Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The Bamiyan Buddha's

Hope you all remember the Great Buddha Statue at Bamiyan valley, central Afghanistan.They were destroyed by the Taliban with the assistance of Pakistani and Saudi engineers in 2001.

Here is the Details of Bamiyan and Buddha:

Bamyan (or Bamiyan), situated 240 kms northwest of Kabul between the snow-covered ranges of Koh-i Baba and Hindu Kush, is a small city lying in a beautiful valley containing the remarkable statues of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The kingdom of Bamiyan was a Buddhist state positioned at a strategic location along the silk road a caravan route linking the markets of China, India and Europe.It was the site of several Buddhist and Hindu monasteries, and a thriving center for religion, philosophy, and Greco-Buddhist art.It was a Buddhist religious site from the second century up to the time of the Islamic invasion in the ninth century.


The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan. The two most prominent statues were the giant, standing Buddhas, measuring 55 and 37 meters (180 and 121 feet) high respectively.

The construction of the two statues was begun in the second century A.D. under the patronage of Emperor Kanishka and probably finished around the fifth century A.D.The height of
the Small Buddha was 38 m, that of the Large Buddha 55 m. Thefigures of the two Buddhas were decorated with gold and fine jewels. Many caves were carved in the Bamiyan's cliffs in the same periods as the Buddhas. They were used as chapels and many monks lived there.

No comments: