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Abstract
In March 2001 the Taliban militia, acting in accordance with a decree
issued by their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, dynamited the third sixth-century
statue of Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. The statue, believed to be
the world's largest Buddhist image, was one of two giant figures carved
into the rock face outside the cave temples and monasteries of this once
significant Silk Road centre.
The destruction of the Buddha was not an isolated incident but part of
an orchestrated campaign of iconoclasm (image-breaking) in accordance
with a fundamentalist Islamic belief that the creation of images of living
things contravenes the will of God.
Afghanistan has a long and significant cultural history. Once known as
Bactria, it came under the influence of Persian, Greek, Indian, Nomad
and Islamic invaders and created an extraordinary range of art and artefacts
in response to the varying influences. Since the early 1990s much of its
cultural heritage has been lost to looting and violence, and what little
remains is now subject to a religious decree condemning all forms of image-making
from Buddhist sculpture to children's toys.
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