Ancient Buddha Destruction Complete
Submitted by TimPrevett on Saturday, 17 March 2001 Page Views: 789
Site WatchAssociated Press, 14 March 2001GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- At least two weeks before Afghanistan's supreme ruler ordered all statues in the country destroyed, zealous Taliban soldiers wielding pickaxes hacked an ancient Buddhist complex to rubble, a Taliban guard said.
"We confront the idols of non-Muslims and destroy them," read a message etched on a wall in Pashtu, the language of Afghanistan's majority Pushtun ethnic group.
Arriving aboard four pickup trucks, the soldiers spent several days swarming over the complex, built in tiers up the side of a hill from the second to the seventh centuries, said Mullah Saeed Jan, a Taliban guard at the site.
An ancient baked clay statue of Buddha, beheaded decades ago, was hacked into small pieces. It was among the relics destroyed at the complex at Ghazni, 120 miles southwest of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"The Buddha was here, but we have smashed it," Mr. Jan said Tuesday, wrapped in a brown blanket to protect against the cold wind sweeping the arid plains.
Mr. Jan said he knew little of the international outrage over the Taliban's destruction of its pre-Islamic heritage, including two towering statues of Buddha in central Afghanistan.
"I don't know what the world thinks, but it is in the Shariat [Islamic law], so what can we do?" he said.
The destruction at the Ghazni complex took place in mid-February, at least two weeks before the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued an order on February 26 to destroy all statues, decreeing them idolatrous and offensive to Islam.
Taliban soldiers using explosives last week demolished two towering statues of Buddha hewn from a cliff face in central Bamiyan in the third and fifth centuries. The taller of the two, at 170 feet, was believed to be the world's tallest standing Buddha, while the other measured 120 feet.
The destruction of artifacts has stirred international outrage.
"I don't know. They have gone completely mad, I think," said Nancy Dupree, an historian and Afghan expert.
A founding member of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage, Ms. Dupree said the Ghazni ruins were a rich mix of Buddhist and Hindu traditions. She said she clings to the hope that some statues may have been brought to Pakistan to be sold, despite the Taliban's repeated denials that any artifact was sold.
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