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The destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban regime in March 2001 not only challenged the world heritage1 and undermined the international law, it brought home the rising threat of religious extremist groups whose target this time was cultural heritage. Annihilation of these cultural icons and treasures of mankind will remain as an Islamic iconoclastic action in the public imagination2. However, the systematic destruction of Buddhas being a modern phenomenon under the garb of an archaic iconoclasm can not be simply described as Islamic iconoclasm.
Being situated between South, West and Central Asian trade routes, Bamiyan valley is marked by remarkably true trans-culturalism and the statues, stupas, viharas, shrines and monastic murals are visual portraits which narrate the cultural creolization and religious syncretism3. Not only trade and commodities but ideas were also transmitted and converged here and that made Bamiyan a hub on the map of Asia4. Originating in the post-Gupta period, gigantism in Mahayana Buddhist art found its way to Bamiyan around 5th century AD. and remained remarkably connected to rituals in time and content5. Their identification and chronology has been a continuous debate among the art historians and it is thought that the idea of all gigantic Buddhist statues of Central Asia and China originated from the Bamiyan Valley.6 To understand the Taliban iconoclasm, a comprehensive review of Islamic iconoclasm and its comparison with the Taliban action is essential. This paper argues the possible motivations behind this vandalism. Being home to Hazara7 ethnic community in origin who speak Hazaragi dialect of Persian and follow Shia school of Islam, the Buddhas of Bamiyan found their eternity in popular culture, a transmutation from cult to culture which has preserved them for centuries. So, the last section focuses on the Buddha's position in Hazara popular culture, the response of the Hazara community to this destruction and the plan of reconstruction.
The implacable shift from protection8 to annihilation9 of Buddhas by the Taliban regime and its damage to the world cultural heritage has already been studied from the art history and international law perspectives. Among them B. Flood (2002) explained the nature of Islamic iconoclasm and the distinction between cult and culture, W. Muzhda (2004) and J. Elias (2007) tried to show the impact of Al-Qaeda...