I don't know how many of you know anything about the Buddha's of Bamiyan in Afganistan, but I recently saw somehing on PBS about it. There was an ancient city called Bamiyan along the Silk Road. It was at a critical location and Bamiyan became incredibly weathy and prosperous. It was there that two Statues of Buddha were built. They were absolutely enormous and one of those little-known wonders of the world. The Taliban had them dynamited because they were images of "heretical false gods."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan

Originally Posted by wikipedia

In March 2001, according to Agence France Presse in Kabul, the decree declared, "Based on the verdict of the clergymen and the decision of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed. All the statues in the country should be destroyed because these statues have been used as idols and deities by the non-believers before. They are respected now and may be turned into idols in future too. Only Allah, the Almighty, deserves to be worshipped, not anyone or anything else."
Information and Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan, declaring the Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. "They came out with a consensus that the statues were unIslamic," said Jamal.
The London Times, on March 6, reported Mullah Mohammed Omar stating "Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to God that we have destroyed them." During a March 13 interview for Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, Foreign Afghan Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel stated that the destruction was anything but a retaliation against the international community for economic sanctions. "We are destroying the Buddha statues in accordance with Islamic law and it is purely a religious issue."
After surviving intact for over 1,500 years, the Islamist Taliban government, decreed that the statues were idolatrous and unislamic. During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, "this work of destruction is not as easy 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." The two largest Buddhas faced dynamite and tank barrages and were demolished after almost a month of intensive bombardment.
In March 2001, according to Agence France Presse in Kabul, the decree declared, "Based on the verdict of the clergymen and the decision of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed. All the statues in the country should be destroyed because these statues have been used as idols and deities by the non-believers before. They are respected now and may be turned into idols in future too. Only Allah, the Almighty, deserves to be worshipped, not anyone or anything else."

Here is a picture of one of them before the Taliban obliterated it:

There was already extensive damage done by the Taliban, using the Buddha as target practice for artillery. As a testiment to their giant stature, it took a couple months of dynamiting and bombarding to complete finish of the two statues. Please note the people standing underneath, to give you an idea of the size of the statues (yeah, there was another one).

MY POINT (which I didn't have time for before now): Other than the obvious loss of a priceless historical treasure and holy site, the Taliban managed to demonstrate something very important here. The Muslim world seems to regularly ask itself, "Gee, wouldn't it be great if we once again built the government of all of our nations based on the Holy Koran?" The intentional destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan perfectly demonstrates the sort of Bigotry and Complete Disrespect for Other People's Religions that the Taliban had. They were overwhelmingly against any other religion being allowed to practice within the borders of Afganistan, making it the law of the land to completely erase every other religious faith. In its current status, Islam is incapable of instituting 'Rule and Government by the Holy Book' because the extremists elements will inevitably lead to things like this repeating themselves.

By the way, the Taliban actually forced a faithful Buddist to set the dynamite and detonate them. He was interviewed later and said that he would have been more than willing to die to save the Buddhas, but he knew full well that the Taliban would destroy them. So he did it. Must be an awful thing to be forced to demolish one of your religion's most sacred sites.

Yes I remember about that.

a group of French archaelogists seem to be working to restore that, right?

I don't remember how much damage the imbeciles did before they stopped. I need to go back and read up on it.

I think one of the statues was 50 % destroyed and the other one pretty much 100 %. But I might be wrong.

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/re...struction.html

http://www.redtailcanyon.com/items/12960.aspx

What a bunch of animals. Oops, animals have brains, I'm sorry. That's quite a load of bad Karma for the folks, I hope they have had time to make amends.

fortunately these brainless animals are either in Gitmo or buried in graves, courtesy of Uncle Sam

Yeah, I remember hearing about this way back when I was in middle school I think. One of those things that makes a kid go "what the F***, how can adults do something so stupid?" and I have never forgotten it.

Originally Posted by Italian Guy

I think one of the statues was 50 % destroyed and the other one pretty much 100 %. But I might be wrong.

No, both were completely destroyed

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Even though the figures of the two large Buddhas are almost completely destroyed, their outlines and some features are still recognizable within the recesses.

As it says, they are completely and totally gone.
There was strong historical evidence that a legendary 3rd Buddha still exists, but is lost somewhere at Bamiyan. That Buddha statue was supposedly lying flat on its back and was supposed to be either 1000 ft or 1000 meters (don't remember which at the moment) that they are trying to find. They think they've unearthed a corner of it. This one was supposed to be lying on its back.

To answer the question about the work being done toward their restoration:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4134252.stm

BTW, added a picture of one of the statues to my original post.