The Islamofascists of the Taliban destroyed them -- the world is seeking to restore them.
SNOWS are melting in central Afghanistan and roads to the town of Bamiyan have reopened after unseasonal rain - meaning work on restoring the giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taleban can resume.Piles of rubble lie below two gaping niches in the red-brown cliff facing the town where the statues had stood since the sixth century until the Taleban brought them down in 2001, branding them unIslamic.
The larger, identified chunks of stone from the standing Buddhas have been stored or covered, but thousands of fragments and rubble lie in the open. "It's impossible to work here for at least six months of the year," said Habiba Sarabi, the governor of Bamiyan. "We hope work will resume by June."
She said reconstruction of at least one statue - the larger one, which stood 174ft tall - would begin after a request from the federal government to UNESCO.
Reconstructed bits of statue will be mixed with clay in a process called anastylosis, pieced together and bonded back on to the cliff face. It is an immense task and experts are divided on whether reconstruction is feasible or even necessary.
A team has been clearing the site of mines, but its work is not complete. Hundreds of poor people live in caves on the cliffside, and preventing encroachment into the World Heritage Site is a key issue.
Preliminary estimates of the cost of rebuilding the larger statue are £25 million, and it is debatable whether that might be better used elsewhere in the war-ravaged and impoverished nation.
Whenever work starts, it will take years - perhaps a decade - to complete. "There are at least 3,000 pieces of the larger Buddha and 1,500 from the smaller one," said Ms Sarabi.
These statues are a part of the heritage of all humanity -- their reconstruction needs to be a priority. Especially if we are to send a clear signal to the Islamists that WE WILL NOT SUBMIT!
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