Keywords

1 The Terrible Fate of the Buddha Statues in Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan)

“The giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, the smaller Buddha probably dating back to the mid-sixth century AD, and the bigger one dating back to the early seventh century, are cut into the same cliff face with a distance of about 800 m between them. […] The sculptures both show a standing Buddha. […] Western literature distinguishes, according to position or size, between an Eastern or Small Buddha (38 m tall) and a Western or Big Buddha (55 m tall). Afghans identify the Eastern Buddha as khink-but (grey or moon white Buddha) and the Western one as surkh-but (red Buddha)” (Blänsdorf and Petzet 2001, p. 18).

Some of the earliest records of the Bamiyan Buddhas can be found in Chinese travelogues. For example, in Da Tang Xiyu Ji’s Account of the country of Funyanna, he describes the magnificent Buddha statues: “To the northeast of the royal capital is a mountain, at a secluded corner of which is a standing stone image of Buddha, one hundred and forty or fifty chis (Chinese feet) high. Its golden hues are sparkling and its precious ornaments are glittering. To the east is a monastery, which was built by the last king. To the east of this monastery is a standing brazen figure of Sakyamuni Buddha, about one hundred chi high, different parts of the body being cast and joined together to get a complete form” (Nabi 2022, p. 61).

After the Islamic conquest, Arab authors were also familiar with the statues. “Nothing can be compared with these statues in the entire world,” said Yakut al Hamawi about Bamiyan in his geographic dictionary, in the year 1218 (Blänsdorf and Petzet 2001, p. 19).

Thomas Hyde was the first European who mentioned the Bamiyan Buddhas in his writings in 1700, based on Arab literary sources. After nearly a century, Wilford and Elphinstone wrote about Bamiyan, also based on literary sources. It was William Moorcroft and George Trebeck who first went on an expedition to Afghanistan in 1824 and wrote about the Buddha statues in the niches. They were followed by the works of Alexander Burnes and Dr. Gerard.

“Do you prefer to be a smasher of idols or a seller of idols?” (Nabi 2022, p. 61) Mullah Omar asked Afghanistan’s Muslim population on the 26th of February, 2001, when the Metropolitan Museum of Arts offered to pay for the Afghan artefacts.

Bamiyan’s preservation and revival began with the 25th session of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee on 25–30 June 2001 (UNESCO 2001a), in which the opening session included an extended discussion on the destruction of the Bamiyan statues. It quickly became a widely covered global issue which called for immediate action to be taken. Even though the quest to save Bamiyan by UNESCO started way before its demolition, and no amount of dialogue could convince the Taliban to do otherwise, the fight lost to the Taliban was certainly not the end.

2 The Value of the International Cooperation for Bamiyan Cultural Heritage

The Florence meetingFootnote 1 was a great opportunity to open the floor for a discussion with some of the main international sectorial organizations –UNESCO, ICOMOS, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, ALIPH—and several Italian universities, as well as with the Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (AICS) offices, operating in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

A whole session was entirely dedicated to the World Heritage site of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, at the center of a redevelopment project that sees the Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo (SAGAS) of Florence University as a partner of AICS—Islamabad, following the closure of AICS Kabul in 2021. This session examined the main cultural heritage protection efforts carried out in the Bamiyan area, with the aim of discussing the results achieved prior to the Taliban coming back into power, in an attempt to highlight the most critical issues and sectors in need of further interventions.

This was among the objectives of this conference, planned by Professor Mirella Loda, who told The Art Newspaper: “I deeply hope we will be able to set up a group of international experts that could orient local authorities so as, at least, to prevent destructive and irreversible interventions” (Geranpayeh 2022). She was speaking as project coordinator for Bamiyan’s Strategic Master Plan.

Let us now start with the UNESCO approach to the Bamiyan Valley.

“UNESCO defines the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley as representing the artistic and religious developments which characterized ancient Bakhtria from the 1st to the 13th century, integrating various cultural influences into the Gandhara school of Buddhist art. The area contains numerous Buddhist monastic ensembles and sanctuaries, as well as fortified edifices from the Islamic period. The site is also testimony to the tragic destruction by the Taliban of the two standing Buddha statues, which shook the world in March 2001” (UNESCO World Heritage Centre 2003).

As mentioned in the book published by the UNESCO Office in Kabul in 2005 (UNESCO 2005), much discussion has taken place in Afghanistan and globally, regarding the future of this site, revolving around the question of whether the two statues of Buddha should be reconstructed. Already, very early after the fall of the Taliban in 2002, a UNESCO expert fact-finding mission traveled to Bamiyan in order to examine the situation. This mission consisted of Prof. Michael Jansen of RWTH Aachen University, Prof. Michael Petzet, President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Prof. Kosaku Maeda of the National Research Institute of Cultural Properties Tokyo (NRICPT), among other international experts. The technical aspects of the mission revealed that under the rubble, many fragments from the destroyed figures could be found with original surface features. While the detonations destroyed the Western Buddha almost entirely, portions of the Eastern Buddha survived the explosion, as reported by ICOMOS expert Santana-Quintero in 2002.

A plan for the preservation of these fragments and the long-term conservation of the remains was first presented by Professor Michael Petzet, immediately after the international expert meeting I had the responsibility of organizing in Kabul in May 2002.

The 107 participants at the First International Seminar on the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage, organized by UNESCO in May 2002, as well as the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (ICC), clearly recognized that the main emergency priority is to stabilize the cliff face with its niches and caves. Noting that the decision to engage in the reconstruction of the Buddha statues is a matter to be settled by the government and the people of Afghanistan, it was agreed that the reconstruction of the Buddha Statues would not be a priority for as long as humanitarian aid for the Afghan people was urgently needed.

Furthermore, it was emphasized that the authenticity, integrity, and historical importance of this great site needed to be memorialized appropriately, and that because of this, the reconstruction of the statues would require further careful consideration. The preservation of the Bamiyan Site was one of the most important UNESCO projects in Afghanistan, for which more than $ 1.8 million have been generously donated by the Government of Japan.

The Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley was inscribed on the “List of World Heritage in Danger” and the World Heritage List at the 27th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2003. The property is in a fragile state of conservation, having suffered from neglect, military action, and dynamite explosions. In 2003, the major dangers included the risk of imminent collapse of the Buddha niches with the remaining fragments of the statues, further deterioration of still-existing mural paintings in the caves, looting, and illicit excavation (UNESCO 2005).

Architect Paul Bucherer, who is very familiar with the cultural heritage of Afghanistan, also took part in the first missions undertaken after the destruction of the giant Buddhas. I had the pleasure to travel with him to Kabul. I was also present with him in New York in April 2003 for a panel discussion organized by the Asia Society entitled, “Beyond Bamiyan: Will the World be Ready Next Time?” The panel took place in order to address current debates on the issue of cultural heritage in Afghanistan, and the steps taken by the international community to protect it. This program was made possible by the generous support of the Hazen Polsky Foundation (Asia Society 2003).

I was among the panelists, alongside Mrs. Bonnie Burnham, President of the World Monuments Fund, Mrs. Barbara Crossette, a reporter for The New York Times, Mr. James Cuno, Director of the Harvard University Art Museums, Mr. Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Derek Gillman, President of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Mr. Satoshi Yamato of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan.

Architect Paul Bucherer is the founder and director of the Afghanistan Institute and Museum (Bibliotheca Afghanica) in Switzerland. The Bibliotheca Afghanica Museum-In-Exile, which he created in Bubendorf near Basel, was serving as a temporary home for artifacts that were loaned to Mr. Bucherer by Afghans and others outside the country, for safekeeping. As an activist, Paul Bucherer has spent more than three decades documenting the country’s cultural heritage and has supplied the Afghanistan Museum in Exile and the Bibliotheca Afghanica with numerous artifacts. He was providing UNESCO with critical information on the state of sites before, during, and after the civil unrest, while institutions that once worked in Afghanistan were beginning to return to their sites, in order to resume their study and conservation activities.

Between 2000 and 2006, my colleagues and I were at Headquarters and at UNESCO’s office in Kabul, in charge of following up the tragic destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.Footnote 2 In this position, I had regular contact with Mr. Bucherer, but also with Professor Ikuo Hirayama, a celebrated contemporary artist, working in the genre of Nihonga, and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and special adviser for cultural heritage, specially appointed director of the Tokyo National Museum.

Both facilitated the return of many works of art to Afghanistan, several of which they had gathered in various countries, with the protection in Switzerland of the Swiss Parliament, and in Japan thanks to the highly respected position of Professor Ikuo Hirayama, who advocated Red Cross activities for cultural heritage.

UNESCO’s experiences through events in Cambodia, Southeast Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East, Timor-Leste, and elsewhere, provide hope that a program can be put in place for the preservation of cultural heritage, aiming at reconstruction on one hand, and dialogue and reconciliation on the other.

UNESCO has always held that archaeological sites, in addition to old manuscripts, give unique insight into civilizations. They are frequently associated with ideas or beliefs that have marked the history of humanity from time immemorial.

To respond to the numerous queries that UNESCO received following the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, and to put an end to false interpretations of Islamic law concerning cultural heritage, while also preventing such iconoclastic acts from occurring in the future, a conference of specialists in Islamic law was organized in Doha (Qatar), from the 29th to the 31st of December, 2001, on the occasion of the Ministers of Culture of the Islamic World regular meeting. We started the preparations for this Conference on the 15th of March, 2001, immediately after the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Contact was made with the most renowned specialists (Ulamâ) in Islamic law (Sharia) from different religious schools (Sunna and Shia). Specialists from Morocco, in the western Islamic World, and up to Kazakhstan, in its Eastern part, were invited.

The agenda of the conference went beyond safeguarding the Buddha statues in Bamiyan and the sustainable protection of Afghan cultural heritage. Indeed the Doha Conference of “Ulamâ”, entitled Islam and Cultural Heritage, was chaired by His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, and put together by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and UNESCO (UNESCO 2001b).

It was inaugurated by the directors of three international and regional organizations: Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura (UNESCO), Mr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri (ISESCO), and Mr. Mongi Bousnina (ALECSO). It should be noted that the conference was attended by 27 professors and experts in Islamic Law, from 25 different countries. A delegation from Afghanistan also participated, led by Professor Sibghatullah Mujaddidi, former President of Afghanistan. After 2 days of intense discussion, this meeting resulted in the “Declaration of Doha”, later widely circulated throughout the Islamic world.

The “Ulamâ”, in attendance discussed the various aspects of the Symposium with a special focus on the recent destruction of the Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley. They stressed that the tolerant nature of Islam demands respect for human heritage in general, whatever its origins, forms, or manifestations. In their deliberations, they highlighted the fact that Muslims have preserved human heritage in all its diversity, making sure not to harm it in any way. This is evidenced by the fact that the Islamic world boasts the greater part of human heritage, most of which goes back to pre-Islamic periods, notably in the Middle East and North Africa. Had it not been preserved by Muslims, most of those heritage sites would have been lost. The Ulamâ noted that the situation has remained so over the entirety of Islam’s 14th-century history.

The Ulamâ participating in the DOHA Symposium affirmed that the “position of Islam with regard to the preservation of the human cultural heritage derives from its appreciation of innate human values and from respect for people’s beliefs”. They explained that “the position of Islam regarding the preservation of the cultural heritage is a firm position of principle which expresses the very essence of the Islamic religion” (Bouchenaki 2020, p. 26).

3 International Financial and Technical Cooperation for Bamiyan

Following the UNESCO-sponsored meeting in May 2002, numerous other conservation initiatives have been planned. In the historic center of Kabul, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) has embarked on a major campaign to restore a number of eighteenth and nineteenth-century serays and residences, as well as the famed seventeenth-century Babur Gardens in the northwest part of the city. AKTC, with support from the World Monuments Fund (WMF), is resuming restoration efforts in Herat, a fifteenth-century Timurid city, which is included on WMF’s 1998 list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites.

In Bamiyan, Michel Petzet, President of ICOMOS and his colleagues have been documenting what is left of the 1,500-year-old giant Buddhas and the fragmentary murals that once graced the hundreds of caves in the valley.

Elsewhere in the country, Mrs. Nancy Hatch Dupree and her team at the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH), have been undertaking detailed assessments of heritage conditions, as well as reconstructing museum inventories.

Collectively, these efforts, along with programs undertaken by government agencies, are working to rebuild one of the world’s great cultural crossroads.

In 2002, the Bamiyan Expert Working Group (BEWG) was established, and the Government of Afghanistan entrusted UNESCO with coordinating all cultural projects across Bamiyan. The BEWG also advises the Government of Afghanistan in implementing the decisions adopted by the World Heritage Committee for the World Heritage property of Bamiyan in the conservation and management areas.

The conservation activities were started in 2003 with the UNESCO Campaign that Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, launched for the Preservation of the Bamiyan Site. Part of the funding was provided by Italian, Japanese, and German authorities, in addition to the financial assistance which the UNESCO World Heritage Centre made available, upon the site’s inscription in 2003.

With regard to the official installation by UNESCO of an International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (ICC) which was completed in 2002, the objectives were stated as follows: “Responding to the urgent need to enhance and facilitate the coordination of all international activities, and in accordance with the Afghan authorities, UNESCO has established an International Coordination Committee (ICC). Its statutes were approved by the 165th session of the organization’s Executive Board in October 2002” (ICC 2004).

The ICC, which consists of Afghan experts and leading international specialists belonging to those donor countries and organizations who are doing most to provide funding or scientific assistance towards safeguarding Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, meets on a regular basis to review ongoing and future efforts to rehabilitate that heritage. In June 2003, the Committee’s First Plenary Session was organized at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

It was chaired by Makhdoom Raheen in the presence of Prince Mirwais, 7 representatives of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, and more than 60 international experts participating as members of the Committee or as observers. The meeting resulted in a set of specific recommendations for the efficient coordination of efforts to safeguard Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, to the highest international conservation standards.

“These recommendations concern key areas such as the development of a long-term strategy, capacity building, implementation of the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, national inventories, and documentation, as well as rehabilitation of the National Museum in Kabul and safeguarding of the sites of Jam, Herat, and Bamiyan. Several donors pledged additional funding for cultural projects in Afghanistan following the meeting” (Manhart 2004, p. 403).

The consolidation of the extremely fragile cliffs and niches, the preservation of the mural paintings in the Buddhist caves, and the preparation of an integrated master plan, were prioritized. In order to prevent the collapse of the cliffs and niches, large scaffolding was supplied free of charge by the German Messerschmidt Foundation and transported by the German army to Afghanistan in August 2003. With the help of this scaffolding and other imported specialized equipment, the internationally renowned Italian firm RODIO successfully completed the first phase of the emergency consolidation of the cliffs and niches.

The Bamiyan Expert Working Group was also established in 2002 and has as its main goal the coordination of all activities carried out in Bamiyan under the various UNESCO projects, as well as any bilateral activities funded by international donors. It also advises the Government of Afghanistan on the implementation of decisions adopted by the World Heritage Committee for the World Heritage property of Bamiyan in the areas of conservation and management.

In July, September, and October 2003 several missions, consisting of specialists from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Japan), were sent to Bamiyan to safeguard the mural paintings and to draw up a master plan for the long-term preservation and management of the site. A Japanese firm was commissioned to prepare a topographical map of the valley and a 3D model of the cliffs and niches.

“A Japanese survey team by PASCO Inc. set up the coordinates for a site reference system and produced a detailed topographic map of the central Bamiyan valley based on ground-trusted analysis of Quickbird satellite data and aerial images provided by the Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Office (AGCHO). The PASCO team also realized a 3D laser scan of the entire cliff, the niches of the Giant Buddhas and several caves in order to document the condition after the detonation and to prepare site plan material for the next stages of the program” (Toubekis et al. 2009).

In addition, UNESCO helped the Afghan government to create a site museum, planned to be set up in a traditional house near the site. To this end, the Swiss government approved a UNESCO Funds-in-Trust project for the restoration of a traditional mud-brick house in the village of old Bamiyan, with a budget of US$ 250,000 for the study of traditional houses to be carried out, so that appropriate restoration methods could then be recommended.

In January 2003, the Greek government started the restoration of the Kabul Museum building, as part of a commitment made during the Kabul Seminar in May 2002, consisting of a donation of approximately US$ 750,000. UNESCO provided the Greek specialists with drawings of and plans for the Kabul Museum, produced by the organization’s consultant, Architect Andrea Bruno. The US government also contributed US$ 100,000 to this project.

Further to this, the British International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) installed a new restoration laboratory composed of two rooms, one wet-room and one dry-room, both of which were funded by the British Museum. In addition, the French Centre d’Études et de Recherches Documentaires sur l’Afghanistan (CEREDAF) donated conservation equipment, while the newly re-established French Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA), alongside the Guimet Museum in Paris, carried out training courses for the museum’s curators initiated by the Italian firm IsIAO in 2002 (Manhart 2004, p. 409).

The 12th Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting was held at the Technical University of Munich, Germany (1st–3rd of December 2016), and provided important recommendations for future safeguarding actions at the Bamiyan World Heritage site. The Governor of the province of Bamiyan, the Deputy Minister of Culture of Afghanistan, accompanied by high-ranking officials from the Government of Afghanistan, attended the meeting, along with representatives of donor countries, such as Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, along with 20 international experts from Italy, Germany, and Japan.

The 14th Bamiyan Expert Working Group Meeting, held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2017, was especially important. The Tokyo meeting initially assessed the progress made with regard to the conservation of the property and then laid out priority activities for the immediate future in the form of recommendations. These recommendations (UNESCO 2017) included the urgent conservation of the Western Buddha niche, where conservation works had resumed in the second semester of 2016, as well as the need for a revision of the Bamiyan Cultural Master Plan, originally developed in 2004, in view of ever-increasing development pressures.

The meeting also served as a platform for preliminary discussions between the Government of Afghanistan, international experts, and donor countries on the feasibility of reconstructing at least one of the Buddha statues, which has been officially requested by the Government of Afghanistan on behalf of the people of Afghanistan (Bouchenaki 2020, p. 28).

The issue of producing a Cultural Master Plan for the Bamiyan Valley was a concern for the late Professor Michael Jansen.

On the 8th of December 2020, he published an article entitled “The Cultural Master Plan of Bamiyan: The Sustainability Dilemma of Protection and Progress” with Dr. Giorgos Tubekis (Jansen and Toubekis 2020). The authors underline the fact that “beyond the Buddha Cliff, the World Heritage property of Bamiyan consists of several archaeological areas embedded into an extraordinary cultural landscape not adequately defined at the time of the nomination. Therefore, the Cultural Master Plan was envisioned as guidance for the development of a rural environment under cultural preservation objectives. The plan introduces a zoning scheme defining land use regulations for the protection of cultural areas, and proposing designated areas for urban development. Lack of adequate legal protection, too-rigid enforcement of land use restrictions on the local level, and the aspirations of the people for a rapid change of their living conditions resulted in increasing uncertainties on the validity of the plan.”

It is further argued that a monitoring guiding committee composed of international and national experts, as well as local stakeholders, would be helpful in counterbalancing uncoordinated international aid assistance and inefficient governmental supervision, which had led to overemphasizing urbanization approaches in development strategies, something that was conflicting with the rural character of the valley. The authors propose a reconsideration of urbanization within the Bamiyan Valley and a reconciliation of the objectives of urban and rural development, inspired by a sustainable development plan as put forward by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As we can see, during the last 20 years, international cooperation has been very active in the Bamiyan valley, while many countries have contributed to the protection of the area’s sites in various ways, and not only the two niches where the Buddhas were destroyed.

The Italian and Afghan governments have cooperated with UNESCO on heritage protection for more than five decades, thanks largely to the work of Italian organizations and universities. The key results of this cooperation were presented at the November 2022 seminar, held at the University of Florence.

4 Training and Capacity Building in Afghanistan Post-Conflict Period

Apart from the work done in the aftermath of the Buddhas’ destruction, there is another strategic field which was addressed by the participants of the meeting in Florence, namely the training of young Afghan professionals in the protection and presentation of their country’s rich cultural heritage. Apart from the University of Florence, the University of Arizona also became involved: “Archaeologists estimate there are more than 5000 archaeological sites in Afghanistan, but not all have been identified. And after three decades of war and neglect, Afghan sites and artifacts are in serious need of trained staff, proper site management, security, funding, national and international commitment, and development of advocacy and awareness programs” (College and of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture 2014).

In 2022, Richard Mulholland published a report on the HUNAR (Heritage Unveiled: National Art Restoration) Program and highlighted the importance of training for Afghans (Mulholland 2002): “One of the HUNAR program’s key objectives in 2020–2021 was to address the lack of skills and knowledge in heritage management and conservation in Afghanistan. This included the design and implementation of a simple collections management database at the Afghan National Gallery, the translation of key conservation sources on paper and easel paintings conservation into Dari and Pashto, and an intensive training course for participants from the National Gallery, National Museum, National Archives, Kabul University, the Art Institute, and four provincial galleries.

The training took the form of a short, ten-day course on the theory and practice of collections management, conservation, artists’ materials and techniques, and preventive conservation, to be put into practice in Kabul in 2020. However, the advent of COVID-19 combined with a worsening security situation in Kabul meant that travel to the region became impossible, and the training was moved online. The course was provided via recorded lectures with live translation, followed by a live online ‘Q&A’ session with all participants.

A small group of high-scoring trained participants were then selected to travel to regional galleries at Kandahar, Herat, Balkh, and Nangarhar to train local staff in condition reporting and basic collections management. Social and gender inclusion was promoted strongly throughout the project. As with most sectors in Afghanistan, there are structural inequalities that make accessing decision-making and leadership roles in the heritage sector difficult. In most provinces, there are no female employees in the sector. HUNAR was the first project of its kind to carry out a formal gender and social inclusion assessment for the heritage sector in the region.”

In Afghanistan, an obvious international sustainable development goal is to promote the empowerment of young women (Wimpelmann 2017), and the inclusion of heritage in the international development agenda presented a real opportunity to re-evaluate the role of women in contemporary Afghanistan, especially since women are over-represented in higher education art and design courses, which is the traditional entry route into heritage roles (Hashimi 2021). The Afghan Ministry of Culture employs 2023 people, 14% of whom are female. However, the vast majority of women work in the capital. The ratio is almost non-existent in the provinces, where there is also in general very low education attainment for women.

It is important to state that there is no common narrative for cultural heritage and the people that it represents. Richard Mulholland’s limited study has demonstrated that although international conservation interventions in post-conflict zones can have a significant impact, it can be challenging to achieve a sustainable impact in the cases where cost and security issues generally mean that training takes place over an intensive but brief period of time (Mulholland 2002).

In concluding this brief introduction on the Florentine Conference on Cultural Heritage in Fragile Contexts, we should refer to the UNESCO declaration commemorating the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan on the 11th of March 2021.

“Although the destruction of heritage and the plundering of artefacts have taken place since antiquity, the destruction of the two Buddhas of Bamiyan marks an important turning point for the international community. A deliberate act of destruction, motivated by an extremist ideology that aimed to destroy culture, identity, and history, the loss of the Buddhas revealed how the destruction of heritage could be used as a weapon against local populations. It highlighted the close links between heritage safeguarding and the well-being of people and communities. It reminded us that defending cultural diversity is not a luxury, but rather a necessity in building more peaceful societies. Since the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the Afghan authorities and the international community, including UNESCO, have worked tirelessly to safeguard the rich cultural and natural heritage of Afghanistan, which testifies to millennia of exchanges between different cultures and peoples” (UNESCO 2021).