INGULFED
(Notes for the Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah)Archive for sanskrit
The Buddhas of Bam(i)yan — بوذا باميان
Afghanistan: Part Three
بت های باميان
[The following are adapted excerpts from the much fuller account of the town of Bamyan. For the complete story (with history! and emotion! and the account of the world’s oldest oil paintings!): send an email to INGULFED at GMAIL dot COM with a sentence including the words “Buddha”, “kebab”, and “space shuttle launch”.]
Once, the world’s tallest buddha stood in Bamyan, along the Silk Road at the foot of the Hindu Kush. In 2001, the Talbian drilled the many statues hewn from the sandstone cliffs with holes, razing them completely with dynamite. Eight months later, the Taliban regime fell.
INGULFED 