Indiana Jones protected them in the 1930s from Japanese soldiers in search of the mystic sutras of Buddha in the 1930s but unfortunately in March 2001 there was no Indiana Jones, Gabriel Hunt, William Harper Littlejohn ,or Sidney Fox to stop what happened to two large Buddha statues that stood in carved out mountain alcoves in the Bamiyan mountains. These two Buddhas one male which stood 174 feet tall and a female which stood 118 feet tall had stood on this site for 1,500 years ( 6th century CE) until the Taliban destroyed them as part of there racial and cultural cleansing campaign against the indigenous Hazzaras peoples . The Taliban leaders ignored pleas from different governments and NGOs to leave the statues alone but they did not listen and through a combination of artillery, mortar, and ultimately dynamite charges brought down the statues. Rumors abounded that they ( the Taliban) had hoped to find gold in the bellies of the Buddhas.
While Afghanistan is still gripped by internal warfare and is once again being used as a game piece in the 21st century version of the Great Game, under the auspices of UNESCO the Buddhas of Bamiyan haven't been forgotten European and Japanese archaeologist have stabilized the cliff face, which was damaged in the artillery, mortar barrages and finally by the damage wrought by the dynamite explosions. UNESCO operatives have surveyed the honeycombs of caves; and preserved pieces of the original statues. Discoveries of previous unknown oil paintings in this complex of caves and a stupa or Buddhist shrine at the base of the cliff itself. As a precursor of things to come unlit lights strung across support scaffolding spell out in the Dari language the word peace. Mayhaps this area will see the peace of the Buddha one day.
While Afghanistan is still gripped by internal warfare and is once again being used as a game piece in the 21st century version of the Great Game, under the auspices of UNESCO the Buddhas of Bamiyan haven't been forgotten European and Japanese archaeologist have stabilized the cliff face, which was damaged in the artillery, mortar barrages and finally by the damage wrought by the dynamite explosions. UNESCO operatives have surveyed the honeycombs of caves; and preserved pieces of the original statues. Discoveries of previous unknown oil paintings in this complex of caves and a stupa or Buddhist shrine at the base of the cliff itself. As a precursor of things to come unlit lights strung across support scaffolding spell out in the Dari language the word peace. Mayhaps this area will see the peace of the Buddha one day.