Postcard #16: Buddha Statue in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley

Hello!

A beautiful postcard from Afghanistan which is rich with cultural heritage and is definitely a history lesson. The Afghanistani postcard features one of the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the country - "Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of Bamiyan Valley". The postcard shhows the landscape of Bamiyan Village with a huge Buddha statue of Bamiyan Valley in the background.

There are two statues in Bamiyan Valley which were built during 6th century. The statues represent a classic blended style of Indo-Greek art. The two giant statues, named Vairocana and Sakyamuni, measure 55 and 37 metres high respectively and are the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world.

The Buddha statues of Bamiyan Valley gained World fame when Taliban Government in Afghanistan destroyed the Buddhas using demolitions and tank barrages. The re-construction of the Buddhas is on the cards but nothing has been done so far. After the destruction of Buddha statues, 50 caves were also revealed. 12 of these caves wall oil-paintings have been discovered. Japanese experts believe that these oil-paintings were painted between 5th and 8th century.

In Sep 2008, another statue of 19-metre-long "Sleeping Buddha" has been found nearby. It depicts the pose known to Buddhists as the scene where Buddha passed into Nirvana.