Long before Afghanistan was an Islamic country, Buddhist settlements
dotted its mountains and deserts. While the Taliban infamously destroyed
the giant Buddhist statues of Bamyan Province in 2001, many
archeological riches remain. Alongside those buried treasures of the
past are mineral riches the U.S. military says could be worth as much as
$1 trillion.
A race against time
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Amazing Afghan-Buddhist archeology (BAN) |
(VOA) The men
are in a race against time. On Mes Aynak Mountain, in Afghanistan’s
Logar Province, they are digging out some of the country’s oldest
treasures. As fast as they can.
They have only two years to recover artifacts from four main sites around the mountain before a Chinese copper mine moves in.
“Well
we are trying but the problem is the site is very huge and our
archeologists, we only have 24 archeologists, and an institute, and we
need more,” said Khair Muhammad Khairzada, who is with the Afghan
Institute of Archaeology.
The Buddhists were thriving here around
1,500 years ago. The site was a pilgrimage destination and a
monastery. Even back then, it was known for its copper. Mes Aynak
means Copper of Aynak.
Within next two years, Chinese to mine
Looters
have taken most of the treasures above ground. They even drilled
tunnels and made off with the tops of giant statues. Erosion took its
toll as well. And now the Chinese have come to recover billions of
dollars worth of copper.
The China Metallurgical Group established a camp here in 2009. By 2014, miners will begin tearing down the mountain.
Archaeologist Abdul Qadir Temori say two years is not enough time.
“Yes, it is a limited amount of time. Only an archeologist would understand what a limited time it is,” he said.
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US soldiers and future peace activists |
An
extension of the dig is not expected. The $4 billion deal is
Afghanistan’s largest ever and would provide needed jobs and revenue for
this war-weary country.
But the archeologists say it is not worth it.
Hundreds of ancient treasures, forever lost
“History will judge them. There’s no difference between the
terrorists and the Chinese, because terrorists are destroying our
artifacts with their guns and weapons and the Chinese are destroying
them by money,” said archaeologist Temori.
- Ancient Greece: Greco-Bactrian King
Menander (Milinda) converted to Buddhism ca 150
BCE. During his reign Buddhism spread from India through
Afghanistan up through Central Asia and into Europe (Kalmykia):
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Buddhist monks with Greek king (WHP) |
Hundreds of ancient
treasures have been unearthed here since digging began in earnest. They
are filling the National Museum. An untold number of artifacts remain
below the earth. But so does the copper.
So the race continues
to save the riches of Afghanistan’s past from the riches of its future.
Before long, the mountain these men are working on will be gone.
(Brent Huffman, NY Times, April 23, 2013) In formerly Buddhist
Afghanistan, a Chinese mining company (MCC) threatens to destroy the remains
of an ancient Buddhist city and massive temple complex, which archaeologists are now racing to
excavate.
Games Without Rules
Amazon.com
Today, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest
between democracy and Islamist fanaticism.
That war is real, but it sits
atop an older struggle between Kabul and the countryside, between
order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the
pull of an older Afghanistan: a tribal universe of village republics
permeated by Islam.
Now, [Afghan-born US citizen and historian] Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan
background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain
history [in English] from the inside out, and to illuminate the long, internal
struggle that the outside world has never fully understood.
It is the
story of a nation struggling to take form, a nation undermined by its
own demons while, every 40 to 60 years, a great power crashes in and
disrupts whatever progress has been made.
Told in conversational,
storytelling style [in Ansary's excellent English], and focusing on key events and personalities,
Games without Rules provides revelatory insight into a country at the center of political debate.
(Kirkus) “A breezy, accessible overview of
centuries of messy Afghan history, including the present military
quagmire…. As a native of Kabul, Ansary lends
precious insight into the
makeup of the typical Afghan village, with its tidy, self-sufficient,
patriarchal hierarchy and need to keep the nomads at bay… Lively
instruction on how Afghanistan has coped, and continues to cope, with
being a strategic flash point.”
More
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Amazing ancient Buddhist sites from Siddhartha the Buddha's homeland (BAN) |
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Base of a life-sized Buddha, one of more than 200 found at Afghanistan's Mes
Aynak site, sits alongside hundreds of other statues depicting figures (Jay Price/MCT/BAN). |
It has been incorrectly
reported that Chinese archeological site destruction and mineral mining at Mes Aynak, the ancient Buddhist temple complex "Copper Well," was due to begin in 2013. It is not set to begin until 2014.
THERE IS STILL TIME TO SAVE IT!
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