An ordinary courtyard and an inconspicuous two-story building are home to the National Museum of Afghanistan. Since the Taliban entered the capital Kabul in August, the National Museum of Afghanistan has experienced a brief closure and has recently reopened to local and foreign visitors.
The Global Times reporter, accompanied by Mohammed Yahya Mokhbuzada, deputy director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, recently made an exclusive visit to the museum and saw many collections that retain Afghan cultural memories.
On the cold weekend, due to the weather, there were not many visitors, the steps to enter the museum were not complicated, and the entrance was garrisoned by gun-wielding Taliban personnel, responsible for the security of the museum. Hearing that it was a visitor from China, the Taliban greeted them warmly and nodded and smiled at the Global Times reporters.
Tickets are cheap, domestic visitors fare 20 arni (about 1.3 yuan), foreign visitors 100 arni (about 6.5 yuan), if you need to take pictures, the ticket price doubles. After buying your tickets, you can enter the museum through the security gate.
According to Mokhbuzada, Afghanistan has been turbulent, and museum tickets are a big expense for locals, but people are willing to pay money to visit and learn about Afghanistan's history, and they are proud of their culture. "Afghanistan's economy is not good now, and tickets are a big burden for locals, but there are still many Afghans who come to learn about the splendid culture and history." Just yesterday, we hosted a team of 150 college students. ”
From Buddha heads to oil paintings
On the stone stele at the entrance of the main building of the museum, the English inscription "A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive", which means "culture prospers the existence of the country". Located at the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilizations, Afghanistan has collided and merged in the past thousand years of history, leaving behind a unique cultural crystal. However, years of war have caused great harm to the protection of Afghanistan's cultural heritage, especially the National Museum of Afghanistan, and a large number of cultural relics have been stolen, looted and destroyed.
Now, with the Taliban returning to power, everything is slowly improving. The Taliban Government has made an open commitment to the international community to respect different cultures and to actively protect its cultural heritage.
In addition to the remains of Islamic culture, Global Times reporters also enjoyed statues of King Kashesegar of the Kushan Empire, the "treasure of the town hall", Buddhist portraits, and fragments of Buddha heads and 5,000-year-old silver bowls.
Mukhbuzada stressed that the collections document Afghanistan's splendid and colorful culture and highlight its characteristics as a meeting place of different civilizations.
Oil paintings by Afghan painters, as well as traditional screens from China and porcelain from the Qing Dynasty, are on display.
Funding comes from the Taliban government
Mukhbuzada recalled to the Global Times reporter that the process of the Taliban entering the capital at that time was relatively calm, and the museum was taken over by the Taliban the next day, and all staff members were not allowed to enter." ”
A month later, the Taliban returned management authority to the museum and assigned security personnel to the museum. "In the process, the museum has not been damaged in any way, and the collection has not been lost."
The National Museum of Afghanistan is small, and the number of exhibits in the limited space is not large, and most of the collection is still stored in the basement. For security reasons, some national treasures are still stored in the Presidential Palace.
"The museum now has more than 80 staff, including female staff, all of which are managed by the Taliban government and paid by the government," Mukhbuzada told reporters. There are currently no channels for receiving assistance from international organizations. ”
Thanks to our Chinese counterparts
In order to protect the precious cultural relics that survived the war, the National Museum of Afghanistan has selected a number of heavyweight collections and began a 14-year global tour through more than a dozen countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and China in October 2006.
In March 2017, the national treasures debuted at the Palace Museum, with the theme of the exhibition "Heavy Light in the Fire", which means that after the trials of the Afghan war and national turmoil, they were reborn and reappeared. Since then, until 2019, the national treasures have been exhibited in Dunhuang, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Changsha and other places in China.
Mukhbuzada said that he had visited many Chinese cities with the exhibits at that time, and "was very impressed with China, and at that time exchanged a lot of experience with his Chinese counterparts and thanked them for their support for the exhibits." ”
Now on the shelves of his office, Mukhbuzada prominently displays the honorary certificate awarded to him by the Hunan Provincial Museum, which bears witness to the efforts and achievements of cultural exchanges between China and Afghanistan.
Faced with the dilemmas and problems facing the protection of cultural relics in Afghanistan, Wang Xudong, president of the Palace Museum, invited well-known scholars at home and abroad to jointly issue a public initiative in November, calling on the international community to increase the protection of Afghanistan's cultural heritage.
Shan Jixiang, former president of the Palace Museum and president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, once told the Global Times that China is more actively involved in the protection of international cultural heritage and is willing to play a more important role in protecting Afghanistan's cultural relics. It is hoped that through practical cooperation between museums and the spirit of international cooperation, the cultural relics of Afghanistan will be better protected.