'In the shade of the missing Buddhas' - Afghanistan - UNESCO (79 images)

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The cave dwellers of Bamyan are among the poorest people in Afghanistan - their livelihoods destroyed by the same Taliban fighters who blew up the giant Buddha statues in 2001, in an attempt to obliterate the remnants of an ancient, non-Islamic civilization.

Most of them are Hazaras - a minority group constituting about 15% of Afghanistan's population. Here in Bamyan, though, they constitute the vast majority of the population. The town, located...
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**TEXT AVAILABLE**

The cave dwellers of Bamyan are among the poorest people in Afghanistan - their livelihoods destroyed by the same Taliban fighters who blew up the giant Buddha statues in 2001, in an attempt to obliterate the remnants of an ancient, non-Islamic civilization.

Most of them are Hazaras - a minority group constituting about 15% of Afghanistan's population. Here in Bamyan, though, they constitute the vast majority of the population. The town, located 240 km north-west of Kabul in central Afghanistan, is their cultural capital. Little is known of their origins, but they are believed to be the descendants of Genghis Khan's troops which invaded the region in the early 13th century. Their features are Mongolian - flat noses, broad faces and almond-shaped eyes - and they are Shia Muslims, as opposed to the other Afghans who are for the most part Sunnis.

Life in the caves, dug by Buddhist monks some 1500 years ago, is tough and the over 200 families face numerous hardships such as collecting drinking water, finding firewood to warm up, securing employment and food, or attending school in the case of children.
The cave dwellers are mostly returnees who fled the persecutions inflicted by the Taliban between 1997 and 2001, when their regime fell following a US military intervention, to find their homes torn apart.

Their only choice was to enter the caves next to where the Buddhas stood and begin living again.

The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental standing statues (55m and 37m) carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley, the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world.

Once a stopping point along the Silk Road between China and the Middle East, researchers think Bamyan was the site of monasteries housing as many as 5,000 monks during its peak as a Buddhist centre in the 6th and 7th centuries.

It is now a UNESCO Heritage Site since 2003.
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