"First published in the United Kingdom in 2012 by Profile Books ... London"--Title page verso. "For 1,400 years, two colossal Buddhas overlooked the Bamiyan Valley on the Silk Road in Afghanistan. The ...

I read with great sadness the Taliban's claim that they have already destroyed most of the Bamiyan Buddhas, and their boast that whatever remained would soon be gone. As a young child growing up in ...

When the Taliban were done dynamiting the two colossal stone Buddhas of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, they partied hard. They danced, hooted and slaughtered a cow. But Syed Mirza Hussain wasn’t ...

Afghanistan’s 6th C. Bamiyan valley Buddha, before (left) and after (right) its destruction in March 2001. (images via Wikipedia: before & after) (click to enlarge) While it became a worldwide symbol ...

For an aspiring tourist mecca, the Oriental Buddha Kingdom Theme Park in the lush mountains of Leshan is doing a pretty woeful job. Its main attraction, a 37-meter replica of one of the famed Bamiyan ...

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan -- The world mourned last year when the hard-line Taliban regime, decrying false idols, blew up the priceless, 15-centuries-old Buddha statues hewn into a cliff here. But for the ...

Clad in a safari suit, sun hat, hiking boots and leather gloves, Zemaryalai Tarzi leads the way from his tent to a rectangular pit in the Bamiyan Valley of northern Afghanistan. Crenulated sandstone ...

KABUL, Afghanistan - A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, ...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban’s reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, ...