NYT: Is it possible to restore the great Afghan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban?

[DeepModem Mom]

From Ruins of Afghan Buddhas, a History Grows
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: December 6, 2006


(European Pressphoto Agency)
The western Buddha as it stood from A.D. 554 until March 2001, when it was destroyed by the Taliban. At 180 feet, it was the larger of the two.

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — The empty niches that once held Bamiyan’s colossal Buddhas now gape in the rock face — a silent cry at the terrible destruction wrought on this fabled valley and its 1,500-year-old treasures, once the largest standing Buddha statues in the world.

It was in March 2001, when the Taliban and their sponsors in Al Qaeda were at the zenith of their power in Afghanistan, that militiamen, acting on an edict to take down the “gods of the infidels,” laid explosives at the base and the shoulders of the two Buddhas and blew them to pieces. To the outraged outside world, the act encapsulated the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalist government. Even Genghis Khan, who laid waste to this valley’s towns and population in the 13th century, had left the Buddhas standing.

Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power, Bamiyan’s Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?...

In 2003, the United Nations designated the Bamiyan ruins a World Heritage site, but also listed them as endangered, because of their fragile condition, vulnerability to looters and pressures from a post-Taliban boom in construction and tourism. Intensive efforts have been under way to stabilize what remains of the cliff sculptures and murals.

Meanwhile, archaeologists have been taking advantage of the greatly increased access that became possible once the statues were gone to make new discoveries — and to pursue ancient tales of a third giant Buddha, possibly buried between the two that were destroyed....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/asia/06budd.html?hp&ex=1165467600&en=f26ef06c90cbaebf&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[LynnTheDem]

1. I wanna know if it's possible to restore all the people destroyed by

George w. bush.

[greyl]

2. No, but it's possible to find the new buddhas within. ;) nt

[Union Thug]

3. No, but BushCo might underwrite the carving of the ten commandments

into the cliffs instead.

[liberalsoldier5]

4. Just another reason why

our troops should be in Afghanistan and not Iraq. Damn, if conservatism is supposed to be based on "common sense" like all my friends say it is, can't Bush's brain see the idiocy of our current status in the Middle East?

[OneBlueSky]

5. nothing left to restore . . . but they could be re-created . . .

by a good Hollywood set designer and crew . . .

[War Pigs]

6. I wonder if it's possible to restore the ancient city of

New Orleans???:wtf: