Buddha attacked by Taliban gets facelift in Pakistan
In this May 24, 2012 photo, people sit near a sculpture of the Buddha whose face was destroyed by Taliban fighters at Jahanabad, Pakistan in the Swat valley. – AP
JAHANABAD, Pakistan: When the Taliban blew the face off a towering, 1,500-year-old rock carving of Buddha in northwest Pakistan almost five years ago, it fell to an intrepid Italian archaeologist to come to the rescue.
Thanks to the efforts of Luca Olivieri and his partners, the 6-meter (nearly 20-foot)-tall image near the town of Jahanabad is getting a facelift, and many other archaeological treasures in the scenic Swat Valley are being excavated and preserved.
Extremists have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu and other religious sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.
The Jahanabad Buddha, etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th century, is one of the largest such carvings in South Asia. It was attacked in the fall of 2007 when the Pakistani Taliban swarmed across the scenic Swat Valley. The army drove most of them out two years later, but foreign tourists who used to visit the region still tend to stay away.
Olivieri himself had to leave in 2008 after more than two decades of tending to the riches dating back to Alexander the Great and the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim invaders who followed. The 49-year-old head of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan returned in 2010 and is back at work.
Taliban militants climbed ropes to insert explosives in holes drilled into the face and shoulders of the Jahanabad Buddha, said Olivieri. The explosives in the shoulders failed to detonate, but the others blew off most of the face above the lips and cracked other parts of the carving and surrounding rock.
Olivieri and his team began work this month on fixing the cracks and what’s left of the face. A full reconstruction is impossible because detailed documentation and fragments of the face are lacking.
“Whatever you do in the absence of perfect data is a fake,” said Olivieri, who says he has wanted to be an archaeologist since age 6 and still brings a youthful exuberance to his work even as his beard grows gray.
In this May 24, 2012 photo, Italian archeologist Luca Olivieri, left, talks with colleagues in Saidu Sharif, Pakistan. – AP
Arriving as a university student in 1987, he was fascinated by Swat, once an important center of Buddhist culture and trade. The monk credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet, Padmasambhava, was born in Swat.
In more recent decades, the area was known as “the Switzerland of Pakistan,” popular with religious tourists from China, Japan and South Korea, and the hope is that restoration of the Jahanabad Buddha will spark a revival of tourism here.
Olivieri’s mission is funded by the Italian government, which works with local Pakistani antiquities authorities. It has uncovered over 120 Buddhist sites among Swat’s soaring hills and rushing rivers. Of roughly 200 Buddhist rock carvings in Swat, the Jahanabad Buddha was among the few to survive with its face intact for so long, said Olivieri. Most were defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders who, like the Taliban, consider Buddha a false idol.
Maulana Shamsur Rehman, a leading politician in Swat, says the attack on the Buddha should never have happened. Islam preaches freedom and protection for followers of all religions, he told The Associated Press, and “in line with Islamic rules, nobody should have an objection to the repair work on the Buddha statue.”
In 2001, militants damaged the excavated ruins of a 7th century Hindu temple in Swat overlooking a stronghold conquered by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. Unable to protect the temple, the Italian mission had to rebury it.
Ironically, the site that Olivieri was most worried about during the Taliban’s violent reign in Swat was an Islamic one—the roughly 1,000-year-old Udegram Ghaznavid mosque, the third oldest in Pakistan. He feared the militants would occupy and damage it, but that never happened.
Pakistani security officials say the Taliban are again trying to infiltrate Swat, but militants are not the only threat to the archaeological sites. Looters are perhaps a bigger problem. Many relics looted from Swat are in private and public collections around the world.
In December police arrested several men in Swat and seized a roughly one-meter-(three-foot) tall, 1,800-year-old Buddhist statue that could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars on the international antiquities market.
The Italian mission has posted guards at the most important sites and is also training them to become guides by teaching them English, first aid and basic conservation techniques, said Olivieri.
The mission opened in 1955 in an office provided by the Wali of Swat, the one-time princely ruler of the territory. To furnish a taste of home, its first draftsman painted a mural of Rome’s Spanish Steps in the dining room.
The feeling of glimpsing Italy in the wilds of Pakistan’s northwest continues today. There’s espresso in the morning and Italian olive oil on the dining room table. A Fiat Campagnola jeep shipped from Italy in 1955 is due to end up in a museum in Swat.
Thank you, Mr. Olivieri! A big thanks is also due to the Italian government for helping Pakistan preserve these timeless archaeological treasures. We owe it to all of our future generations to safeguard, protect and preserve what was handed down to us by our forefathers.
If you are ever in Lahore, I'd be happy to cook some spaghetti/pasta with meatballs for you, Mr. Olivieri, as a tiny token of my appreciation for the awesome work that you are doing. Stay safe and Godspeed.
I don't think face-lifting is necessary. The destruction of Buddha is also a part of our history and it reminds the future generations of our version of the dark ages. The future archaeologists shouldn’t make theories why the face-lifting was necessary. But do post a tablet describing why it was needed, if at all face-lifting is done.
Nothing is parmanent including who you are today as well!! So in the future if you want your current to be cherished you will cherish you past as it stands today which is that you were Hindus and Budhhists and pagan worshippers in the past.
Pakistanis must realize that its their duty to protect and preserve their past. Its rich in history and the entire world depends on their past from the Italians being proud of the Romans to the British of their Stonehenge etc.
Pakistan was India before and Bharat before that and ofcourse Hindustan. This has to be recognized by the people and taught. They must also realize that Islam was a late entry and most conversions to Islams happened in the 1000AD while before that there is 5000 yrs of history which includes the Mohenjodaro, Harappa North India belt, Emperor Ashokas empire which was the greats and the biggest of all and stretched from Burma in the east to the persian borders in the west. Infact the Gactrian and Greco-Macedonian kings all send their sisters as wife’s for Ashoka and allowed Budhism to be taught in their lands. It was in the Ashokan period that all these statues were built, so all the ancestors of Pakistanis were Hindus and Budhists. Nothing wrong with this, we just need to accept and go on with life. Lets treasure the great past we have which has lead to the development of the Indian Subcontinent.
thanks to ITLY
We indian shared a common enduring past with all pakistanis. Budha preachd peach and non-voilent in his lifetime and it is applicable in all time period. Restoring is symbolic but of great importance as we human learn from symbol and teaching from past. God bless you all showing you concern.
Pakistan is one of those fortunate nations , which are bestowed by nature with rich cultural diversity as well as Archaeological heritage . But instead of taking effective measures to preserve the rapidly vanishing antiquities, we have lost a great lot which is a loss to our ancient assets. The destruction of these beautiful petroglyphs by the fundamentalists is condemnable.
will that budda now feed you children? help the homeless? the orphaned? the widowed? the disabled?
The treasure of Pakistan are her people not the rocks in her mountains.
I don't think they should have been destroyed but we have many more important needs than a face lift for a rock.
Most Pakistanis don't know that the taliban initially were unable to destroy the bamiyan Buddhas and brought in ordinance and demolition engineers from Pakistan to finish the job.
excellent!!!
Hats off to you sir!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Luca olivieri. Thanks a million. may God bless you.
thank you Mr. Olivieri