Afghan museum highlights country’s rich Buddhist heritage
AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan, which achieved global notoriety for
cultural barbarism when the Taliban blew up the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas,
this week opened an exhibition highlighting the country’s rich Buddhist
heritage.
In sharp contrast to the religious intolerance behind the destruction
of the Buddhas 11 years ago, the immaculate exhibition is on display in
the National Museum, itself rebuilt with international aid after being
destroyed by civil war.
Overlooked by living history represented by the ruins of the
neoclassical Darulaman Palace on a neighbouring hill -- also a victim of
war -- the interior of the museum is a sanctuary of quiet arches and
marble floors in a violent land.
In the entrance hall is a replica of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan, one
of two giant standing statues carved into Bamiyan cliffs in
Afghanistan’s central highlands in the sixth century.
But the polyurethane copy is a poor substitute -- unlike the
surviving treasures dating from the second century AD that dedicated
museum staff managed to hide and protect through 30 years of conflict
and turmoil.
AFP |