JAHANABAD, Pakistan (AP) — When the
Taliban
blew the face off a towering, 1,500-year-old rock carving of Buddha in
northwest Pakistan almost five years ago, it fell to an intrepid Italian
archaeologist to come to the rescue.
Thanks to the efforts of
Luca Olivieri
and his partners, the 6-meter (nearly 20-foot)-tall image near the town
of Jahanabad is getting a facelift, and many other archaeological
treasures in the scenic Swat Valley are being excavated and preserved.
Hard-line
Muslims have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu and other religious
sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting a pair of
1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.
The
Jahanabad Buddha, etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th
century, is one of the largest such carvings in South Asia. It was
attacked in the fall of 2007 when the Pakistani Taliban swarmed across
the scenic Swat Valley. The army drove most of them out two years later,
but foreign tourists who used to visit the region still tend to stay
away.
Olivieri
himself had to leave in 2008 after more than two decades of tending to
the riches dating back to Alexander the Great and the Buddhist, Hindu
and Muslim invaders who followed. The 49-year-old head of the Italian
Archaeological Mission in Pakistan returned in 2010 and is back at work.
Taliban
militants climbed ropes to insert explosives in holes drilled into the
face and shoulders of the Jahanabad Buddha, said Olivieri. The
explosives in the shoulders failed to detonate, but the others blew off
most of the face above the lips and cracked other parts of the carving
and surrounding rock.
Olivieri
and his team began work this month on fixing the cracks and what's left
of the face. A full reconstruction is impossible because detailed
documentation and fragments of the face are lacking.
"Whatever
you do in the absence of perfect data is a fake," said Olivieri, who
says he has wanted to be an archaeologist since age 6 and still brings a
youthful exuberance to his work even as his beard grows gray.
Arriving
as a university student in 1987, he was fascinated by Swat, once an
important center of Buddhist culture and trade. The monk credited with
introducing Buddhism to Tibet, Padmasambhava, was born in Swat.
In
more recent decades, the area was known as "the Switzerland of
Pakistan," popular with religious tourists from China, Japan and South
Korea, and the hope is that restoration of the Jahanabad Buddha will
spark a revival of tourism here.
Olivieri's
mission is funded by the Italian government, which works with local
Pakistani antiquities authorities. It has uncovered over 120 Buddhist
sites among Swat's soaring hills and rushing rivers. Of roughly 200
Buddhist rock carvings in Swat, the Jahanabad Buddha was among the few
to survive with its face intact for so long, said Olivieri. Most were
defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders who, like the Taliban, consider
Buddha a false idol.
Maulana Shamsur Rehman,
a leading Islamist politician in Swat, says the attack on the Buddha
should never have happened. Islam preaches freedom and protection for
followers of all religions, he told
The Associated Press, and "in line with Islamic rules, nobody should have an objection to the repair work on the Buddha statue."
In
2001, militants damaged the excavated ruins of a 7th century Hindu
temple in Swat overlooking a stronghold conquered by Alexander in the
4th century B.C. Unable to protect the temple, the Italian mission had
to rebury it.
Ironically,
the site that Olivieri was most worried about during the Taliban's
violent reign in Swat was an Islamic one — the roughly 1,000-year-old
Udegram Ghaznavid mosque, the third oldest in Pakistan. He feared the
militants would occupy and damage it, but that never happened.
Pakistani
security officials say the Taliban are again trying to infiltrate Swat,
but militants are not the only threat to the archaeological sites.
Looters are perhaps a bigger problem. Many relics looted from Swat are
in private and public collections around the world.
In
December police arrested several men in Swat and seized a roughly
one-meter-(three-foot) tall, 1,800-year-old Buddhist statue that could
have fetched tens of thousands of dollars on the international
antiquities market.
The
Italian mission has posted guards at the most important sites and is
also training them to become guides by teaching them English, first aid
and basic conservation techniques, said Olivieri.
The
mission opened in 1955 in an office provided by the Wali of Swat, the
one-time princely ruler of the territory. To furnish a taste of home,
its first draftsman painted a mural of Rome's Spanish Steps in the
dining room.
The
feeling of glimpsing Italy in the wilds of Pakistan's northwest
continues today. There's espresso in the morning and Italian olive oil
on the dining room table. A Fiat Campagnola jeep shipped from Italy in
1955 is due to end up in a museum in Swat.
Review: The movie is great! Wisdom Quarterly was on the scene as 75% of the members announced that they were ready to reunite. Unfortunately, Keith Morris missed the first showing and was only later seen crossing the street to the venue after all the voting members on stage for the Q&A had adjourned to partake of free refreshments in the open-air patio. But during the movie, Morris repeatedly alluded to being open to the possibility of joining the original members and making a go of it to bring a new generation of punks hits like this:
