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Photo Essay
by Brad Jannelli
Brad was a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher who worked in Bamiyan in 1973 and 1974 at the local Lycee', teaching
9th-12th grade English as a foreign language.
This is the Kokrok Buddha. It is in a small side valley to the
southeast of the bazaar in Bamiyan. Hopefully, the Taliban didn't
destroy it.
The view from the foot of the large Buddha. You can see some of the
remaining frescoes. Over the centuries the Moslems defaced many of
the frescoes because they were idolatry.
View to the south from the head of the large Buddha.
Sitting on the head of the large Buddha.
In the background is the large Buddha. I would walk this path every
morning to get hot nan, (fresh Afghan bread), for breakfast.
My school, Lycee' Bamiyan, was in front of the small Buddha. In
October and November, we would move our classes out into the school
yard because the school building was too cold. The valley would be
snowed in from November through March and the school would close.
The boys all bought second hand suit coats from the bazaar for their
school uniforms.
Picture of the large Buddha. My house was to the left of the tree trunk.
View of Bamiyan Valley facing north. Bamiyan is at 8000
feet. The large Buddha is on the left and the small Buddha is on the
right. The beginning of the Hindu Kush mountain range is in the
background. Bamiyan was an important gateway through the Hindu Kush
for the Silk Road from India to Central Asia and China.
Brad Jannelli September 2008
Photos Courtesy of STRINGER Photo
9 Sept 2008, AFGHANISTAN - Ancient Buddha statue unearthed
8 Sept 2008, Bamiyan, Afghanistan - Buddha Statue find at Afghan Site
The Sydney Morning Herald and Telegraph, London - August 12, 2005
Laser show to replace destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas
Faceless images … an artist's impression of what the Bamiyan Buddhas laser show will look like.
Los Angeles: An elaborate laser show plans to "recreate" Afghanistan's famous Bamiyan Buddhas, the towering, 1600-year-old statues destroyed by the Taliban amid international outrage in 2001.
The life-size, lurid images will be projected on to the clay cliff faces of the Bamiyan Valley where the archaeological treasures originally stood on the Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia.
Some 140 "statues" will make up the installation, due to premiere in June 2007, subject to approval by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.
Hiro Yamagata, 58, a Japanese-born California artist, wants to use wind and solar power to project the images on to 6.5 kilometres of the cliffs in the central Hindu Kush mountains, about 150 kilometres from Kabul. The Afghan Government supports the project.
UNESCO, which has a prominent presence in Bamiyan, where it has been evaluating methods of preserving mural paintings in man-made caves surrounding the Buddha sites, must ascertain whether the laser beams could damage the cliffs.
Carved into the mountainside, the two Buddhas were of international cultural significance. The larger of the two was, at 53 metres, thought to be the world's tallest standing Buddha. The smaller stretched to 35 metres and both were sheltered by giant niches hollowed from the rock.
The statues escaped damage during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the country's bitter civil war in the 1990s but in 2001 the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ordered them destroyed, although UNESCO said the act would be "a crime against culture". In March, militants used dynamite and artillery to blow up the fifth-century statues. The Taliban considered the Buddhas idolatrous and anti-Muslim. All that remains is rubble and the cavities in the cliff.
The demolition triggered calls for the rebuilding of the statues or some commemoration at the location, a site of pilgrimage for centuries because of the Buddhist monastic complex that flourished from the second to the eighth centuries. A Swiss plan to rebuild the Buddhas at $A37.5 million each was abandoned.
Mr Yamagata's $12 million installation will feature 14 laser systems casting overlapping, faceless images on to the cliffs every Sunday.
Associated Press News Report Tuesday Apr 9, 2001 4:33 PM ET
Afghanistan's Karzai vows to rebuild destroyed Buddha statues
By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
During a 5 hour visit to Bamiyan, Afghanistan's interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai announced today an initiative to rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas, calling the destruction "a national tragedy." The statues were destroyed a year ago. After weeks of inept attempts to obliterate them with anti-aircraft guns and rockets, Taliban troops finally blew up the relics in March 2001, placing explosives into holes bored into the rock.
Bamiyan, about 140 kilometers northwest of Kabul, was on the ancient Silk Route between Europe and Central Asia. The statues were carved into a mountainside above the central city of Bamiyan in the 3rd and 5th centuries.
Funding for the reconstruction has not been secured. At the request of the present Afghan government, requests are being sent throughout the world to UNESCO and other heritage agencies. Afghan sculptor Amanulah Haiderzad, an exile living in New York, has been enlisted to oversee the reconstruction. Haiderzad had sculpted a small version of the Bamiyan Buddhas, now on display in Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, which were also defaced by the Taliban. He studied sculpture in Italy for six years, and then established a fine arts department at Kabul University until the Soviets invaded in 1979, and Haiderzad fled to the United States. He estimates it will take four to five years to rebuild the larger statue. The final scope of reconstruction has not been determined.
"This was our heritage that the stupid Taliban destroyed," said one resident, Haji Hussein Ali. "It's good that they are going to rebuild it."
BBC, 9 August 2005
Cultural Heritage News Agency
Artist to recreate Afghan Buddhas
Afghanistan's famous Bamiyan Buddhas are due to be recreated by multicoloured laser images projected onto the cliffs where they once stood.
The 1,600-year-old statues, which stood on the Silk Road in the Bamiyan Valley, were destroyed by the Taleban in 2001.
Artist Hiro Yamagata will use solar and wind power to project a series of images onto four miles of clay cliffs.
Afghan government officials, who approached the Japanese artist in 2003, are awaiting approval from Unesco.
Fourteen laser systems would project 140 faceless images, standing up to 175ft (52.5m) tall, onto the cliff-face for four hours every Sunday night.
United Nations cultural organisation Unesco must assess whether the laser beams could damage the cliffs.
"If there is a way to do it so there is no environmental impact, we would support it as it would boost tourism," said Habiba Sarobi, governor of the Bamiyan province.
"The images would remind us of what (the Buddhas) once looked like."
Yamagata estimated the project would cost $9m (£5m) and that it would be completed by June 2007.
The California-based artist, who visited Bamiyan in 2003, hoped his artwork would give something back to the war-torn region by using the imported windmills to provide power for surrounding villages.
He also planned to employ local workers to build the foundations for the windmills.
"Many people say, 'My art will heal the people,'" said Yamagata. "Of course I help people, but it's more about not harming people."
"I'm doing a fine art piece. That's my purpose - not for human rights, or for supporting religion or a political statement."
Zahir Aziz, Afghan ambassador to Unesco, confirmed that an earlier Swiss plan to rebuild the Buddhas at the cost of $30m (£16.8m) per statue had been discarded.
 
175 meter Buddha Before and After
 
110 meter Buddha Before and After
Links to Bamiyan Buddha Sites
The Bamiyan Buddhas
The Bamiyan Tragedy
RAWA - Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
SPACH - Society for the Preservation of Afghan's Heritage
STRINGER Photo
ABOUT.COM
The Times of India
CNN
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