"A pair of brick pillars, with an uncanny resemblance to feet, appeared late last year where a giant Buddha stood here.
The
pillars were meant to hold a platform that would prevent rocks from
falling on the heads of visitors to the Bamiyan site, where the Taliban
destroyed two ancient Buddhas in 2001, horrifying the world.
The
pillars' construction had an important consequence: it sparked a global
debate on whether the two sandstone Buddha statues, cut out of a
mountain face dominating this central Afghan city, should rise again.
Until
now, the prevailing view among cultural experts was that the sites of
the ancient Buddhas should be kept as they are: empty, a reminder of
their tragic history. Islamist radicals blew up the statues as they
tried to stamp out the reminders of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past.
A pair of brick pillars, resembling feet, were built last year where one of the giant Buddhas stood.
Photo by Paula Bronstein
But now, the United Nations' cultural
agency, the Afghan government and heritage experts are increasingly
open to reassembling at least one of the Buddhas, which once towered 174
and 115 feet over the Bamiyan valley.
"We
want one of the Buddhas rebuilt," said
Abdul Ahad
Abassi, who heads the Afghan government's department for the
preservation of monuments. "Buddhism doesn't exist here, but the people
of Bamiyan and the Afghan government want to revive our historical
heritage."
"...
What Unesco officials didn't expect was that
the platform's pillars would resemble the Buddha's giant feet. Shocked,
Unesco officials stopped the work in progress in December.
"Fortunately
or unfortunately this happened," said
Masanori Nagaoka,
who is in charge of cultural affairs at Unesco in Afghanistan.
"And it opened a box. I wouldn't quite call it a Pandora's box, but it
opened a box."
To the surprise of many,
calls to rebuild the mutilated monuments have grown louder in recent
months. The Afghan government has asked the World Heritage Committee,
which is responsible for the site's listing, for feedback on whether
restoring one of the Buddhas is possible.
Civil-society
activists already plan to raise money for the statues' reconstruction
through public donations once it is approved.
A girl watches her flock of sheep and goats grazing in
front of the site where one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan once stood.
Paula Bronstein for The Wall Street Journal"
For the full article by
Margherita Stancati see
