AFGHANISTAN
Ancient Buddha statue unearthed
KABUL : An archaeologist has discovered the remains of an ancient 19-metre-long ”reclining Buddha” in the central Afghanistan town Bamiyan, a government official said yesterday. A team led by Afghan archaeologist Zameryalai Tarzi had been searching for a fabled reclining statue measuring 300 metres when they made the discovery, information and culture ministry adviser Mohammad Zia Afshar said.
”The team found a 19-metre-long reclining Buddha statue and 89 other relics. Among them were three coins from Greek, Bactrian and Islamic eras,” he said.
A book written by a Chinese pilgrim who visited Afghanistan centuries ago suggested there existed a 300-metre-long Buddha in a sleeping posture in Bamiyan, once a Buddhism centre.
Archaeologists renewed their search for it after the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, which bombed and destroyed two giant standing Buddha statues that were believed to be around 1,600 years old.
”The team excavated areas southeast of the 35-metre-tall destroyed Buddha and discovered the neck and right shoulder of a sleeping Buddha statue,” said Mr Afshar. He did not say when the discovery was made. AFP
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This is amazing. Wish you had posted more photos. I am beginning to learn more about Afghanistan’s history and wealth she had.
Thank you – from Singapore
There aren’t more pictures. I searched the net far and wide for them. I’d love to see more of it myself.
Oh yeah, that’s a picture of the Buddha Statue in Ayuthaya in Thailand.
Thank you for sharing whatever you had. Me too I could not find any in the net either.
If you Google “saving mes aynak,” there’s an incredible DVD movie that came out in Nov. It talks about the efforts to uncover these treasures, and the imminent danger that the site will be destroyed for copper mining.