Rebuilding Buddha

Gauracandra · November 20, 2001

This is an interesting idea symbolically, but really doesn't have much substance. The carvings are destroyed, and they can't be replicated. Oh well, its still a nice move.

Rebuilding Buddha

Plans Afoot To Rebuild Buddha Statue Destroyed By Taliban

Internet And Exiled Afghan Cultural Groups To Collaborate

U.N. Gives Lukewarm Reception To Idea

GENEVA, Nov. 20, 2001

(AP) The Taliban's destruction of two ancient Buddha statues shocked the world. Now there's a plan to rebuild the larger one.

The plan is the work of an Internet-based group called the New 7 Wonders Society and a U.N.-recognized institute in Switzerland dedicated to preserving Afghan cultural treasures.

The desire is to show that "an act of international destruction cannot erase the memory of those things which are valuable to humanity and its heritage," said Bernard Weber, the founder of New 7 Wonders.

However, the plan was given a lukewarm reception Tuesday by the U.N. agency responsible for safeguarding the world's cultural heritage, the Paris-based Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO.

Christian Manhart, an Asia heritage expert at UNESCO, said an international agreement - the Venice charter - forbids the reconstruction of monuments that have been destroyed.

The charter is based on the belief that something that is cultural heritage can't be replaced.

Manhart said UNESCO would consider an exception to the rule, but very strict criteria would need to be met.

"No private institute or Internet firm or even international organization like UNESCO can just decide. The beginning of all this has to be a request from the Afghan government," he told The Associated Press.

The process would likely take years, he said.

He said financing would not necessarily be a problem because Buddhist societies in Asia might be willing to participate.

The plan estimates the 175-foot statue will cost an estimated $1 million to rebuild.

First, a virtual Buddha would be generated, using high-tech photographic and computer technology. Then a 20-foot replica would be built at the Afghanistan Institute and Museum in the northern Swiss town of Bubendorf. The replica would be used as the model for rebuilding the full-size Buddha on location in Afghanistan.

The original Buddha statue, and a smaller one of 114 feet, were chiseled into a cliff more than 1,500 years ago in the central Bamiyan Valley on the ancient Silk Route linking Europe and Central Asia. The fundamentalist Taliban considered them "idolatrous" and against the tenets of Islam and blew them up despite an international outcry.

A spokesman in Geneva for Afghanistan's Northern Alliance said the plan was interesting. But he said it lay solely within the competence of UNESCO and not with private organizations.

"And at the moment, we have far more other pressing priorities," Humayun Tandar added.

The Afghanistan Institute, which enjoys financial support from both the Swiss government and UNESCO, is widely known as the Afghan museum in exile. Since the Taliban came to power, it has served as a home for many religious and cultural treasures sent out of Afghanistan to escape the wrath of the Taliban.

The director, Paul Bucherer, has long said the artifacts will be returned once the political situation stabilizes in Afghanistan. He was traveling and could not be reached for comment Tuesday, an assistant said.

The New 7 Wonders Society was set up to designate new wonders to supplement the surviving ancient wonders like the pyramids of Egypt. It says it has received 5.5 million votes from countries around the world as people make their choice on a list that includes the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.