Of all the treasures in Afghanistan, the most famous by far are the two colossal Buddhas of Bamiyan Province. Carved out of a rocky cliff-face in the fourth or fifth centuries A.D., the statues have gazed out benevolently over the old Silk Road route below for centuries. According to scholars, the Bamiyan masterpieces influenced later Buddhist sculptures all over the world, including the well-known 10th-century Chinese Buddha at Kyoto's Seiryoji Temple.
In a shock announcement this week, however, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers reversed earlier promises and ordered the destruction of all the statues in the country, including the giant Buddhas, as "offensive to Islam." They and hundreds of smaller religious statues "have been used as idols and deities by nonbelievers before this [and] they may be turned into idols in the future, too," the decree said.
Told of the international reaction of sadness, anger and disbelief, Afghanistan's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, reportedly shrugged. To the Taliban, who have imposed a puritanical mixture of conservative Islamic beliefs and tribal customs on the country since seizing power in 1996, there is now apparently nothing to argue about. Mr. Omar dismissed objections from Buddhist countries such as Thailand and Sri Lanka, confirming that it was precisely as symbols of religious belief and objects of worship that the statues were inimical to Islam. But he also dismissed the outrage of secular organizations for preservation, including UNESCO, saying that if the statues are not regarded as religious, they are of no interest at all: "Then all we are breaking is stones," he said.