As I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, a novel about the lives of several women against the background of the history of Afghanistan, the Giant Buddhas of Bamyan were mentioned. Because I didn't know much about them I looked them up on the Internet.
In 2006 Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei made a 95-minute documentary titled The Giant Buddhas (released in March 2006) on the statues, the international reactions to their destruction, and an overview of the controversy.
The web site about Frei's film offers incredible beautifully colored postcards that you can print off (which I did) front and back. I post them below for you. You can go here for the postcards and here for more detailed information.
The Buddhas of Bamyan (Persian: بت های باميان - but hay-e bamiyaan) were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan.
They were intentionally dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were "idols" (which are forbidden under Sharia law). International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which was viewed as an example of the intolerance of the Taliban. Japan and Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.
(Wikipedia)
Go visit Marie at The French Factrice for more postcard lovers and participants in this wonderful meme.
**I will be out of touch for the next couple of days because I'm having a little medical procedure. Read about it here. I'll probably be back on Sunday... :)
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