Scientists: Reconstructing Afghan Buddha possible

Source: Sun Herald Online

German scientists said Monday it may be possible to reconstruct one of two giant 1,500 year-old Buddha statues dynamited by the Taliban in central Afghanistan 10 years ago, which prompted a worldwide outcry and left behind only towering cliff caverns.

Researchers have studied several hundred fragments of the sandstone statues that once towered up to 180 feet (55 meters) high in Bamiyan province, and found that they were once brightly colored in red, white and blue, said Erwin Emmerling of Munich's Technical University.

The professor of restoration and conservation science, who visited the UNESCO world heritage site about 15 times since 2007, says research has shown that the smaller one of the pair - some 125 feet high (38 meters)- could be reconstructed with the recovered parts even though there are "political and practical obstacles" to overcome.

"Conservation of the fragments would require the construction of a small factory in the Bamiyan Valley - alternatively some 1,400 rocks weighing up to two tons each would have to be transported to Germany," the university said in a statement Friday.


Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/28/2900670/scientists-reconstructing-afghan.html

---

I hope this works

They care about pissing people off not history.

while the people who live in the area are still stuck in crippling poverty, they may need to worry about more than just the Taliban.

humans have that capacity.

There's only so much $$ to go around. If you don't have a house to live in because it's been bombed out, having a decent paying job working on statue rebuilding doesn't necessarily fix that.

in those poor areas, too. The locals build the schools with local materials and everybody wins :D

A lot of those millions would go into the local economy.

It would be fantastic for them to be rebuilt! We need to construct and not tear down in order to rebuild the quality of life that some say we can only have with War. What an oxymoron that is!

...I would suggest rebuilding it in a more civilized place.