A stunning photo of one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, before destruction :
Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th Century AD, monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, 130km northwest of Kabul at an elevation of 2500m. Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller 38m "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 AD, and the larger 55m "Western Buddha" was built around 618 AD.
The statues represented a later evolution of the classic blended style of Gandhara art. The statues consisted of the male Salsal ("light shines through the universe") and the (smaller) female Shamama ("Queen Mother"), as they were called by the locals. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands, and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco.
Buddhas are surrounded by numerous caves and surfaces decorated with paintings. It is thought that period of florescence was from the 6th-8th Century AD, until the onset of Islamic invasions. These works of art are considered as an artistic synthesis of Buddhist art and Gupta art from India, with influences from Sasanian Empire and Byzantine Empire, as well as country of Tokharistan.
The statues were blown up and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban.
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