Why the Destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan Was an Advancement for Art, History, and Religion

Most people are aware of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001 by Taliban forces. Made out of the surrounding sandstone, these colossal statues were 115 and 174 feet tall.

See below: Before destruction, During destruction, After Destruction

The destruction of these monuments were controversial partially because of the pronounced politics behind them and represent a great loss to history, art, and religion. The philosophy of these statues even having been made in the first place aside, they represented 1500 years of history as they were created between 507 and 554 CE and were created in a specific style of art for that particular region and time period.

Interestingly enough, the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE caused the proficiency of art to regress approximately 1500 years with the standards of the Byzantine Empire, Early Christian Art, and Islamic Art having a greater influence of art techniques and rendering used in those regions during that time. From styles such as you might expect in classical Roman and Greek art, the art world shifted radically. The Byzantine, Early Christian and Islamic art styles pulled heavily from religious influences and we have a sort of regression from full featured paintings and sculptures to the flat, ethereal and gilded art we associate with that time period. Islamic art went so far in the other direction, pulling on influences from Byzantine and Early Christian that it changed entirely to focus on architecture and writing. Even today, the forms used in Islamic art are breathtaking and truly a testament to geometrical perfection.

As such, we eventually come to the Renaissance and the generally accepted (or at least perceived) resurgence in oil painting styles and skills. The Mona Lisa is an excellent example of the time it took to return from flat painting styles and art knowledge to something we classically adore. Roughly 1000 years occurred between the fail of the Roman Empire and the creation of the Mona Lisa. Of course, the time scale might be off by a few hundred years this or that way on the entire subject in this post but we are also talking of time on the order of a millennium plus actual art style regression. A few hundred years one way or another isn’t much of a measurement at this point.

To understand the kind of philosophies applied to the destruction of the statues despite the publicly and politically declared reasons (which may or may not be valid), one needs to understand why art regressed in the first place and then have a basic understanding of the underlying approach some religions have towards the human form in art.

When the Roman Empire fell, Christian and Muslim religions had a greater influence over the depictions of humanity as used in art. As our first responsibility was to be to the glory of God and God couldn’t quite be painted well (or at all) in either religion, anything approaching realism, particularly in the depiction of humanity, glorified humankind over God (or rather the creation over the Creator). And while we see continued hints of this through to the Renaissance with the depiction of baby Christ in paintings as a little old man (a homunculus), the style was definitely pronounced and carried to extremes. Flat, single color backgrounds, lack of depth in figures, saints seen as if they were floating with toes pointed down, and copious amounts of gold colors were the styles adopted by Byzantine and Early Christian painters. Islamic artists, however, had a different problem to contend with: they couldn’t portray people much or at all and most especially in realistic forms. So Islamic art began its long focus on turning writing and architecture into an art form. Eventually, it became accepted that the depiction of humans in any form was a glorification of man over deity and many pieces of art and architecture were destroyed as a result. Right or wrong, such as you may decide to see it, statues and paintings of Christ, Buddha, or other deities and figures posed a significant problem to this philosophy. And so we come back to the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

While these statues had withstood many attacks and attempts to destroy them throughout their time staring over the landscape, the Taliban finally succeeded in March of 2001. As you might imagine, most of the rest of the world had a collective conniption and experts rushed in to see what repairs, if any, could be made. During their work there, 50 previously unknown caves were discovered. In some of these caves, interesting artifacts were recovered and studied. In short, oil paintings discovered in some of these caves were studied and found to have been painted as early as 600 CE, at least 600 years before known oil paintings in Europe. The findings from the oil paintings there not only gave new light on techniques used but also forced a reevaluation of perceived time frames for the development of art on a global scale.

Ironically, a partial translation of the Pratītyasamutpāda Sutra was discovered as well, noting that all things are temporary and change.

To read more about this topic, visit the following sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/8/8908825/ugly-medieval-babies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Christian_art_and_architecture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_art
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_art

Please be sure to check citations used to verify the veracity of the claims made in these pages.