Bamiyan Buddha
The statues of Bamiyan Buddha are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site. These are located in Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, which were built around 4th – 5th century BC. Bamiyan was a major city on the Silk Route located in the valley of the Hindu Kush mountain ranges and on the banks of the Bamiyan River. The world's tallest Buddha statue of that time was built by cutting sandstone rocks located in the valley of the Hindu Kush mountain range, which was called Bamiyan Buddha.
At present, this area is called 'Mes Aynak' or 'Mes Anneki'. There is also a copper mine in this area, where copper ore is present in abundance.
Location
At present, it was situated on the banks of the Bamiyan river in the valley of the Hindu Kush mountain range at an altitude of 2500 meters (about 8200 feet), 230 km away from Kabul in the north-west direction. At that time, this place was a major center lying in the middle of the Silk Route, which was emerging as a center of both commercial and cultural exchange.
Drainage System and Drainage Pattern
Characteristics of the Bamiyan Buddha
- The Bamiyan Buddha statues represent a great example of the confluence of Gupta, Sasanian and Hellenistic artistic styles.
- These idols are said to be of the fifth century AD.
- The construction of the big statue located here was made in about 554 AD, whose height was about 53 meters (174 feet). At that time it was the tallest Buddha statue in the world.
- The small statue located here was built around 507 AD, whose height was about 35 meters (115 feet).
- These idols were called 'Salsal' and 'Shamama'. Salasal means "light shining through the universe" while Shamama means "queen mother".
- These idols were made of materials like raw red sand, clay, pebbles, quartz, sandstone and limestone.
- In those times, this place was the main center of Buddhist Vihar, due to which this place developed in the form of Buddhism, philosophy, art and culture.
- Buddhist monks used to live in caves built in the hills near these statues. These caves were decorated with splendid and brightly colored frescoes.
- UNESCO included the Bamiyan Buddha statues in the World Heritage Site list in 2003.
Destruction of Bamiyan Buddha
After the construction of the statues, many rulers changed, but no ruler paid attention to their maintenance. Less rainfall, earthquakes, water seeping from the mountains and melting snow in this area caused a lot of damage to these statues. Apart from this, Islamic or Muslim invasion completely destroyed these statues.
- Till the seventh century these idols were located in their original form. Some damage was done to these idols during the Islamic invasion in the second half of the 7th century.
- The region was completely conquered by the Muslim ruler Saffari dynasty in the ninth century.
- Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and Persian ruler Nadir Shah also damaged these idols by hurling them.
- In March 2001, these statues were blown up with dynamite at the behest of Mohammad Omar, the leader of the jihadist organization Taliban of Afghanistan.
- At present, the remnants of the remaining idols were destroyed by cannons, explosives and rockets even during the Taliban's occupation of Afghanistan.
Restoration of Statues
It is almost impossible to reconstruct the Bamiyan Buddha statues in their original form. An alternative to this can be 3D rendering, whose efforts are underway. Recently, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has assured that they will preserve the ancient Buddha statues in 'Mes Ayanak' or 'Mes Aenaki'. A copper mine is also located in 'Mes Ainaki'. Taliban need money to rule in Afghanistan. The intention of the Taliban behind the preservation of these idols is driven by economic interests. The Taliban want to get Chinese investment to extract copper from the copper mines located here.
Topographies Formed By Underground Water
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