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Sri Lanka Intensifies Bid To Build Buddha Deities' Replicas
COLOMBO, March 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In another twist to the Afghanistan Buddha saga, a Sri Lankan Buddhist organization has sought help from neighboring India and Pakistan to build a scaled down replica of the Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.
The private Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Society said it was seeking detailed drawings from archaeological experts in India and Pakistan to carry out the work. "We have written to the Indian High Commission and the Pakistan High Commission here asking them for photographs and other details from their archaeological reserves," said Maha Bodhi Secretary, M. M. P. Senarathne.
The Society, established in 1891, is an organization that provides funding for the upkeep of historic Buddhist sites in India.
Senarathne said they might also try to get down craftsmen from other countries to carry out a near-perfect reproduction. "We have had a very good response to our appeal for public help," said Senarathne. "This is no longer a Buddhist issue. We want to recreate the statues for future generations to see."
The statues will be built at the Society's premises in Colombo.
Sri Lanka, the seat of Theravada Buddhism where Buddha statues are deities, had earlier offered to finance an international operation to save the two statues, which date back more than 1,500 years.
Later, the Colombo government offered to buy the rubble and any remains of the statues. Buddhists worship relics of a Buddha, items made by a Buddha, or symbolic relics.
India's High Commissioner Gopalskrishna Gandhi told the Sri Lankan government that New Delhi had surveyed the historic sites in Afghanistan and the maps could be used in rebuilding copies.
Around two-thirds of the total population of the country (mainly the Sinhalese) are Buddhist, while most Tamils are Hindu. There is also a smaller Christian minority. About two-thirds of the population is Sinhalese, while around 17% are Tamil.
Senarathne said Sri Lanka's minority Muslim community was coming forward with generous donations to finance the construction. Senarathne said it was most likely that they will build a replica about one third the size of the original statues.
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar had made separate visits to Pakistan in a bid to pressure the Taliban to spare the priceless statues.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the supreme leader of the Islamic militia, two weeks ago ordered all statues in Afghanistan to be destroyed to stop idolatry, regardless of their historical importance.
The dynamiting drew widespread international condemnation and strong criticism from Muslim leaders. But the Taliban charged that the international community was moved to save "stones," as thousands of Afghanis died of poverty, hunger and a civil war.
The group, which adheres to their interpretation of Islam, said that several other Muslim monuments, including the al-Aqsa Holy mosque under Israeli occupation in Palestine were under threat with little comparable outbursts from the international "hypocrite" community.
The Taliban, recognized only by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, argued that their iconoclasm is an "internal religious issue."
On Monday they took journalists on the first visit to see the remains of the statues. A gaping hole was all that was left of the tallest 55-meter statue, while only the right shoulder and part of the robe of the smaller 38-meter figure was left.
Taliban officials said the colossal statues, carved into the sandstone cliffs near Bamiyan between the second and fifth centuries, took 20 days to reduce to rubble using dynamite, rockets and tank shells.
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