{"id":45956,"date":"2025-04-23T11:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T06:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=45956"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:11:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T09:41:23","slug":"bamiyan-buddhas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bamiyan-buddhas\/","title":{"rendered":"Bamiyan Buddhas"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Bamiyan Buddhas Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Taliban&#8217;s Changing Approach Towards Heritage Sites in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<h2>About Bamiyan Buddhas<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Bamiyan Buddhas<\/strong>, carved in the\u00a0<strong>6th century CE<\/strong>, were two\u00a0<strong>monumental statues<\/strong>\u00a0of standing Buddhas measuring\u00a0<strong>115 feet and 174 feet<\/strong>\u00a0in height, embedded into the\u00a0<strong>sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan Valley<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>central Afghanistan<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These statues are considered exemplary of the\u00a0<strong>Gandhara School of Buddhist Art<\/strong>, which reflected a unique blend of\u00a0<strong>Indian, Persian, and Greco-Roman artistic influences<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Bamiyan Buddhas<\/strong>, named\u00a0<strong>Salsal<\/strong>\u00a0(meaning \u201clight shines through the universe\u201d) and\u00a0<strong>Shamama<\/strong>\u00a0(\u201cQueen Mother\u201d), stood\u00a0<strong>55 metres\u00a0<\/strong>and<strong>\u00a038 metres tall,<\/strong>\u00a0respectively.<\/li>\n<li>These statues represented a\u00a0<strong>fusion of Gupta, Sassanian, and Hellenistic styles<\/strong>, representing a\u00a0<strong>unique confluence of civilisations<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The statues represented the\u00a0<strong>confluence of cultural traditions<\/strong>\u00a0and were significant markers of the spread of\u00a0<strong>Buddhism<\/strong>\u00a0across\u00a0<strong>Central and South Asia<\/strong>\u00a0between the\u00a0<strong>1st and 13th centuries<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Background of Destruction<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Taliban<\/strong>, a hardline group that emerged in the\u00a0<strong>1990s<\/strong>, imposed an\u00a0<strong>extremist interpretation of Islamic law<\/strong>, which included\u00a0<strong>banning art, education for girls, and public expression<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>On\u00a0<strong>27 February 2001<\/strong>, the Taliban officially announced its plan to demolish the\u00a0<strong>Bamiyan Buddhas<\/strong>, deeming them un-Islamic.<\/li>\n<li>Over\u00a0<strong>25 days<\/strong>, the statues were systematically\u00a0<strong>destroyed using explosives<\/strong>, marking one of the most egregious acts of\u00a0<strong>cultural vandalism<\/strong>\u00a0in modern history.<\/li>\n<li>In\u00a0<strong>2003<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>UNESCO designated the Bamiyan Valley as a World Heritage Site<\/strong>, despite the irreversible damage done.<\/li>\n<li>In\u00a0<strong>2021<\/strong>, a\u00a0<strong>3D holographic projection<\/strong>\u00a0temporarily recreated the statue of\u00a0<strong>Salsal<\/strong>, offering a new way to engage with the lost heritage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/taliban-change-tune-towards-heritage-sites-in-afghanistan\/article69481319.ece#:~:text=Two%20decades%20later%2C%20they%20are,country%2C%20sparking%20scepticism%20among%20observers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>.Discover the Bamiyan Buddhas, 6th-century monumental statues carved into Afghanistan&#8217;s cliffs, standing 115 and 174 feet tall, rich in history and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[223],"class_list":{"0":"post-45956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-bamiyan-buddhas","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}