Dharma Talk February, 2009 Bamyan

by John Corbaley

In March, 2001, Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered the destruction of colossal 180 foot tall statues of the Buddha which had stood there for 1500 years, and were the largest images of the Buddha in the world. In the face of international condemnation, even from many Islamic countries, over a month of shelling, dynamiting and mining reduced the giant figures to dust.

As the dust from those explosions spread over the landscape, what the Taliban did not realize was that their act of unskillful violence was only a prelude for renewed attention to Bamiyan, an attention which today supports a thriving enterprise of investigation, research and study into the times, peoples and culture which was responsible for the colossal Bamiyan statues and the monastery caves surrounding them.

In their destruction lay the seeds which would be responsible for a regeneration of interest in the Bamyan site and the thousands of monks who lived and prayed there. Bamiyan had once been the at the center of the silk road trade route and was an important crossroads between mediterranean Europe and Asia. It was a royal capital of the Kushan dynasty which had adopted Buddhism as its state religion. Its art was a combination of Greco-Roman and Asian forms which often depicted the Buddha with a distinctly western Apollo-like face and wavy hair, and elegant draping garments resemblant of classical Greek statuary. Such was the styling of the Buddhas at Bamiyan.

This destruction was transformed into a positive result. The attention of the world is now focused on Bamyan in a hundred productive and constructive ways. Out of the empty rage of destruction has come a new awareness of the importance of Bamiyan.
The shelling created clouds of dust which spread out over the landscape. Each grain of dust settling over the land was a seed of renewal. Archeologists, historians, and artists have returned to the area, bringing international tourist visitors generating new interest and activity.

Art historians studying the fragments of the Buddhas have discovered that these monuments were hundreds of years older than previously thought, placing them closer to the earliest Buddhist practice. Scientists working for UNESCO have discovered paintings done in oils in the caves where the monks lived around the mammoth statues. It had previously been assumed that oil painting was invented in Europe during the renaissance; so these scientists were surprised to find oil paintings done by the artists of Bamiyan dating from the seventh century.

The caves which escaped the Taliban destruction present a rich artistic history. They are described by representatives of the Huntington Archive at Ohio State University like this:
Each of the multitude of caves can be considered a unified composition in which painting and sculpture work together to form a single symbolic configuration with the Buddha at the center, surrounded by painted images of further Buddhas, bodhisattvas and other heavenly beings from Buddhist cosmology….

The wall paintings surround the central figure in concentric circles or vertical rows in the manner of a mandala, a conceptual representation of the Buddhist universe. The ceilings in particular are transformed into a “dome of heaven” through the manipulation of repeated Buddha forms around the central figure.

Together, the wall and ceiling paintings work with the sculpture to create an entire heavenly environment, a symbolic representation of the universe.

Archeologists are looking at restoration options for the mammoth statues. One approach they are considering is called anastylosis, often used for Greek and Roman temples, in which the original pieces are reassembled and held together with a minimum of new material. If you’ve seen pictures of the Parthenon, you’re familiar with this method. Analyzing the rock strata, they have worked out what part of the vast statue most of the pieces came from, many weighing up to 60 tons.

Archeologists returning to the area to salvage the remnants of the destroyed sculptures have also discovered a third enormous reclining Buddha obscured for millennia which will now be uncovered and displayed to the world.

One artist who came to Bamiyan is Hiro Yamagata. He is an artist specializing in laser installations, his newest work utilizes solar and wind energy to project holographic laser light images of the buddhas onto a rockface at Bamiyan in memory of the Buddhas. The lasers will be powered by the renewable energy of windmills and solar panels.

These generators will not only provide employment for the people of Bamiyan during their construction and operation, they will also provide electric power for the entire town. Planned for completion in 2012, his installation will fill the hollows in the rock face with shimmering light-created images of the majestic Buddha figures which once graced the mountain.

Mr. Yamagata comments: “My artistic concept is to create original images of Buddha and project them with the most unique, powerful and cutting edge laser technology of today onto the site where once the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas stood. Thus we will be able to revive the great creative spirit of mankind which produced the Great Buddha of Bamiyan centuries ago.
A collaboration of ancient and new art will become a cultural icon of revived civilization in Afghanistan. By permanently creating an artwork of laser system installation in Bamiyan, we intend to stimulate both the land and the people of Bamiyan.

More powerful than any missile or flying unmanned Drone, the positive, creative vibrations Mr. Yamagata is bringing to Afghanistan will transform the landscape, re-invigorate the people and cause wonderful positive change in the hearts and minds of Afghanis who now look upon most foreigners with justified suspicion and fear.

If we seek to follow a Buddhist path, the question becomes what are the lessons we take away from what has occurred at Bamiyan. Most important probably is the lesson of impermanence. The Taliban were only the latest in a series of forces reducing the colossal figures to dust. They only sped up the workings of nature in returning the stone to a natural form.

Even more important though, we might look upon this as a lesson in Karuna, the Pali word for compassion. We watch the video on the internet of the shelling and look for the lesson behind the disturbing images. You know the one. The difficult people in our lives are our greatest teachers. How easy it is to say these words. And when the lesson they are teaching you presents itself, it cuts like a bright light through the fog of delusion.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, The Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and Al Qaida present us with some tall-order lessons in compassion. They mirror back to us our own very human hatred and fear. Their unskillfulness we know too well in our own.
And so we watch the destruction and we can contemplate the nature of the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and egolessness of all things.
And compassion is our response. Our compassion, our Karuna, flows out to the mullahs, the terrorists, all of them.

When you think of the word compassion, what images come to your mind? Is it warm and fuzzy? Is it like a delicate flower or soft little puppy? Let me suggest a different image. When we are confronted with the intensity and the power of destructive images like the Buddhas, or like the twin towers on 9/11, it is hard to respond with complete and utter compassion to these difficult people.

Our compassion must be as durable and as pure as a diamond. It must not be a tender, vulnerable thing. Our karuna must be a impervious to doubt as a stone hard gem. It must be strong, and solid, and resolute. In Tibet, the title for an honored lama of great realization is “Rinpoche.” The word means jewel. I think they are described in this way to express how pure, rare, and precious they are. Our Karuna, too, must be pure and hard as precious stone.

And so we respond with Karuna, compassion to all beings on the planet. We demonstrate our pure, strong Karuna and send metta, loving kindness to Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, the Taliban and Al Qaida. We send them our thanks for the lesson in Dukkha, the first noble truth, they teach us today. May they and their families be happy and peaceful. May they be healthy and safe.

May we all see with the bright light of realization the pierces the fog of delusion surrounding us. May our pure, diamond-hard compassion conquer all the fear and hatred in the universe.


"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."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan