Bamyan, Afghanistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bamyan بامیان |
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  Bamyan
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| Coordinates: 34°49′N 67°49′E / 34.817°N 67.817°E | |
| Country |  Afghanistan |
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| Province | Bamyan Province |
| Elevation | 9,186 ft (2,800 m) |
| Population | |
| - Total | 61,863 |
| Time zone | UTC+4:30 (UTC) |
- For the province, see Bamyan Province.
Bamyan (Persian: بامیان Bāmyān), also spelt Bamiyan[1] and Bamian[2] in English, is the capital of Bamyan Province and the largest town in Hazarajat, central Afghanistan. It has a population of about 61,863 people, and is approximately 240 kilometres north-west of Kabul. It is famous for the ancient part of the town, where the Buddhas of Bamyan stood for almost two millennia until dynamited by the Taliban in 2001. Recently Bamyan was accredited as home to the world's oldest oil paintings.[3]
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[edit] Geography
Situated on the ancient Silk Road, the town remained on crossroads between the East and West, when all the trade between China and the Middle East passed through it. The Hunas made it their capital in the 5th century. Because of the cliff of Buddhas, the gigantic statues, the ruins of the Monk's caves, Shar-e Gholghola (ruins of the ancient City of Sighs), and the local scenery, it is one of the most visited places in Afghanistan.
The town is the cultural center of the Hazara ethnic group of Afghanistan. Most of the population lives in downtown Bamyan, at an altitude of about 9,200 feet (2,800 m). The valley is cradled between parallel mountain ranges: the Hindu Kush and the Koh-i-Baba.
Bamyan is a small town, with the bazaar at its center. The infrastructure (electricity, gas, water supply) is totally non-existent. According to Sister Cities International, Bamyan has established a sister city relationship with Gering, Nebraska, USA. There is an airport with a gravel runway.
Mountains cover ninety percent of the province, and the cold winter lasts for six months with temperatures of three to twenty degrees Celsius below zero. Transportation facilities are increasing, but are still sparse.
The main crops are wheat, barley, mushung, and baquli, which are grown in the spring. When crops were affected by unusually harsh weather, the people usually led their livestock down to Ghazni and Maidan Provinces to exchange for food.
[edit] History
The city of Bamyan was part of the Buddhist Kushan Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era. After the Kushan Empire fell to the Sassanids, Bamyan became part of the Kushansha vassals to the Sassanids. The Hephthalites conquered Bamyan in the 5th century. After their Khanate was destroyed by the Sassanids and Turks in 565, Bamyan became the capital of a small Kushano-Hephthalite kingdom that lasted until it was conquered by the Saffarids in 870. The area was conquered by the Ghaznavids in the 11th century.
For decades, Bamyan has been the centre of fighting between zealous Muslim Taliban forces and the anti-Taliban alliance – mainly Hizb-i-Wahdat – preceded by the clashes between the warlords of the local militia.
[edit] The Buddhas of Bamyan
On the face of a mountain near the city, three colossal statues were carved 4,000 feet apart. One of them was 175 feet (53 m) high, the world's tallest standing statue of Buddha. The ancient statue was carved during the Kushan period in the fifth century. The statues were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, on the basis that they were un-Islamic. Since 2001 limited efforts are ongoing to rebuild them with negligible success.
At one time, two thousand monks prayed in caves in the sandstone cliffs. The caves were also a big tourist attraction before the long series of wars in Afghanistan. The world’s earliest oil paintings have been discovered in caves behind the partially destroyed colossal Buddha statues. Scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have confirmed that oil based paintings, possibly using either walnut or poppy seed oil, are present in 12 of the 50 caves dating from the 5th to 9th century.[4]
[edit] Calls for the Ethnic Cleansing of Bamyan and Panjsher
In view of the territory's fierce resistance to the Taliban and its (primarily Pashtun) supporters, in 1999-2001 plans were put afoot to ethnically cleanse Bamyan of its native Hazara Shia Muslim inhabitants and repopulated it with the Sunni Muslim Pashtuns. The directive and the publications produced for the task were translated into English and publicized in the Western media, such as UPI and the Genocide Watch.. This was at the time that process of destruction of Bamyan, its artistic heritage and the ethnic cleansing of its Hazara population was already afoot for some years.
An accompanying book, titled "The Second Bachcha-i Saqqa," states: "The national (Taliban) government has the right to move people temporarily or permanently from one region to another if their presence is a threat to national unity." It further states: "So as to "cut off Iran's hand in the Bamyan area, the Hazara population there should be removed and replaced by Sunni Muslims from Pashtun areas." (United Press International Saturday, 19 May 2001) http://www.genocidewatch.org/afghancleansing.htm
The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of Taliban ended these efforts, although not its negative legacy for inter-communal relations in Afghanistan.
[edit] Sister cities
 Bamyan Valley View |
[edit] Gallery
 Bearded men with cap, probably Scythian, Bamyan, 3-4thCentury |
 Welcome sign. |
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[edit] References
- ^ e.g. Unesco, BBC
- ^ Library of Congress country study
- ^ nationalgeographic.com: accessed June 6, 2008
- ^ www.esrf.eu report on findings of Marine Cotte, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2008, 23, DOI: 10.1039/b801358f
- ^ Sister Cities International
- Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977) [1st Edition: 1970]. An Historical Guide to Afghanistan (2nd Edition, Revised and Enlarged ed.). Afghan Tourist Organization. http://www.zharov.com/dupree/index.html.
