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Buddhas of Bamiyan Carved

c. 570-618 CE·Culture, arts & philosophy·Central Asia (Bamiyan Valley, present-day Afghanistan)·
c. 570-618 CEDate
Culture, arts & philosophyCategory
14Empires active
Date
c. 570-618 CE
Category
Culture, arts & philosophy
Region
Central Asia (Bamiyan Valley, present-day Afghanistan)
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

Two colossal standing Buddha statues were carved into the sandstone cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan, along a key branch of the Silk Road linking the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia.

Radiocarbon analysis dates the smaller Eastern Buddha (38 metres) to around 570 CE and the larger Western Buddha (55 metres) to around 618 CE, placing their construction under the Hephthalite-era principalities that controlled Tokharistan. Hewn from the living rock and finished with painted plaster, the figures represented a monumental culmination of Greco-Buddhist art derived from the Gandhara tradition, blending Hellenistic, Indian, and Central Asian influences. For centuries the statues and the surrounding cave monasteries made Bamiyan a flourishing Buddhist pilgrimage and learning centre until the spread of Islam in the region. The site was later inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the statues became globally infamous when the Taliban dynamited them in March 2001.

See the world map in c. 570-618 CE →More culture, arts & philosophyThe Post-Classical / Medieval era

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The wider story

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E. H. Gombrich

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