rebuilding buddhas a symbol in rebuilding afghanistan

The rebuilding of two colossal Buddhas in Afghanistan’s Pamir Valley destroyed by the Taliban is a symbolic first step in piecing back the country’s shattered past and looking toward a better future.

Kabul, Afghanistan -- For more than a millennium Afghanistan’s lush Pamir valley lay beneath the benevolent gaze of two colossal standing Buddhas, monuments to an efflorescent history of pilgrims and merchants, of religion and culture. In 2001 the statues were destroyed by the ruling Taliban, some say out of religious fanaticism, others as a political statement against the West. What’s left are fragments of stone and wood strewn across the war-torn land like broken pieces of a once resplendent past ::read more