Two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into a cliff and infamously destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 were located in which part of central Afghanistan?
"Buddhas of Bamiyan The Buddhas of Bamiyan (Persian: – ""bott-hâye Bāmiyān"") were 6th-century monumental statues of Gautam Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, northwest of Kabul at an elevation of . Built in 507 CE (smaller) and 554 CE (larger), the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art. They were respectively tall. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was"
"it to be set by them and guided by the holy religion. In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddhas carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres (125 ft) tall and carved in 507 CE, the other 53 metres (174 ft) tall and carved in 554 CE. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world. The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan's heritage, and Japan linked financial aid to the preservation of the statues. However, after a few years, a decree was"
"remains in Afghanistan today. Along ancient trade routes, however, stone monuments of the once flourishing Buddhist culture did exist as reminders of the past. The two massive sandstone Buddhas of Bamyan, thirty-five and fifty-three meters high overlooked the ancient route through Bamyan to Balkh and dated from the 3rd and 5th centuries. They survived until 2001, when they were destroyed by the Taliban. In this and other key places in Afghanistan, archaeologists have located frescoes, stucco decorations, statuary, and rare objects from as far away as China, Phoenicia, and Rome, which were crafted as early as the 2nd century and"
"in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, has many Buddhist carvings, statues, and stupas. The town of Jehanabad contains a Seated Buddha statue. Kushan era Buddhist stupas and statues in Swat valley were demolished by the Taliban, and after two attempts by the Taliban, the Jehanabad Buddha's face was dynamited. Only the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, which the Taliban also demolished, were larger than the Buddha statue in Swat. The government did nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempt at destroying the Buddha, which did not cause permanent harm; when the second attack took place on the statue, the feet,"
"Before that she had been a reporter for DW in the Middle East and Lebanon. Both of the reporters were considered experienced foreign journalists and had traveled to Afghanistan multiple times in the past for personal or business reasons. Karen Fischer and Christian Struwe were on a private research trip in Afghanistan, on the way to the historic site of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan, where the Taliban blew up the cultural heritage site in March 2001. The two journalists had pitched a tent off to the side of the road to sleep for the night. Around 1:30 a.m., from"
"Buddha were carved into the sides of cliffs facing Bamyan city. The two most prominent of these statues were standing Buddhas, now known as the Buddhas of Bamyan, measuring 55 and 37 meters high respectively, that were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world. They were probably erected in the 4th or 5th century A.D. They were cultural landmarks for many years and are listed among UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. In March 2001 the Taliban government decreed that the statues were idolatrous and ordered them to be demolished with anti-aircraft artillery and explosives. By the 7th century,"
"Omar issued a decree in favor of the preservation of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Because Afghanistan's Buddhist population no longer exists, so the statues are no longer worshiped, he added: ""The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected."" In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set. In March 2001, the Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban under an"
"The Buddhas were seen as transcendental images and key symbols in the rise of Mahayana Buddhist teachings, the antithesis of Taliban belief construct and rule of law. In 1998, a Taliban commander fired grenades at the smaller statue, severing its upper half. The Taliban bombed the mountain above the statues frequently, cracking the enclaves that held the statues and damaging the colossi further. By winter 2001, pleas were raining down on the Taliban from around the world to spare the statues. Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban Islamic militia in Afghanistan, dismissed the international pleas of the art and"
"Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict against un-Islamic graven images, including but not limited to, all idolatrous images of humans and animals. The well-coordinated and media sensationalized dynamiting of the giant Buddhas was the Taliban's outwardly dramatic expression of their quest to exterminate all ""idolatrous"" and unIslamic images from Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past. The destruction ancient art, like the peaceful giants, was seen by Taliban radicals as the fulfillment of Koranic law. Dated to the 7th Century B.C., the Colossi were cut at what is conceived to be an immeasurable cost into the towering, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan. Located at the"
"the Taliban in March 2001, on the grounds that they were an affront to Islam, even though they were left intact by Muslim rulers for 1200 years. Limited efforts have been made to rebuild them, with negligible success. At one time, two thousand monks meditated in caves among the sandstone cliffs. The caves were also a big tourist attraction before the long series of wars in Afghanistan. The world's earliest oil paintings have been discovered in caves behind the destroyed statues. Scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have confirmed that the oil paintings, probably of either walnut or poppy"
"have historical significance in the Indian subcontinent and China. The Hindu Kush range was a major centre of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. It has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent, a region where the Taliban and Al Qaeda grew, and to modern era warfare in Afghanistan. Buddhism was widespread in the ancient Hindu Kush region. Ancient artwork of Buddhism include the giant rock carved statues called the Bamiyan Buddha, in the southern and western end of the Hindu Kush. These statues were blown up by the Taliban Islamists. The southeastern valleys"
"Afghanistan. There were also many works of art lost as a result of the civil war. One of the worst of the casualties was the loss of two statues. The Red Mountain range in Bamiyan that once housed two giant statues of the Buddha, on cliff faces, besides smaller structures of archaeological significance. The two big statues, dating back to the 5th or 6th century CE, were the largest of all Buddhist statues so far attested in the world. Only remnants of these statues were left behind. Hadda, Afghanistan Haḍḍa () is a Greco-Buddhist archeological site located in the ancient"
"income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected."" In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of the alcoves where the Buddhas were set. However, Afghanistan's radical clerics began a campaign to crack down on ""un-Islamic"" segments of Afghan society. The Taliban soon banned all forms of imagery, music, and sports, including television, in accordance with what they considered a strict interpretation of Sharia. In March 2001, the statues were destroyed by the Taliban of Mullah Omar following a decree issued by him."
"in centuries past. The larger statue reappears as the malevolent giant Salsal in medieval Turkish tales. Afghan Muslim King Abdur Rahman Khan destroyed its face during a military campaign against the Shia Hazara rebellion. A Frenchman named Dureau had pictured it in 1847. The Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed by the fundamentalist Islamist Taliban regime in 2001 in defiance of worldwide condemnation. The statues were blown up and fired upon by rockets and gunfire. Excavators at the Buddhist site of Mes Aynak have been denounced as ""promoting Buddhism"" and threatened by the Taliban and many of the Afghan excavators who are"
"make-up and high heels in the Afghan capital where the Department of Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was installed to ensure strict compliance. The Ministry administrators regularly beat women who disobeyed these dress-code laws. Even today, 10 years after the end of the Taliban's official regime ended, beauty parlors in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, do their best to hide go unnoticed by Taliban sympathizers. The obliteration of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan also known as the ""Bamiyan Massacre"" is arguably the most devastating act by the Taliban against the history of Afghanistan. In March 2001, supreme Taliban leader"
"and Jehanabad contains a Seated Buddha statue. Kushan era Buddhist ""stupas"" and statues in Swat valley were demolished after two attempts by the Taliban and the Jehanabad Buddha's face was dynamited. Only the Buddhas of Bamiyan were larger than the carved giant Buddha statues in Swat near Manglore which the Taliban attacked. The government did nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempts to destroy the Buddha, which did not cause permanent harm. But when a second attack took place on the statue, the feet, shoulders, and face were demolished. Islamists such as the Taliban, and looters, destroyed many"
"Buddha statue. Kushan era Buddhist stupas and statues in Swat valley were demolished by the Taliban and after two attempts by the Taliban, the Jehanabad Buddha's face was dynamited. Only the Bamiyan Buddhas were larger than the carved giant Buddha statue in Swat near Mangalore which the Taliban attacked. The government did nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempt at destroying it, which did not cause permanent harm, but when the second attack took place on the statue the feet, shoulders, and face were demolished. Islamists such as the Taliban and looters destroyed much of Pakistan's Buddhist artifacts"
"soon thereafter. The first European to see Bamyan was William Moorcroft (explorer) about 1824. During 1998–2001, Bamyan has been the center of combat between Taliban forces and the anti-Taliban alliance; mainly Hizb-i-Wahdat – amid clashes among the warlords of local militia. Bamyan is also known as the capital of Daizangi. On the cliff face of a mountain nearby, three colossal statues were carved 4,000 feet apart. One of them was 175 feet (53 m) high standing statue of Buddha, the world's tallest. The ancient statue was carved during the Kushan period in the fifth century. The statues were destroyed by"
"and technique the relief carving may be compared to 7th - 8th century Tang sculpture in central Asia. This Buddha seated statue is most famous because it is the second largest Buddha Statue (formally called as Budh Ghat) in central Asia. In 2007 the Taliban tried to destroy the head of the relief with explosives, although ultimately only the top part of the Buddha’s head was damaged. The carving has since been restored by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat. A coating was applied to protect the damaged part of the carving in 2012, and next the face was restored"
"working for purely financial reasons don't feel any connection to the Buddhist artifacts. Swat Valley in Pakistan has many Buddhist carvings, stupas and Jehanabad contains a Seated Buddha statue. Kushan era Buddhist stupas and statues in Swat valley were demolished by the Taliban and after two attempts by the Taliban, the Jehanabad Buddha's face was dynamited. Only the Bamiyan Buddhas were larger than the carved giant Buddha status in Swat near Mangalore which the Taliban attacked. The government did nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempt at destroying the Buddha, which did not cause permanent harm, and when"
"the subject of ""idolatry"". A recent act of iconoclasm was the 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamyan by the then Taliban government of Afghanistan. The act generated world-wide protests and was not supported by other Muslim governments and organizations. It was widely perceived in the Western media as a result of the Muslim prohibition against figural decoration. Such an account overlooks ""the coexistence between the Buddhas and the Muslim population that marveled at them for over a millennium"" before their destruction. The Buddhas had twice in the past been attacked by Nadir Shah and Aurengzeb. According to the"
"home or pursuing an education, were not to leave their homes without an accompanying male relative, and required to wear a traditional burqa. The Taliban repressed minority populations, particularly the Shia, as a retaliation in which approximately 2,500 Taliban soldiers were massacred by Abdul Malik and his Shia followers; attacked the Iranian embassy, killing eight diplomats and a television reporter, claiming them as spies. In 2001, as part of a drive against relics of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past, the Taliban destroyed two large statues of Buddha outside of the city of Bamiyan and announced destruction of all pre-Islamic statues in Afghanistan,"
"into the cliff and the shelter has enabled them to retain their bright colours. Other Chinese Buddhist cave sites with external rock reliefs include Lingyin Temple with many small reliefs, and the Maijishan Grottoes with a main colossal group; unusually for figures of such a size, they are in bas-relief. The Bamiyan Buddha figures were two standing Buddha figures of the 6th century in Afghanistan which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001; they probably were one of the immediate influences on the Chinese sites further east on he Silk Road. In Japan the Nihon-ji temple includes a colossal seated"
"He blamed the decision to destroy the Buddhas on Al-Qaeda's influence on the Taliban. In January 2007, he was assassinated in Kabul. Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei made a 95-minute documentary titled ""The Giant Buddhas"" (released in March 2006) on the statues, the international reactions to their destruction, and an overview of the controversy. Testimony by local Afghans validates that Osama bin Laden ordered the destruction and that, initially, Mullah Omar and the Afghans in Bamiyan opposed it. A novel titled 'An Afghan Winter' provides a fictional backdrop to the destruction of the Buddhas and its impact on the global Buddhist"
"of the beautiful paintings that decorated the niches were subsequently offered for sale in the Peshawar bazaar. By early March 2001, the colossi were rubble. After the demise of the two colossi in 2001, Dr. Zemaryali Tarzi, a renown Afghan archeologist that fled to France upon the Soviet invasion, made the decision to return to Afghanistan and search out an elusive piece of Afghanistan's history, the Sleeping Buddha of Bamiyan. The last time the Sleeping Buddha was seen was approximately 630 C.E. when it was recorded in the journal of Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim who traveled to central Afghanistan in"
"form of various languages and monuments. However, many of its historic monuments have been damaged in modern times. The two famous Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded them as idolatrous. Despite that, archaeologists are still finding Buddhist relics in different parts of the country, some of them dating back to the 2nd century. This indicates that Buddhism was widespread in Afghanistan. Other historical places include the cities of Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Zaranj. The Minaret of Jam in the Hari River valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site. A cloak reputedly worn by Islam's prophet"
"shoulders, and face were demolished. Islamists (particularly the Taliban) and looters destroyed many of Pakistan's Buddhist artifacts, which dated to the Buddhist Gandhara civilization. The Taliban deliberately targeted Gandhara Buddhist relics for destruction. Gandhara artifacts were thereafter plundered by thieves and smugglers. In 2009, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Diocsece of Lahore, Lawrence John Saldanha, wrote a letter to Pakistan's government denouncing the Taliban activities in Swat Valley, including their destruction of Buddha statues, and their attacks on Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus. A group of Italians helped repair the Buddha. Swat is surrounded by Chitral, Upper Dir and Lower"
"capital of Ghazni province was destroyed by the British-led Indian forces in the Battle of Ghazni. In the 1960s a 15-meter female Buddha was discovered lying on its back and surrounded by empty pillars that once held rows of smaller male Buddhas. Parts of the female Buddha have been stolen. In the 1980s a mud brick shelter was created to protect the sculpture, but the wood supports were stolen for firewood and the shelter partially collapsed. Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, there has been a Provincial reconstruction base and a NATO forces base. These western forces"
"late July 1998, the Taliban used the trucks (donated by Saudis) mounted with machine guns to capture the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif. ""Ahmed Rashid later estimated that 6000 to 8000 Shia men, women and children were slaughtered in a rampage of murder and rape that included slitting people's throats and bleeding them to death, halal-style, and baking hundreds of victims into shipping containers without water to be baked alive in the desert sun."" Another activity Afghan Muslims had not engaged in before this time was destruction of statues. In 2001, the Taliban dynamited and rocketed the nearly 2000-year-old statues Buddhist"
"and had to be destroyed. In the end the men cut the tree down and carried it off. Clapping with stones is a video documentary, which contains a group of men in black ""Shalwar Kameez"" performing a prayer like ritual in front of the rock of Bamiyan. The Bamiyan contains traces of ancient Buddha's, which was destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. Brick Sellers of Kabul is a photograph of young children in Kabul, each of them breaking a brick that they hand to a man with a shock of unruly hair and a painted expression. They are very serious"
"left over from the Buddhist Gandhara civilization, especially in Swat Valley. The Taliban deliberately targeted Gandhara Buddhist relics for destruction. The Christian Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence John Saldanha wrote a letter to Pakistan's government denouncing the Taliban activities in Swat Valley including their destruction of Buddha statues and their attacks on Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus. Gandhara Buddhist artifacts were also looted by smugglers. A group of Italians helped repair the Buddha at Jahan Abad, Swat. In March 2013, a group of around 20 Buddhist monks from South Korea made the journey to the monastery of Takht-e-Bahi, 170 kilometres (106 miles)"
"and tended to be persecuted by the iconoclastic Muslims. Destructions continued during the Afghanistan War, and especially by the Taliban regime in 2001. The most famous case is that of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan. Ironically, most of the remaining art from Afghanistan still extant was removed from the country during the Colonial period. In particular, a rich collection exists at the Musee Guimet in France. The art of the Tarim Basin, also called Serindian art, is the art that developed from the 2nd through the 11th century AD in Serindia or Xinjiang, the western region of China"
"2008. Panjshir Valley The Panjshir Valley (also spelled Panjsheer or Panjsher; – ""Dare-ye Panjšēr""; literally ""Valley of the Five Lions"") is a valley in north-central Afghanistan, north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. It is divided by the Panjshir River. The valley is home to more than 940,000 people, including Afghanistan's largest concentration of ethnic Tajiks. In April 2004, it became the heart of the new Panjshir Province, having previously been part of Parwan Province. It was the site of the Panjshir offensives fought between the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviets against the mujahideen during the"