Buddhas of Bamiyan

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Immovable Culture Heritage

The Buddhas of Bamiyan are two standing Buddha statues that once sat on the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. They were built in the sixth century AD and carved from red sandstone. They are classic works of Greek Buddhist art. However, two of the giant standing Buddha statues were bombed by the Taliban in 2001. ICOMOS began to protect the Bamiyan Buddha statue in Afghanistan in 2003. In the autumn of 2006, the University of Aachen in Germany cooperated with the Vienna University of Technology to use a 3D laser measurement system and a digital camera to survey the niches of the Bamiyan Buddha and the surrounding cave structures. An accurate, realistic 3D model of this heavily damaged niche was obtained. Subsequently, the researchers used historical documents and pictures to create a virtual 3D model to restore the Buddha of Bamiyan. Based on this virtual model, researchers are expected to reconstruct part or the entire Buddha statue in the future. In 2015, a couple of adventurers from China used 3D laser projection technology to reproduce the Buddha statue on the original site and presented the whole set of light and shadow equipment to the local government. In 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the Bamiyan Buddha, the local people once again used 3D projection to reproduce the Buddha statue on the original site.

wordlheritage2022

6th-century

xg29

Site

536

10/05/2022

cm x cm x cm

current,34.83211176239926,67.82709079150746;

Buddhas of Bamiyan

TEXT

Archaeological

977

2001

public

1

xg29@st-andrews.ac.uk