Published by: World Tibet Network News 97/05/22 24:00 GMT

GHORBAND VALLEY, April 17:(AFP) -- The Taliban have warned that they will

demolish a massive and ancient statue of Buddha if they advance into

enemy territory in central Afghanistan.

Dubbing the famous cliff carving "unIslamic," a senior Taliban commander

on Wednesday issued a simple warning about the fate of the "Big Buddha":

"We will blow it up."

Frontline commander Abdul Wahid told journalists the spectacular 55

metre high image would be dynamited if they managed to break through a

rival faction's lines, 10 km from here. He said the carving - set in a

huge niche in a sheer cliff face - was unIslamic as it represented an

"infidel" religion. It also bears a human image, which is forbidden by

Islam.

The commander also denied the site - which has been the focus of major

restoration and archaeological work - was of any scientific or

historical value, and appeared determined to destroy it. "Our religion

is a heavenly religion and we have no need of these things here," Wahid

said.

The site - once a key post on the ancient Silk Road, a major trading

route - lies in the Hezb-i-Wahdat faction stronghold of Bamian province,

a mere 60 km west of current Taliban positions.

The huge white-stone statue was built in the third or fourth centuries

after Christ, possibly by King Kanishka head of the now obscure Buddhist

Kushan empire who came from nearby central Persia and conquered large

parts of south and central Asia, including Afghanistan, archaeologists

say.

Early Buddhist pilgrims flocked to the site to pay homage to the statue

for about four hundred years until the seventh century when new invaders

brought Islam to the area long after the Kushans had faded away.

The statue was, according to legend, originally ornately decorated with

gold and precious stones which were looted after the statue fell into

disrepair.

Little appears to have been written about the Buddha for many years,

until it was partially preserved by French archaeologists in the 1920s

and 1930s. The "Big Buddha" then became one of the symbols of

Afghanistan when the country opened up to international tourism in the

1960s and 70s, before civil war tore the country apart.

In addition to the large statue, the site also boasts a slightly smaller

carving 38 meters high, and is hailed by scholars as Afghanistan's most

impressive archaeological treasure. A maze of caves and tunnels crammed

with other Buddhist carvings and paintings were also carved into the

cliff face following the initial third to forth century construction of

the figures. An unexploded rocket-propelled grenade is now embedded in

the chest of the large Buddha, reportedly fired by a pre-Taliban fighter

during the war against the Soviet. But successive Afghan regimes seem to

have been unconcerned about harbouring massive Buddhist relics in the

highly-conservative country.-AFP