Afghan artist to reconstruct Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed by the Taliban

An Iran Press News reader in Kabul wrote: Habibollah Sheikhzadeh, the Afghan sculptor has declared that should the [Afghan] government extend their support and cultural heritage organizations and their experts in restoration of sculpture offer their cooperation, that he would reconstruct the 2 Buddhas of Bamiyan that were destroyed by the Taliban. During the Taliban statues of Buddhas [around Afghanistan] were regarded as a symbol of paganism and were all summarily destroyed by canon fire; now research in reconstructing them has begun.

Afghanistan media quoted Sheikhzadeh, who said that the plan for reconstruction promises to restore 95% of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Sheikhzadeh studied sculpting in Iran for two years and has so far built more thatn 500 stone statues.

The 60-year-old Sheikhzadeh has been a sculptor for nearly 40 years. During the Taliban era he lived in Iran and continued working in his field and was able to sell many of his creations to art enthusiasts in the West. He returned to Afghanistan 9 months ago and has taken on a teaching position at the fine arts department at the University of Kabul.

Sheikhzadeh said that in order to reconstruct the Buddhas, he would require two kinds of stone from the Ghazni and Faryab provinces of Afghanistan. Prior to the destruction of the Buddhas in Bamiyan many tourists would flock to this central province of Afghanistan to see these ancient creations. During the civil wars often historical artifacts were either destroyed or stolen from Afghanistan.

Of the historical creations destroyed during the time of the Taleban were, two Buddhas one entitled SALSAUL which stood at 53 meters high and SHAMAWMEH which stood at 35 meters; they were approximately 2000 years old.

The Buddhas were created in the 2nd century A.D. under the patronage of Emperor Kanishka who started the construction of the two statues in Bamiyan. By the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. the construction of the statues were complete.

In 1996 the Taleban fundamentalist Islamic militia started to govern most of Afghanistan. By February 2001 – the Taliban began destroying the last vestiges of Buddhist history. The order came from Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who issued an edict declaring statues, including the ancient Buddhas, as insulting to Islam.

That same year Kofi Annan, appealed to the Taleban leadership to abide by their previous commitments to protect Afghanistan's cultural heritage. Asian officials and Buddhist groups expressed dismay over the edict to destroy these ancient creations and historical heritage of Afghanistan. By Wednesday, March 6th, 2001, the impending destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan and then defying an international outcry, Taleban soldiers on Thursday, March 7th destroyed all statues all across the country including the Buddhas of Bamiyan; many statues throughout the country were demolished with rockets, tanks and explosives. After two full days of non-stop shelling, the 2 large Buddhas, were fully destroyed and crumbled to the ground on March 8th, 2001.