History and a Small Request
THE HISTORY:
Eid Mubarak! For those of you who fasted, congratulations. I have neither the willpower nor discipline to fast for a month but I do not believe that should preclude me from celebrating Eid! Not taking advantage of the 3 days off to relax and enjoy life would be foolish. Hence, we went to a place called Bamyan for the holidays. When I say ‘we’ I mean Karim Punja (Finance Director), Samir Satchu (Legal Council) and me (Logistics/Security Director). Although it was one of the shortest trips I’ve ever taken, it was also one of the best I’ve ever taken.
Where’s Bamyan? Glad you asked. I don’t want to bore you but it’s always nice to know a bit of history when visiting a place, to put things in perspective especially when that place has thousands of years of history...
The Bamyan valley is in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains and is one of the most beautiful places in Afghanistan. It’s been isolated in modern times but was once the centre of the Kushan Empire, one of the finest periods of Afghan history.
The greatest Kushan king was Kanishka, who ruled around 130 AD. During his rule, Kanishka sponsored a Buddhist conference in Kashmir that led to the adoption of Mahayana Buddhism - a school of thought that revered the life of the Buddha as much as his spiritual teachings. Up to this point the Buddha was only represented in symbolic form, but the concept of portraying Buddha in human form spread quickly to China and is one of Afghanistan’s greatest contributions to world culture.
Fast forward a few hundred years, past the Persian invasion and onto the White Huns, who invaded in 375 AD. The White Huns would rule the region up to the Arab conquest and their adoption of Buddhism conceived the greatest period of Afghan-Buddhist art, from which came the astounding creations of the two monumental Buddha’s carved into the cliffs of the Bamyan valley. Thousands of pilgrims made visits to the area during this time and everyone from peasants to princes were passing through. The Chinese monk Hsuen Tsang wrote of ten monasteries served by a thousand priests, gilded statues, great riches, and that ‘the people surpass all others in the purity of their Faith.”
Not only was it a site of pilgrimage but Bamyan was also at the crossroads between Central Asia and the Sub-continent, meaning thousands of travelers and traders passed through annually. Hundreds of caves were cut into the cliffs to accommodate the visitors, complete with complex stairways inside the rock face that linked the various rooms and caverns. Today many locals still inhabit the caves, even installing balconies, doors and glass windows to make them more habitable. Most however, only live in the caves because of a housing shortage within the village itself.
Fast forward again, past the Arab conquest in 651 AD to the 10th century when the Ghaznavids finally brought Islam on a permanent basis. Buddhism was gradually forgotten, and subsequent rulers supposed that the colossal Buddha statues were of pagan kings.
Of course, in the 13th century there came the Mongol invasion. During Genghis Khans rampage through Bamyan, he was his typical ruthless self and murdered anything that moved, down to the rats and dogs. At one point he ran into a large fortress in the centre of the valley that he could not breach. The princess, upset that her father had refused to allow her to marry her love, revealed to Genghis Khan the secret location of the fortress wells. The wells were cut off and the fortress quickly fell. To reward the naïve princess for betraying her father and kin, Genghis Khan had her promptly executed.
Skipping past some centuries again, we saw the Pashtun led Taliban rise to power in the 1990's. The Taliban viewed the Hazara people with extreme suspicion and in 1997 blockaded the region causing severe food shortages and refused access to INGO’s. Just about the only food available during this time was potatoes and they continue to rely heavily upon them for basic sustenance. Bamyan fell to the Taliban in September 1998.
The civilian population suffered enormously under the Taliban, both from food insecurity and ethnic persecution. The eyes of the world only turned back to Afghanistan in April 2001 when, in response to UN sanctions and the increasing influence of the Arab-Afghans, the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha’s with tank fire and dynamite. I can recall seeing video footage of the destruction on the news back then and thinking about what a tragedy it was, especially that is was done in the name of Islam. Most Islamic scholars decried the act and expressed heavy regret over the loss of such culturally significant monuments.
Today the two giant Buddha’s of Bamyan are gone and only the niches in the cliff wall overlooking the valley speak of one of Afghanistan's most remarkable sights. The 2 giant figures were carved directly from the cliff face, with the smallest standing at a height of 38m (Shamama – 1st c. AD) and the other at 53m (Salsal 2nd -3rd c. AD). Salsal was the tallest sculpture in the world right up to its destruction. The surfaces of the statues were built out with stucco of mud and straw. At their finest, the features of the Buddha’s were gilded, and their robes painted.
What was amazing to me during our visit, was that the Hazara’s of Bamyan have seen their land invaded countless times over the past 2000 years yet they were the kindest, friendliest, most welcoming people I have ever encountered anywhere I have ever been. I’m not sure if this is something that has worked in their favor over the millennia of invasions and is perhaps, the result of knowing how to adapt to a changing environment but it is a feeling of warmth that is hard to find elsewhere.
As we drove through the valleys people stopped what they are doing, smiled and waved at us shouting ‘Salaam’ and ‘Eid Mubarak’. While exploring the village, people were genuinely happy and curious to see us and most greeted us very warmly with “As Salaam Alaikum” and the traditional Afghan custom of placing a hand to their chest meaning, ‘I greet you from the heart’. Their handsome Asian features were dusted with the history of their invaders; light hair, fair skin, piercing blue eyes, even red heads would pop up once in a while and we had to force ourselves to keep from staring impolitely. The people there are clearly as much a product of their environment as their environment is a product of them.
I found myself filled with sincere admiration for what they have been through and how they have survived but I also felt a deep sense of trepidation. Places like Bamyan are rare and it won’t be long before tourists like me flood the valley, pollute the land and force the locals to change their way of life (yet again) to meet our demands for adventure and cultural exploration. Its just a matter of time really, Id say a few years at best before the wealth of tourism overrides the wealth of tradition and the region becomes one more overexploited area for sincere, yet hapless tourists. It will have to be managed extremely carefully (by whom I do not know) to have any chance of surviving.
Perhaps in some ways, the encroachment of modernity is completely natural and beneficial as the standard of living will rise and the people will experience some of the benefits of the technological age. Of course, in the big picture this is nothing more than history repeating itself and the current version of the region is the result of constant change and outside influence. But there will be a loss; a loss that is immeasurable, borderless, obscure yet perfectly distinct and one that will be sorely felt by anyone who visited the region before the Great Tourist Invasion (21st c. AD).
It will be much like the decimated Buddhas, in that you have an idea of what they once looked like but the beauty, the majesty and the cultural statement they reflected can only be speculated upon and never restored or duplicated. They are simply lost to us forever and the only thing we can do now is write about them, photograph their cavernous crypts and try to imagine what it was like when the Buddha’s ruled the valley with a steady gaze and a philosophy of balance. Sadly, this sense of loss may one day consume the whole valley itself.
As you have probably inferred, the trip was amazing. I have never before witnessed such breathtaking scenery and in such a short amount of time. It is truly Central Asia and you know it when you are passing through this ancient land. I understand that in spring and summer the valley is bursting with various shades of green and blue as the fields come to life and the waters spill down from the nearby whitecaps.
We had a great (albeit BUMPY) seven hour drive up, spent the day exploring Bamyan and the night freezing our butts off in the unheated rooms. The next day we drove another 3 hours to a place called Band-e-Amere (meaning 5 lakes) which sit at nearly 3000m (10000+ feet) and are a series of lakes on escalating plateaus. Surrounded by porous limestone rock beds, each lake feeds the next via small waterfalls which cascade down short steps and into the next lake. Villagers make their homes at the end of the gorge, where the water does not reach.
The unnatural appearance of these lakes is explained locally by the miracle of the Caliph Ali (cousin and some say successor of the Prophet Mohammad), who raised the limestone walls to dam a dangerous river and bring about the conversion to Islam of the local pagan king. A high mineral content of the water means that the lakes change their hue according to the light and time of day, a scene of stunning beauty. After Band-e-Amere we drove back to Bamyan, stayed another night and flew back to Kabul (only 20 minutes) early the next day.
THE REQUEST:
If you ever get a chance to go, I say you should jump on it but with a small request; that you do so with a humble sense of respect for the people, their culture and their environment, so that others can do the same after you.
Enough chatter. I took way too many pictures. Go see them already by clicking here
posted by riz at 11:30 AM
