Religion: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Tweed Thomas A

Author:Tweed, Thomas A. [Tweed, Thomas A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

7. An 1834 engraving of the Buddhas in Bāmiyān, Afghanistan, shows how the statues looked before they were destroyed. The people and camels at the base of the larger Buddha, which was about 175 feet tall, give some sense of their monumental size.

The later history of that cave-temple complex reminds us that mediating institutions and technologies can change. The Bāmiyān monastic community that built those Buddhas in the sixth century ce continued after Islam entered the region. Yet the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan damaged the temple complex in 1222, and late-Mughal emperors (1526–1857) even used the standing Buddhas for target practice. Changes continued after the Taliban, who communicated with silicon chips instead of palm leaves, dynamited the enormous statues in 2001. Supporters were unable to rebuild the colossal images, so those hoping to recover the Afghan Buddhist past resorted to new technologies. In 2015 a Chinese couple donated a device to project 3-D images of the standing Buddhas onto their original alcoves, and for a few moments in the early evening of June 6 they were virtually restored to the cliffs.

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