critics who have watched the Islamic State sweep over Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal are looking on nervously.

The Afghanistan attacks come as the U.S. prepares to pull out all but nearly 10,000 troops.

Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a Fox News military analyst, said the current problem in Kabul was avoidable:

“We predicted that we were going to have major problems around Kabul and to the east of Kabul to the Pakistan border with the Haqqani network,” Keane said, referencing the powerful Pakistan-based Taliban affiliate. “The president did not give us the full number of surge forces, and then over General Petraeus‘ objections, he pulled them out early.”

Aid and charity groups in the region are urging their workers to leave the country over the Christmas holidays. Even the Canadian Embassy issued an advisory to its citizens cautioning all of them to leave immediately.

via TALIBAN FLEXING MUSCLE High-profile attacks ahead of US Afghan drawdown. #TheTruth.com

Related articles

• Afghanistan Bombing: Pakistan, Haqqani Blamed for Suicide Attack that Killed over 60
• No reason to target militants not posing threat to Pakistan: Sartaj Aziz
• Afghan President begins China visit
• Haqqani Network launched suicide attack at soccer game, Afghan intel claims
• Haqqani network behind Afghan volleyball bombing: spy agency
• Suicide Attack Kills 57 At A Volley Ball Game In Eastern Afghanistan

this pressed for recognition: A US Marine wipes tears from his face as he kneels beside a body wrapped in a poncho during a firefight, 1966 — OnThisDay & Facts

A US Marine wipes tears from his face as he kneels beside a body wrapped in a poncho during a firefight, 1966 pic.twitter.com/frjLkOMxkJ

— OnThisDay & Facts (@NotableHistory) November 12, 2014

***********************************************

just a thought: “The business of war: the only one never finished, never over, and bringing teas of sadness to most, and of joy to … well, \to very few!”
– George-B

“I don’t fear death; I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice.” Malalai Joya— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty)

“I don’t fear death; I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice.” Malalai Joya #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/hJPQXxZ8Kr

— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) November 7, 2014

Related articles

• Malalai Joya, anti-Afghan war, anti-ISIS

today’s birthday: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207)

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207)

Rumi was a great Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose influence has spread to Persian-speakers in Afghanistan, central Asia, Turkey, and beyond. His Masnavi-ye Manavi, a six-volume work of spiritual teaching and Sufi lore related in the form of stories and lyric poetry, widely influenced Muslim mystical thought and literature. Rumi’s followers founded the Mevlevi order, whose members use dancing and music as part of their spiritual method and are popularly known by what name? More… Discuss

Related articles

• Tehran hosts Mowlavi Arts Festival
• Vatican Palace hosts Sufi whirling dervishes
• Rumi on the Environment: Behind the Beauty of the Moon is the Moon-Maker
• Poems by Rumi

this day in the yesteryear: The Taliban Captures Kabul (1996)

The Taliban Captures Kabul (1996)

During the chaotic period that followed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a militia of Islamic fundamentalist students known as the Taliban became increasingly powerful. In 1996, the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul and declared itself the legitimate government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, establishing a strict Islamic regime that became a haven for extremists. Whose assassination two days before the 9/11 attacks of 2001 dealt a blow to the anti-Taliban resistance? More… Discuss

Old, yet embelished with passage of time: Rumi and the Play of Poetry – University of California Television (UCTV)

Rumi and the Play of Poetry

University of California Television (UCTV)
(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv) Noted translator and poet Coleman Barks, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the UCSB College of Creative Studies, presents the poetry of 13th century Afghan-born Sufi mystic and poet, Jelaluddin Rumi. Bark’s intense and artful translations convey Rumi’s insights into the human heart and its longing for passion and daring. Barks performs the words of Rumi, accompanied by musicians Barry and Shelly Phillips. Series: “Voices” [6/2003] [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 7600]
*******************************************************************
****************** More Rumi at Euzicasa *****************

*******************************************************************

Related articles

• Song of the Reed: The Poetry of Rumi
• “A Celebration of Rumi” @ UAlbany PAC, 10/21/09
• The global Sufi
• One and Many: The pluralistic expressions In Sufi poetry
• Rumi

WORD: traipse

traipse 

Definition:	(verb) Walk or tramp about.
Synonyms:	shlep
Usage:	I spent the holiday exploring the countryside, traipsing from town to town with just a knapsack of supplies on my back. Discuss.

Polio Is Global Public Health Emergency

Recent gains in the fight against polio are at risk of being undone if the international community does not take swift action, says the World Health Organization (WHO). This year is currently on track to see a greater number of polio cases worldwide than last year, with Pakistan, Syria, and Cameroon posing the greatest threat of exporting the virus to other countries, having already spread it to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Equatorial Guinea respectively. The WHO is therefore recommending emergency measures to curtail the spread, including having affected countries vaccinate people planning to travel abroad prior to their departure. More… Discuss

Related articles

• U.N.: Spread of polio now a world health emergency
• Why is polio a public emergency?
• WHO: Polio spreading at alarming rates; declared a global emergency
• Picard: Three-decade effort to eradicate polio is in peril
• WHO sounds alarm on polio

LANDSLIDE TRAGEDY IN AFGHANISTAN

Hundreds have been killed and thousands remain missing after a landslide crashed down on a remote village inAfghanistan. The enormous slide made roads impassable for the heavy machinery needed to carry out rescue and recovery efforts, so people from nearby villages have begun digging using the only tools they have available to them—their hands. More than 2,000 people resided in the village, and many had been in the process of trying to recover their belongings and livestock following an earlier, more minor landslip when the side of a nearby mountain collapsed, burying the village.More… Discuss

NEWS: INDIA MARKS THREE YEARS POLIO-FREE

India Marks Three Years Polio-Free

Since 1995, India has spent $2.5 billion on its campaign to eradicate polio, mobilizing millions to stamp out thecrippling disease. Just a few years ago, hundreds of new polio cases were still being reported there each year, but in 2011, there was just one—the country’s last. Three years have passed since polio was last seen in India, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is set to declare the nation polio-free in the coming months. The only countries where polio remains endemic are Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. More… Discuss

Related articles

• India set for polio-free landmark
• Once expected to be polio’s last stand, India now polio-free for three years
• India on course to be declared polio-free in March, marks 3 years since last polio case of Rukhshar Khatoon
• Global polio fight reaches milestone as India frees itself of the virus – WHO

 

POSSIBLE POLIO CASES REPORTED IN WAR-TORN SYRIA

Intense global eradication efforts over the past quarter century have cut polio incidence by more than 99% and eliminated it in much of the world. Today, it remains endemic in only three countries—Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. However, the ongoing civil war in Syriahas made it impossible to effectively vaccinate much of the population, and now the World Health Organization has received reports of two suspected cases of polio there. Before this possible outbreak, wild poliovirus had not been reported in Syria in 14 years. More… Discuss

 

•Report: U.S. Wastes Millions on Poorly Run Projects in Afghanistan (from Democracy Now)

•Report: U.S. Wastes Millions on Poorly Run Projects in Afghanistan (from Democracy Now) (click to access program)