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Concept
Buddhas of Bamiyan
Summary
The Buddhas of Bamiyan (or Bamyan) were two 6th-century monumental statues carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, northwest of Kabul at an elevation of . Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 CE, and the larger "Western Buddha" was built around 618 CE, which would date both to the time when the Hephthalites ruled the region. On orders from Taliban founder Mullah Omar, the statues were destroyed in March 2001, after the Taliban government declared that they were idols. International and local opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas.
The statues represented a later evolution of the classic blended style of Gandhara art. The larger statue was named "Salsal" ("the light shines through the universe") and was referred as a male. The smaller statue is called "Shah Mama" ("Queen Mother"), identified as a female figure.
Technically, both were reliefs: at the rear, they each merged into the cliff wall. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, the majority of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands, and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red, and the smaller one was painted multiple colors. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix, supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces consisted of huge wooden masks. Rows of holes held wooden pegs that stabilised the outer stucco.
The Buddhas were surrounded by numerous caves and surfaces decorated with paintings. It is thought that these mostly dated from the 6th to 8th centuries CE, ending with the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan. The smaller works of art are considered as an artistic synthesis of Buddhist art and Gupta art from India, with influences from the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire, as well as the Tokhara Yabghus.
Official source
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