OT: Search for Giant Buddha

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^
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Mine worked earlier, but doesn't now. Wonder if it has anything to do with that Chicago Style Khukuri post. Hmmmm.
 
Kis - I'm not sure -- I know sometimes the Times of India site is down. It's working now.

But, anyway, here's the text:

A search is on to find the missing third Buddha of Bamiyan in an Afghan valley where two giant statues of the Buddha were destroyed by the Taliban movement. Rumours of a reclining Buddha statue of enormous dimensions, hidden somewhere near Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, have long circulated among travellers.



Now the Japanese government has offered more than 1 million pounds to start the restoration of the site, which was blown up by the Taliban, and to conduct initial searches for the buried statue. A team of Japanese and German archeologists and art restorers is due to move into the area soon.



Experts are divided on whether the third Buddha is likely to be intact or broken up into fragments. One theory holds that it was buried by an earthquake centuries ago. Bamiyan was named an endangered World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) two weeks ago.



It was in March 2001 that the Taliban obliterated the standing Buddha images that had watched over the valley since the 7th century, claiming that they were an affront to Islam. The action shocked the Buddhist world and contributed to the international isolation of the Islamic regime, which sheltered Osama Bin Laden and was ousted in the war that followed his attacks on America on September 11, 2001.



Unesco will oversee a project, expected to last for more than a decade, to restore the Bamiyan site. The agency has allocated money for archeological soundings to locate caves hidden by the debris of the dynamited statues and to pinpoint the location of the reclining Buddha.



Sunday Times, London
Click to expand...
 
I'd gone on a Google search, but most of the information is datedback to the Taliban demolishing them. TIMES INDIA didn't pop up with any specifics.

Long ago, and far away, I had a chance to visit Peru. The Spanish missionaries did much the same thing to the indigenous people's religion....demolished priceless artifacts in the name of their new god. Sites like Machu Pichu survived because they weren't discovered.

And Mao did much the same in Tibet. Not in the name of god, but power. (Although, it's arguable that there is a difference, I suspect.)

Yvsa may have some opinions on Europeans in America, as well.

gotta love humanity.
 
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