Word: talibans
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...Taliban's dynamiting of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001 was only the most dramatic expression of their mission to obliterate all "idolatrous" images from Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past. They also destroyed 2,500 other cultural artifacts from Kabul's National Museum of Afghanistan, many of them priceless. But thanks to the heroic efforts of curators, they didn't get it all. Hidden Afghanistan, a traveling exhibit that recently opened in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), gives a tantalizing glimpse of Afghanistan's stunningly diverse cultural legacy, and tells an engrossing tale about how these remnants...
...just as Afghanistan's geography invited cultural influence, so too did it draw a sequence of invasion and conquest that has put the country's heritage in constant peril. The Taliban's destruction of art was the culmination of years of catastrophe visited on the National Museum, and the extraordinary story of how the surviving art got here is as much part of the exhibit as the art itself...
...course of the ensuing war against the Soviet invaders, which left two million dead. In the years following the Soviet Army's withdrawal in 1989, what remained of the museum's collection survived further looting, a direct rocket attack, fire, a collapsed roof and resulting snow damage. The victorious Taliban had every interest in completing the destruction...
...During the civil war these people knew about the transfer of these pieces and never gave any information to anybody," says a modest Massoudi. "In this case we keep this like a separate memory during the war, especially during the civil war and even during the Taliban? At that time I remember most of the Afghan and foreign journalists asking about these treasures. 'Where is it? Is it looted or is it here? Is it safe...
...wasn't until 2003, more than a year after the overthrow of the Taliban, that the Afghan government confirmed the existence of the treasures and restoration work began. Less than one-quarter of the museum's original collection survived. Afghanistan is still deemed too unstable for the art to go home, and the museum itself remains badly damaged. So currently this traveling exhibit is the only way Afghans can see the museum's collection. Curators hope the exhibit will go home in the not too distant future, but for now, it will continue making its rounds abroad...