Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues by the Taliban, an exhibition opened at the British Museum this week showcasing more than 200 examples of Afghanistan's cultural heritage over the last 4,000 years.
The exhibition, which has toured internationally since 2006, was inaugurated by President Karzai on Tuesday.
Among the items on show are 2,000-year-old artefacts from the ancient city of Bagram, north of today's capital, Kabul. "These are an extraordinary set of ivories stolen from the National Museum in Kabul, bought by a London dealer specificallyto return them, restored by conservators at the British Museum... and after the exhibition they will go back," says Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.
According to estimates, more than 70% of the artefacts at the National Museum in Kabul were looted and destroyed during the civil war of 1990s. The Taliban ransacked and destroyed much of our cultural heritage and the surviving items are a credit to the bravery of some Afghans who risked their lives to save them.
If you are in London, do visit the exhibition to see the richness of our cultural heritage, and a different picture from Afghanistan than the headlines of war.
It was not the looting of the museum in Kabul that brought the brutalities of the Taliban to the world's attention, but the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in 2001.
Keywords: buddhism secret film karma buddhist revolution ordaining nuns theravada buddhist monks help intl buddhist women buddhist tourism civil intl conference values witchcraft spells buddhist gods and goddesses roman gods and goddesses list mythical greek gods and goddesses spells and magic for beginners
