Panorama of the northern cliff of the Valley of Bamiyan, with the Western and Eastern Buddhas at each end (before destruction), surrounded by a multitude of Buddhist caves. International and local opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas. The statues were blown up and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were idols. These works of art are considered as an artistic synthesis of Buddhist art and Gupta art from India, with influences from the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire, as well as the country of Tokharistan. It is thought that the period of florescence was from the 6th to 8th century AD, until the onset of Muslim conquests. The Buddhas are surrounded by numerous caves and surfaces decorated with paintings. The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix supported on wooden armatures. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands, and folds of the robes the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors.
The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. The statues consisted of the male Salsal ("light shines through the universe") and the shorter female Shamama ("Queen Mother"), as they were called by the locals. The statues represented a later evolution of the classic blended style of ancient art in Afghanistan. Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller 38 m (125 ft) "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 AD, and the larger 55 m (180 ft) "Western Buddha" was built around 618 AD, which would date both to the time when the Hephthalites ruled the region. The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th-century monumental statues, Salsal and Shahmama (in the Hazaragi dialect of Dari Persian), which were carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi) northwest of Kabul at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). The carving is so perfectly symmetrical that when it rains the water drops from Buddha’s nose down to the center of the 10 cm lotus flower below.Buddhas of Bamiyan (Tokharistan) Show map of Tokharistan When you walk down to the base, not the small lotus flower in between the Buddha’s feet.
It has been ascribed to King Dhatusena (AD 459 – 477) who was responsible for the building of several tanks, including the one here. The Buddha’s right hand is raised towards the right shoulder with the palm spread, signifying a lack of fear, while the position of the left draws the worshiper to Buddha for release from earthly bonds. Here is a magnificent, undamaged 12 meters tall free-standing statue of the Abhayamudra Buddha, showing superhuman qualities, carved out of a single rock.
One of the island’s most elegant and perfect statues, the Aukana Buddha, to the west of the large Kala Wewa reservoir, has gained even greater significance to Buddhists since the destruction of the similar (but much larger) statues at Bamiyan in Afghanistan (toponymical research suggests that in ancient times Bamiyan, in the region where Mahayana Buddhism originated, was known as Vokkana or Avakana).