[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 14, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CONDEMNING DESTRUCTION OF BUDDHAS IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGLISH. Mr. Speaker, all too often we in Washington are 
insulated from major events that are going on around the world, events 
that directly or indirectly impact us. But there are few events more 
grotesque than something that happened just over the last couple of 
weeks in Afghanistan, an act of barbarism, an act of mindless 
iconoclasm by a regime noted for its intolerance of all values that do 
not precisely conform to their own. Here I am referring to the decision 
of the Taliban outlaw government in Afghanistan to sanction and 
encourage the destruction of two standing Buddhas of enormous 
importance to world culture.
  The Bamiyan standing Buddha statues in Afghanistan up until this 
point have been one of the greatest wonders of the world and one of the 
marvels of that region and one of the remaining gifts that the cultures 
of that part of central Asia had given the entire world. They were a 
magnificent example of human artistry and skill.
  Mr. Speaker, those statues had represented a common heritage of all 
mankind. The Bamiyan Buddhas had survived hostile onslaughts over the 
centuries, but they did not survive destruction at the hands of 
religious zealots and heretics.
  Afghanistan is a country with a very rich and enormously complicated 
history. Because of its mountainous terrain, it was often on the border 
of different empires that washed across the history of the world. It 
was briefly a Greek region under Alexander the Great, and it was also a 
Buddhist region in the third century B.C., Buddhism having been 
launched there by the Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan empire.
  At that time, Afghanistan lay at the heart of the silk route, which 
was a source of trade that moved from east to west.
  Accompanying the caravans of precious goods, Buddhist monks came and 
went, teaching their religion along the route. From this very part of 
the world Buddhism established itself over the centuries in China, 
Korea, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia.
  In the early centuries of the Christian era, a new art form emerged, 
the art of Gandhara, the ancient name for part of Afghanistan. During 
this period, the earliest Buddhist images in human form evolved in this 
Kushan/Saka area.
  The caravans on the silk route often stopped in the Bamiyan Valley. 
It was one of the major Buddhist centers from the second century up to 
the time that Islam entered the Valley in the ninth century.
  There these two giant Buddhas, one of them the largest standing image 
of Buddha in the world, more than 120 feet high, stood, until this 
week. These symbols of their ancient faith were cut out of the rock 
sometime between the third and fifth centuries A.D. The smaller statue 
of Buddha was carved during Kanishka the Great's reign. It was 
estimated that two centuries later the large Buddha statue was carved.
  I have to tell you, it is striking to me as an archaeology buff that 
both of these statues were dressed in togas of the Greek style imported 
into India by the soldiers of Alexander the Great when he invaded the 
region between 334 and 327 B.C.
  The features of these statues of Buddha had disappeared. During the 
centuries, undoubtedly, there had been earlier bouts of iconoclasm. The 
idea behind the destruction was to take away the soul of the hated 
image by obliterating, or at least deforming, the head and hands.
  The intolerance of the Taliban in leading to this destruction needs 
to have a strong international response. The Taliban has clearly failed 
to recognize the value of any art that does not conform precisely to 
their religious purposes. The Taliban are only the temporary holders. 
Their government is only a custodian of this area. We cannot tolerate 
their willful destruction of international treasures that are really 
holdings of the entire world. We cannot allow them to get away with 
this action.
  The action of the Taliban regime represents the worst case of 
vandalism in recent history of our ancient past. Today, more and more 
people are awakening to their heritage and the importance of preserving 
these sorts of relics. We have in Christian countries many examples of 
Islamic art that are protected, like the Alhambra in Spain. We know 
that in Egypt, now an Islamic country, there are relics, there are 
statues, there are temples that are of enormous significance to the 
culture of the world.
  We need in Congress to send a clear message to the Taliban that this 
is unacceptable, and we need to bring together all of the nations of 
the world to express our outrage and take firm action against this 
cultural imperialism.

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