Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum

The Buddha Remains: Heritage Transactions in Taxila, Pakistan

“…When detached from these dominant heritage debates, the relationship between Buddhist representational art and Islamic contexts takes a different tone. This relationship has shifted significantly in accordance to changing attitudes through time (Elias 2012), variations from individual to individual (Flood 2002), and changes in political regimes (Elias 2007;Flood 2002), in such a way that a consistent universal attitude to this type of representation cannot be concluded.…”

The Politics and Practice of Archaeology in Conflict

“…This manipulation of the historic landscape, and of its archaeological remains, is taken to extreme in the deliberate destruction of cultural sites. Some of the better documented examples of this include the demolition of cultural sites that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia (Chapman 1994;Šulc 2005;Smith 2008), the tearing down of the Babri Masjid (mosque) at Ayodha in sectarian dispute over the symbolic value of the site (Layton & Thomas 2005;Barber 2006, 147), and the controlled destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Afghan government in 2001 (Flood 2002). These acts of desecration and violation were intended to both deny unwanted and heterogeneous versions of past and present, and to cause hurt to those that held them to be valuable (Meskell 2002b).…”

Our Heritage Is Already Broken: Meditations on a Regenerative Conservation for Cultural and Natural Heritage

“…I conclude this essay where I began it-with the story of Bamiyan's Buddhas. This time, however, I re-envision the story based on the work of Bedunah et al (2010), Blänsdorf & Petzet (2009), Flood (2002, and Husseini (2012), and insights from an empty heritage perspective. Indeed, this might be a first step in the empty heritage paradigm's pragmatic direction-to revisit the stories we weave and transmit and, then, rewrite them to enable us to see opportunities for regenerative conservation.…”

“…Some Hazara believe their people's ancestors carved into a cliff face and decorated with precious ornaments 21 two colossal Buddha statues about 1,400 years ago. 22 Through the centuries, 19 For example, the 5th-or early 6th-century CE Hephtalite ruler, Mihirikula, and the 9th-century Saffarid ruler, Yakub ibn Layth (Flood, 2002); the 17th-century Moghul Emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir, and the Persian Emperor Nadir Shah (Blänsdorf & Petzet, 2009). 20 "Abdur Rahman, 'the Iron Amir,' invaded and conquered the Hazarajat with Ghilzai tribal (Pashtun) support, reduced thousands of the former inhabitants to slavery, and settled the Ghilzai on much of the land" (Bedunah et al, 2010, p. 42).…”