Culture & Heritage Final Report
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Transcript of Culture & Heritage Final Report
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CULTURE & HERITAGE INFORMATICS
REPORT ON
Buddha of Bamiyan
KHALID ZAHEER
K1034778
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ContentsExecutive summary ................................................................................................................................. 3
Brief Synopsis .......................................................................................................................................... 3
The Theoretical or intellectual issues: .................................................................................................... 4
Analysis: .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Technical walkthrough: ........................................................................................................................... 5
................................................................................................................................................................ 8
................................................................................................................................................................ 9
................................................................................................................................................................ 9
.............................................................................................................................................................. 10
.............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Theoretical/ intellectual Issues: ............................................................................................................ 11
Web and tools ................................................................................................................................... 11
Copyright ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Background of Buddha of bamiyan ................................................................................................... 12
Destruction of the Buddha ................................................................................................................ 12
The history Books of Buddha of Bamiyan ......................................................................................... 13
Project Review ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 14
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 14
Interview with Eye witness ............................................................................................................... 14
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Executive summary
Description of client/ organization
The Project that I am doing for this module is based on the Buddha of Bamiyan, they were
two 6th
century monumental statues of standing Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the
bamiyan valley in Afghanistan 230 Km northwest Kabul . Bamyan lies on the Silk Road which
lies in the Hindu Kush Mountain area in the Bamiyan valley.
In 11th
Century Bamyan was part of the Kingdom of Gandhara and it was the place of
Buddhist monasteries. Buddha of bamyan is world largest Buddha carving in world. Buddha
of bamyan was possibly the famous cultural landmarks of the region, and the place was
listed by UNESCO as a world heritage along with the surroundings Cultural landscape and
archaeological leftovers of the bamyan valley.
I will be doing this project due to the cultural relevance it has to the module and it has a
very deep and interesting heritage that I want to explore and let other people who are
interested in it to see what had happened in the past. It will give an insigt to the culture of
the Afghan people.
Brief Synopsis
In 1999 Mullah Omar give out a declaration in favour of the defence of the bamyan
buddhas statue. Afghanistans Buddhist population was no longer exists, which removed
the possibility of the statues being worshiped. Taliban banned all forms of imagery, sport,
TVs, Music in accordance with what considered a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In time of Taliban Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told Press of a decision by 400
Religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the views of
Islam. Monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley
in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan (Hazrat.J.Ali, 2010). These were seen as idols by
the Taliban which needed to be removed from the country.
However In March 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar waged a war against Buddha
Worshipping. Taliban destroyed the 1.700 year old sandstone statues Buddhas of bamiyan
with anti-aircraft and tank fire the world tallest stone sculptures. The operation to crash the
statues carved into a cliff in the bamiyan valley in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan
was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah.
In 6 March 2001 Mullah Omer said Muslims should be proud of smashing idols, Afghan
Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the damage was anything but
retaliation against the International Community for economic consents we are destroying
the statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious problem.
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. In 2002 after the fall Taliban more than 200 Afghan refugees were living in caves beside
the rubble.
The main areas I will be exploring:
What is the bamyan buddhas
What importance they had and why the Taliban destroyed them
Online Gallery of the bamyan buddhas that are being re-built now
Record Interviews on peoples views about the bamyan buddhas
The Theoretical or intellectual issues:
I will have an online gallery to show the current situation as they are rebuilding the statues
in Afghanistan. I will show previous and current images. Omeka will be used for this purpose
as it gives me the right tools for this.
I am also going to hold interviews on people who have a deeper understanding of this topic
and they will show their views on what happened with the Buddhas of bamiyan
Analysis:
Afghanistan has also been in the mist of war dating back to the civil war that began after
May 15 1988 which is still an issue today. An Islamic armed group overtook the Mujahideen
government and took control of the country. When Taliban come in power they destroyed
the world largest Buddha statues. There are a few challenges that are apparent to me whichI will need to solve. The challenge was to find pictures of the statues that were destroyed by
the Taliban. Second challenge was to find reconstruction pictures of bamiyan statues, also
due to the security reasons in Afghanistan it was difficult to get the pictures because they
refused access to people who wanted to take pictures.
The main challenge was to find former Taliban commander or eye witness of the scene who
was there at the time of destruction of Buddha statues and interview him for this project. I
found few other people for the interview but the problem was they were not ready to give
video interview due to them coming under threat from intelligence officers so I agree to doaudio recording of their interview as they did not want to show themselves on screen.
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Technical walkthrough:
This is a prototype of my website that I create for Culture and heritage Module. This is home
page of my website.
This is a prototype of my images page on this page as you can see there will be pictures withDescriptions.
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This is a wireframe of my website that I create for Culture and heritage Module. This is aDestruction page. There is all information about why. How Taliban destroyed world largest
statues.
This is a history page where you can read history of Buddha statues.
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This is prototype of my website and on this page you can read about reconstruction about Buddha of
bamiyan.
This is a prototype of my interview page I will interview my client on here.
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Theoretical/ intellectual Issues:
Web and tools
Internet is the tool that I used to create this website and finish my project, I used internet to
research and find information about Buddha of bamiyan. I have created my website on
omeka which is an online platform that enables me to create the website the way I need it
to look like.
Omeka can be accessed from anywhere in the world and it can be used to display items and
design the website thats why I choose to use Omeka for my project to build the site for
Buddha of bamiyan. The items can hold the images and publish them for people to see as
well as videos and audio recordings can also be uploaded as informative resource for users.
Copyright
In my project I had to make sure that I didnt break any Laws especially the copyright law,
the reason is because my material was going to be published online and the rightful owner
will see it and I can be done for copyright infringement. To tackle this issue I took images
and I am the rightful owner of the images which I took from Afghanistan to have them
uploaded on my website.
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Background of Buddha of bamiyan
Buddha statues were 6th Century Monumental Statues of standing Buddha carved into the
side of a cliff in the bamiyan valley in Afghanistan, Northwest Kabul. The larger Buddha was
built between 591 and 644 and the smaller statue was built between 544 and 595. The statues
were built by the kushans with the guidance of local Buddhist monks.
In 11th Century Bamyan was part of the Kingdom of Gandhara, the place was mostly home to
the Buddhist religion though the religion was born in the approximate area and flourished in
Gandharan region, which also includes Bamiyan Valley. This area increased its power during
the ruling of Ashoka, he himself was a follower of Buddhism.
These Buddhist monks lived in mainly caves or grottes, the Bamiyan valley has many of
these caves and within them you are able to find the works and left pieces of the art inside.
Ther were regular creation of the paintings and statues on walls, these bamiyan buddahs
sculptures showing you the level of extraordinary artistry in the history of Buddhist artwork.
The main influences that were initiated into the creation of the Bamyan Buddahs were mainly
classical Greek and Roman Sculpture. The influences came from Silk Road which has been
historically a caravan route linking the market of china with those of the western world.
The invasions of Alexander the great during the 4th century BCE had also influenced the
creation as well. In the political periods the style became more advanced over a set period of
time.
Destruction of the Buddha
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar gives out a speech in favor of the defiance of thebamiyan Buddhas statue. Afghanistans Buddhist population no longer existed, which
removed the possibility of the statues being worshiped. Taliban banned all forms of imagery,
TV, and Music in accordance with what was considered a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Taliban Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told the press of a decision by 400 Religious
clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the views of Islam, he
called for them to be removed.
Koichro Matuuura chief of the UN Education and Cultural Organisation had said that he had
Organized an emergency conference of members for the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference in order to try to stop the Destruction of Buddha of Bamiyan however they are
removing statues and this is being done down to the Muslim faith and its teachings.
MUTAWAKEL asked Taliban or religious students to follow the sharia law which enhanced
their views to remove the statues. They wanted a Muslim state, the regime was only
considered by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
However In March 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar waged a war against Buddha
Worshipping. Taliban destroyed the 1.700 year old sandstone statues Buddhas of bamiyan
with anti-aircraft and tank fire the world tallest stone sculptures.
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The operation to crash the statues carved into a cliff in the bamiyan valley in the Hindu Kush
Mountains of Afghanistan was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah.
Mullah Omer said Muslims should be proud of smashing idols, Afghan Foreign Minister
Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the damage was anything but retaliation against the
International Community for economic consents we are destroying the statues in accordance
with Islamic law and it is purely a religious problem.
The international community and Afghan people was outraged and upset because a famous
statue within the Buddhist community was destroyed by such evil acts.
The political reason for destroying world famous statues was down to Pakistan who wanted
to destroy Buddha and play a political game with India and other Buddhist countries.
Pakistan was supporting the Taliban to use them against other non-Muslim countries and the
Pakistan ISI was behind destruction of Buddha of bamiyan. The ISI was controlling the
Taliban they were ruling by the name of Mullah omar, they influenced them to destroyed thestatues.
The History Books of Buddha of Bamiyan
The Bamiyan of Buddha was a good topic I got all my information from the text book which was
written by LIewelyn Morgan who gives an insight into why these statues had been removed and how
Islam played a part in the destruction of these Buddha statues. The Buddha of Bamiyan (Morgan,
2012) helped me understand and get relevant information on this topic.
The second book that I have read I learn a lot about Buddha statues and Bamiyan valley. The book
was written by (Sim-Williams, 01/12/2007) and the topic I choose for this project is Buddha ofbamiyan so it got history information about Buddhist in Afghanistan. The influences it had at the
time and what role politically it had on Afghanistan and neighboring countries.
Project Review
In conclusion the creation of this website and online exhibition for Buddha of bamiyan has
been a success so far and the information has been collected and has been implemented
onto the technology as previously stated the platform used was Omeka. The main issue was
to find pictures for the online gallery and interviewing former Taliban commander who is a
witness of the destruction of the Buddha of bamiyan.
There were some issues that I went through in the implementation of this website. One of
which was that the pages that I created were not publishing on the website, so the user was
unable to see the pages that I created. In the end I managed to resolve it, omeka was quiet
complex to understand at the start but after playing around with it I managed to get it
working.
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I have managed to create a working exhibition style website that displays images of the
Buddha of Bamiyan along with descriptions and metadata for the user to see the
background of this topic. I added audio recording of people from Afghanistan who hold
valuable knowledge about the Buddha of bamiyan.
Resources
Bibliography
Hazrat.J.Ali. (2010, 11 18). http://www.hazarapeople.com/buddhas-of-bamyan/. Retrieved march
20, 2013, from http://www.hazarapeople.com/buddhas-of-bamyan/:
http://www.hazarapeople.com/buddhas-of-bamyan/
Morgan, L. (2012). The Buddhas of Bamiyan. Great Britain : Liewelyn Morgan .
Sim-Williams, N. (01/12/2007). Bactrian Documents: From Northern Afghanistan; Ii: Letters and
Buddhist Texts Ni. United Kingdom: Khalili Collections.
Appendix
Interview with Eye witness
Hi my name is Khalid Zaheer and I am interviewing you today
What is your name?
Nazeem jan
1: What do you remember about the bamiyan Buddahs what happened?
Nazeem: They tied our hands arrested me tied a rope around our waist they would take us to thehead of the giant buddah
They tied a rope and suspended us from their we took drills in our hands and installed explosives
There was a terrible sound when u look it was all smoke and dust and fire Whenever I see these
empty places I feel like it was the day of my death I was thinking when will they come and kill me
what a horrible time it was
They are looking for the sleeping Buddha they are still digging his name was juan sing he trekked
from china to India to search for sacred Buddhist sects he later found bamiyan
2: Why did the Taliban destroy them?
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Nazeem:Well. It because TalibanTaliban is sharia law organisation they have. The life is for
Allah we do not follow Buddha or idol worshiping they say it is haram so they want to destroy the
bamiyan buddah because people will follow Buddha or pray like buddah it is wrong we pray to Allah
and Taliban they were in the rule they decide to remove bamiyan buddah
They stop TV, Music, they wanted to go and do pray they stop all these things
3: Who was behind this?
Nazeem: It was from start Pakistan they give idea to destroy, Pakistan wanted to hurt India because
politics they dont like each other so they wanted to remove and Taliban they say it is right because
Afghanistan is Islamic country so they do not need statues.
Pakistan had war with India so they want to make India angry of this reason