March 3, 2012 by Lina Rozbih-Haidari, Special to the Diplomatic Courier
The monumental statues of Buddha in Bamiyan were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on March 2, 2001, carried out in different stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them. During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, “this work of destruction is not as simple as people might think. You can’t knock down the statues by shelling as both are carved into a cliff; they are firmly attached to the mountain.” Later, the Taliban placed anti-tank mines at the bottom of the niches, so that when fragments of rock broke off from artillery fire, the statues would receive additional destruction from particles that set off the mines. In the end, the Taliban lowered men down the cliff face and placed explosives into holes in the Buddha statues. After one of the explosions failed to completely obliterate the face of one of the Buddha statues, a rocket was launched which left a hole in the remains of the stone head.
As a mourning Afghan over this tragic loss to Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, I dedicate the following poem to the statues of Buddha, which stood tall and untouched, when the Afghan empires championed Islam in the region. Sadly, however, at the dawn of the 21st century, the world watched on global TV networks, as foreign medieval extremists destroyed these irreplaceable statues as one of the world’s eminent cultural heritage sites. The international community must always remember this historic tragedy and never forget the saga of the Afghan people for peace and freedom.
BUDDHA,Listen to my voice,That rolls, reflects and echoes in the sad and broken valleys of your land,Buddha,Listen to my voice, as I murmur your pain that is closely woven into mine,Buddha,Listen to my tale of senseless and insane destruction of a civilization,Buddha,Bear with me, as I tell you the tales of terror, fear and horror of your land,As I tell you the saga of helpless Afghans,As I mourn the tragedy of your destruction, and the fall of a great nation,Buddha,Your ruins and my head both did not crunch the thirst of barbarians,How ridiculous that your silent, peaceful existence and my spark of ideas and logic,Posed a deadly threat to THEIR hollow, poisonous existence!Buddha,Your ashes and my beheaded body,Went unnoticed and forgotten,Just like the death of thousands before you and after me,In the precious land, sadly ruled by ignorant unruly.Buddha,Your place is empty,Like an eye drawn from its socket,When my mother went blind,As she sobbed herself to sleep each night with the vision of my beheaded body.Buddha,Your destruction will always remind mankind of the suffering,Of women beaten, men beheaded, and children imprisoned.Buddha,Though your tenacious statue is no more,We can declare with pride, honor, and glory,That Buddha suffered alongside his people to ensure,The world witnessed and will remember forever the agony of the Afghan nation.Buddha,I know that You wanted to be no more because of intolerable savagery,That You longed for ending the endless pain that you felt in your nation,Buddha,They tell us You intended to fall in the land of lunies,Not as a gesture of surrender and submission,But as a rebellious voice of voiceless,Against,Oppression,Tyranny,Injustice,Cruelty,Ignorance,And SHAME!
Lina Rozbih-Haidari is an Afghan poet, broadcast journalist, and human rights advocate.
Photo: Seamus Murphy. “Bamiyan, Bamiyan Province, June 2003. A Hazara victim of the war passes the rock face that once housed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The Hazara, as Shia Muslims, suffered particular tyranny under the Taliban. The Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.”