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The
militant Islamic group in 2001 destroyed artifacts dating from
the third century when many Afghans practised Buddhism,
including two towering Buddha statues in Bamyan province and
scores of smaller ones excavated from monasteries and preserved
at the national museum in Kabul.
After the Taliban government fell that same year, the museum
began restoring remnants of the country's Buddhist history. The
latest U.S.-supported project aims to reassemble thousands of
pieces into statues within the next three years.
"It is very important (work) because it is actually restoration
of our heritage, our identity, our past," said Mohammad Fahim
Rahimi, director of the 100-year-old National Museum of
Afghanistan.
"Buddhism was practised here for more than 1,000 years. That's a
very large part of our history," he added.
Forty years of war, from the 1980s Soviet occupation to internal
fighting and the war against the Taliban, have destroyed much of
Afghanistan's art, artifacts and architecture.
Warlords stole other pieces and sold them abroad.
Conservator Sherazuddin Saifi, 62, was working in the museum
under the Taliban in 2001.
"They wanted us to tell them the number of antiquities and we
ignored their request, but some days later they came and started
breaking the antiquities," said Saifi, who still works at the
museum.
"These antiquities are the national treasure and the history of
our country and show who lived in this country," he added.
In a classroom at the museum, Afghan conservators work alongside
experts from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.
U.S. assistance is invaluable because Afghan conservators lack
experience and the necessary chemicals and glues for restoration
work, Rahimi said.
Sometimes they can work from archived photos that show the
statues intact. In other cases, 3-D imaging and imagination are
required to sort and reassemble stucco shards of Buddha faces,
hands and torsos.
A spokesman for the Taliban, which was until last month in peace
talks with the United States, said the group has no plans to
destroy antiquities.
"All antique artifacts will be preserved in their place,"
spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Reuters. "They should be preserved
for the history and culture education of the upcoming
generations."
U.S. President Donald Trump told a rally on Thursday American
soldiers have been in Afghanistan long enough, but talks with
the Taliban on withdrawing U.S. troops, intended as a step
toward peace, broke down in September.
The prospect of reintegrating the Taliban in a power-sharing
deal troubles Rahimi, who is looking at options for moving the
artifacts if they are threatened again.
"We cannot let that happen again to our heritage," he said.
(Reporting by Rod Nickel and Hameed Farzad in Kabul; additional
reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Editing by Darren Schuettler)
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