The Bamiyan Buddhas are two of the Great Buddhas located in the Bamiyan Grottoes and are listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
In 2001, the Taliban regime ordered the destruction of the two Buddha statues.
Located in central Afghanistan, the Bamiyan Valley is a famous historical and cultural hub.
Here once stood two magnificent and solemn Buddha statues, the Bamiyan Buddha, these two great Buddhas have gone through vicissitudes, and have a history of nearly 1500 years, witnessing the glory of the ancient Silk Road.
By 2001, however, the Big Buddha had been blown up by fundamentalist Taliban, who controlled power in Afghanistan. This event has also become one of the most heinous cultural catastrophes of our time.
Bamiyan is located on the Silk Road and is a transportation hub between Europe and Persia.
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Bamiyan Buddha | the world's largest Buddha, or more precisely, the "world's largest stone Buddha" before 803 AD.
In the early years of geography and tourism, many of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan were called "the world's first Buddha" and the world's largest Buddhist grotto.
The astonishing height of the Bamiyan Buddha statue, the arduous process of excavating the Cave and its artistic value, everywhere flash the glory of ancient Central Asian civilization, and there are many mysteries that are difficult to solve.
2,000 years ago, the world's largest giant, Bamiyan, 150 kilometers northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, with a population of less than 10,000, was the capital of Bamiyan Province, connecting Iran to India.
At an altitude of 2,500 meters, the Bamiyan River crosses the gorge.
On the 3-kilometer-long cliff on the north side of the river valley, there are more than 6,000 Buddhist caves, and the black hole holes are like honeycomb ant nests.
The cave is carved with tens of thousands of Buddha statues.
In fact, the two giant Buddhas are about 400 meters apart, carved on the spot by the caves and mountains.
At 53 meters high, the Western Buddha is a statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, with a kind face and vivid shape, wearing a red robe, gilded face and hands, which is said to have been chiseled in the 5th century.
The 37-meter-tall Buddha is a statue of Garan Buddha, clad in a blue robe with a gilded face and hands, chiseled in the 1st century.
This Buddha statue is very tall, and more than 100 people can stand on the overhead platform.
It was not until 803 AD that the 71-meter-high seated statue of Maitreya Buddha was carved into Leshan, China, and the height was exceeded.
Therefore, the Bamiyansi Buddha can only be regarded as the "world's largest stone Buddha" before 803 AD.
Built in the 5th century, more than 1,500 years ago, these two Buddhas were included in the United Nations Cultural Heritage List of Humanity.
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The fate of the Bamiyan Buddha | a disaster, but 20 years ago, the Buddha was dealt a fatal blow
For 1500 years, the two Buddhas have suffered a lot of disasters, and during the Soviet invasion, mines were planted near the statues.
In the mid-1990s, a larger Statue of Buddha competed to become a place where armed factions in Afghanistan piled up arms.
In 1998, the Bamiyan Valley fell into the hands of the Taliban regime, and its soldiers never stopped attacking the two Buddha statues, which had been destroyed by rocket fire on the head and part of the shoulders, and the quiet smiling face was difficult to recognize.
It is said that a Taliban commander once drilled a hole in the body of the Big Buddha and tried to completely destroy it, but fortunately he was finally persuaded by local officials to stop it, and the Big Buddha was able to survive for the rest of his life.
On 27 February 2001, the leaders of the Afghan Taliban signed a decree supporting its destruction.
In this way, the madness of a few people made the Big Buddha disappear in an instant.
Before it was destroyed, the two great Buddhas, one east and one west, 38 meters high and 55 meters high, stood facing north and south in two arch-shaped caves.
These caves sit on a cliff about 1,000 meters long, and there are thousands of large and small caves on the cliffs, all of which were once carved with various Buddha statues, but now they are gone.
How did this happen?
In fact, the two Bamiyan Buddhas have stood for thousands of years, and although the wind and rain and the artificial destruction of a few people have damaged the Buddha, they have basically maintained a spectacular and exquisite original appearance.
However, when the annual ring of history entered 2001, the Giant Buddha suffered a fatal blow.
In March of that year, the extremist Taliban regime, citing the presence of the Giant Buddha in Afghanistan as a blasphemy against Islam, brutally blew up two Giant Buddhas, including other Islamic countries, in spite of the strong opposition of the entire world, including other Islamic countries, and inflicted heavy damage on world civilization.
It is said that they used various weapons of war, such as cannons, explosives, and bazookas, to destroy all the Buddha statues near Bamiyan.
The Bamiyan Buddha statues are now desolate, and all that can be seen under the cliffs is a grotto in the shape of a Buddha statue and the remains of a Buddha statue.
It can be seen that man-made corruption will cause far more harm to historical relics than to the destruction of nature.
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The fate of the Bamiyan Buddha | someone recreated it in 3D with a golden image, recreating the world's tallest standing Buddha
In the early spring of 2001, in the desolate Bamiyan Valley of Central Asia, a mist rose up, and in the sound of violent explosions, two world-famous Buddhas were blown up by the Taliban.
However, the Bamiyan Buddhas, once a heritage of human civilization, have been protected, and tourism has become a major local industry.
The complete destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha has aroused strong concern and unanimous condemnation from the international community.
In the days before and after the destruction of the Buddha, people from all walks of life in the protection of cultural relics and Buddhism in various countries also discussed how to restore or copy the Bamiyan Buddha.
In the end, however, these discussions fell silent, because the reconstruction project was not only costly, but also the Bamiyan Buddha, which was copied in situ, had nothing to do with the real remains, and its religious, cultural, historical, and scientific value was gone.
The Bamiyan Buddha on the ancient Silk Road was "resurrected in 3D".
When the sun illuminates the Buddhist cave that has been empty for 14 years, at that moment, the Buddha's light flows, solemnly rises, and the Bamiyan Buddha, which was blown up by the Afghan Taliban, is "resurrected in 3D".
On the evening of June 6, 2015, a Chinese couple and their technical team, through innovative architectural projection technology, 3D restored the 53-meter-high Bamiyan Buddha with golden images, reproducing the world's tallest standing Buddha.
At the scene, more than a thousand people cheered.
People can't help but imagine the cultural powerhouse on the ancient Silk Road, the former tranquility and prosperity of the ancient city of Bamiyan, and hope that under the "Belt and Road" initiative, this ancient city and even the whole of Afghanistan can regain the glory of the past.
In summary, the Bamiyan Buddha is located in the Bamiyan Grottoes group, about 230 kilometers northwest of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
There are more than 6,000 large and small grottoes here, and there are 6 Buddha statues carved from the mountains in the grotto group.
Two of the giant Buddhas, one built in the 5th century AD, 55 meters high, wearing a red robe, named Selsar.
Chiseled in the 1st century AD, 38 meters high, dressed in a blue robe, named Shamama.
In fact, Afghanistan is an ancient civilization in Central Asia, an important town on the ancient Silk Road.
The Bamiyan Grottoes are located in the city of Bamiyan, in a small river valley at an altitude of 2590 meters in the Kush Mountains of the North Hindu.
Historically, Bamiyan was an important transportation hub connecting Central, West and South Asian trade routes and a famous Buddhist shrine.
At that time, Bamiyan had become a Buddhist center, and Buddhists from different schools of the world came here to study Buddhism.
The ancient mainland monks Faxian and Xuanzang visited Bamiyan in the 4th and 7th centuries.
It has also become an important hub for the eastern transmission of Buddhism.
It was xuanzang's school of "speaking the world" that built two Bamiyan Buddhas.
The Buddha statues of that year were also inlaid with many jewels, and in addition to the monks, there were also merchants who walked along the Silk Road. Bamiyan became an international city for a time.
However, it later became the sphere of Influence of Islam, and the fate of the Bamiyan Buddha has been devastated since then, 20 years ago, the Buddha was dealt a fatal blow, and in recent years, someone has 3D restored the world's tallest Standing Buddha with golden images.
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The author | Gong Liuhui