COLD CASE FILE #10

Anonymous, Large Bamiyan Buddha
Location: Bamiyan Valley, Hazarajat region, Afghanistan (34.8297900,67.8180980)
Time or Duration: c.554 C.E. – 2001

CRIME REPORT:
A warrant is out for the arrest of all members of the Taliban who took part in the iconoclastic destruction of the 55m tall Large Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan in late 2001. It is suspected that the Taliban unlawfully destroyed the Large Buddha under the belief that the representation of a Buddha as a human God was “un-Islamic.” Originally built to mark the Bamiyan Valley as a site of spiritual contemplation and communion in the Kingdom of Gandahara, the monolithic carved sandstone Buddha statue served to visually mark the mouth of the Hindu Kush Mountains as a critical point of transfer and trade along the Silk Road to China. The destruction of the Large Buddha is symptomatic of a broader erasure of Buddhist culture in the region, which has been under Islamic cultural and spiritual control since the 11th century. Following the documentation link below, you may encounter a road-block. Presumably due to the current political situation in Afghanistan, you are denied access to this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

DOCUMENTATION:
[CRIME SCENE] | [PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE]