Return of the Taliban: Is Afghanistan’s cultural heritage in danger again?

Afghanistan has been an important trade route for thousands of years, with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism flourishing before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century.

The Silk Road connects Afghanistan with China and Iran. Traces of past civilizations are scattered around this highway. Among them is the city of Bamiyan, 130 km west of the capital Kabul, where two rare and tall statues of Gautama Buddha have been standing for centuries by digging out the mountains. The east-facing Buddha statue is 38 meters high and is estimated to have been built in 570 AD, while the west-facing Buddha statue is 55 meters high and was built in 618.

On February 26, 2001, Taliban emir Mullah Mohammad Omar contacted the Majlis Shura and issued a fatwa that all idols and traces of non-Muslim era be erased from Afghanistan. These two statues of Bamiyan were also included in them. When Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of these statues, many countries of the world, including Muslim countries, appealed to him not to do so.

The then Interior Minister of Pakistan, Lt. Gen. (Rtd) Moinuddin Haider also went to Kandahar with a delegation, but Mullah Umar said that he had no authority to stop the implementation of the Ulema’s decision. The United Nations organization UNESCO also tried every tactic that this is a world heritage, which would be a serious violation of international laws to destroy, but the Taliban did not obey anyone.

Even UNESCO said that these statues should be transferred to Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka or the nearby country of Iran, and if the Taliban want, they can buy these statues at a price, but the Taliban did not give any argument. I didn’t agree. On March 14, a Taliban spokesman announced that Bamiyan should be cleared of these giant statues. As soon as the Emir’s order was received, the Taliban opened the gates of ammunition, rockets and tanks. The destruction of these historic statues in Bamiyan was seen by the whole world. On March 26, journalists were called to Bamyan and shown the place where the statues were standing, now empty. Thousands of years of historical heritage have been destroyed by the Taliban as polytheism, arguing that since there are no Buddhists in Afghanistan, there is no justification for maintaining these idols.

When the Buddha statues were broken in Bamiyan, the governor of Bamiyan at that time was Maulvi Muhammad Islam Mohammadi. He became a member of the Afghan Parliament in 2005. At that time, he said that there was pressure from Al-Qaeda on the Taliban to destroy the Buddha statues. In January 2007, Maulvi Islam Mohammadi was killed in Kabul.

On October 17, 2003, UNESCO issued a declaration declaring the destruction of World Cultural Heritage as a war crime. In the same year, UNESCO included the Buddhist monuments in the Bamiyan Valley as a World Heritage Site and prepared a comprehensive plan for their restoration. Under which the reconstruction of the destroyed Buddha statues was started at a cost of 2.7 million dollars. After 15 years of tireless work, the East facing Buddha statue was successfully restored. While the restoration work of the west facing Buddha is still going on.

Now that the Taliban have captured all the important cities including Kabul, Herat and Kandahar, once again there are serious threats to the world cultural heritage in Afghanistan, which is being expressed in different parts of the world.

Japan, where the Buddha is highly revered, is deeply concerned about the future of the Bamiyan statues.

According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, Professor Maeda Kosaku of Tokyo University of the Arts and other researchers issued a statement on Monday calling for the world to raise its voice to protect Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

But not only Bamiyan, the whole of Afghanistan is covered with historical heritage. Kabul Museum alone has 80,000 artifacts. Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, is known as the cultural capital of Afghanistan, with 830 sites designated as cultural heritage sites. Some of them date back to the era of Alexander the Great ie 330 BC. Herat also has an ancient Jewish synagogue and cemetery, which are of constant concern to the international community.

However, this time the attitude of the Taliban seems to have changed. In February this year, he ordered his supporters to strictly protect all historical artifacts and sites and stop all illegal excavations.

Apart from this, Taliban spokesperson Sohail Shaheen has assured Sri Lanka that there is no threat to the Buddhist monuments in Bamiyan from the Taliban.

However, during the previous regime of the Taliban, illegal excavations from Afghanistan have been taking place under their patronage. Interpol says that every year in the world, the value of the stolen antiquities sold on the global market is five billion dollars, and a large part of it is used to promote terrorism. For example, the September 11 hijacker, Mohammad Atta, who crashed the plane into the World Trade Center, raised money for this purpose by selling Afghan artefacts in Germany. This was revealed by the famous German magazine Der Spiegel in its 2005 publication.

“We are very concerned about the safety of our staff and artifacts,” Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, director of the National Museum in Kabul, told National Geographic magazine.

While Noor Agha Noori, head of the Institute of Archeology in Kabul, said that he had wanted to move historical artifacts from Herat and Kandahar to Kabul, he had not been given the opportunity to do so due to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government.

The curator of the Afghan Museum, speaking on condition of anonymity in an interview with Art Newspaper, was asked if the Buddha statues in Bamiyan are under threat again, he replied, “What? Can leopards change their fur spots? Just look at their command structure, you will know that nothing has changed since 2001, but things could get worse.’