Word: bamiyan
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...Buddha was out in the open and later buried either by an earthquake or the crumbling sandstone cliff above it. Either way, it has apparently been saved from the Taliban's predations centuries later. Jean-FranCois Jarrige, director of the Guimet Museum of Asiatic Art in Paris, was in Bamiyan recently, walking gingerly along a path cleared in the minefield above the supposed resting place of the reclining Buddha. "We have mine detectors, but so far no Buddha detector has been invented yet," he mused. "We'll just have to dig for it once we've completely studied the site...
...Many archaeologists and scholars agree that a third Buddha exists in Bamiyan?and that it escaped the Taliban's idol-busting spree. It's a whopper; this Buddha is believed to measure up to 200 m long (the upright ones were just 55 m and 38 m high). According to meticulous records kept by Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who trekked to Bamiyan in the 7th century, the Buddha is shown reclining?and dying; freed from his body, he achieves nirvana, or enlightenment...
...need the Buddha unearthed as symbolic proof that the Taliban weren't able to eradicate all of the country's rich, pre-Islamic heritage. The country is a historian's treasure trove. Between the 3rd and 8th centuries, Afghanistan experienced a fusion of Greek, Persian and Indian cultures. The Bamiyan statues, for example, showed traces of Greek influence, as if the sculptors had stolen the robes off Apollo, the Greek sun god, to drape their enormous Buddhas. "There's a cultural void left by the destruction of the two Buddhas," says Afghan archaeologist Zafar Paiman. "I'm sure that...
...grappling with rebuilding a devastated country, excavating an old statue isn't high on the Kabul government's list of priorities. But this week, the U.N. is sponsoring a meeting in Kabul of archaeologists, scholars and possible donor nations to repair the country's war-shattered culture, starting in Bamiyan. Experts say that to restore one of the standing Buddhas could amount to $50 million. A dig for the reclining Buddha would cost a fraction of that...
...Asiatic features mirrored in their faces. "The people who made these Buddhas looked like Hazaras," says Hussain. "That's why the Taliban hated them so much." Forced to help destroy the two standing statues, Hussain says he's ready to find their sleeping companion. If he succeeds, Bamiyan's Buddhas can perhaps finally rest in peace...