One of the Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley, before its destruction by the Taliban in May 2001.

More than seven years after the Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, an Afghan-led archaeological team discovered the remains of a third giant Buddha nearby.

The remains of the 19-meter-long reclining Buddha statue were discovered this summer within the foundations of an ancient Buddhist temple less than 2 kilometers from the niches where Bamiyan’s two giant Buddha statues once stood.

Chief archaeologist Professor Zemaryali Tarzi has spent years searching there for a 300-metre-long sleeping Buddha described in the diary of Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim who traveled to central Afghanistan around 630 AD.

“This Buddha was found in the Eastern Buddhist temple where I have been conducting excavations for the past seven years,” Tarzi says. “I think there might be similar [reclining] Buddhas, but I’m still looking for the 300-meter sleeping Buddha.”

Tarzi is one of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on the giant Buddhas that were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban regime.

By 1979, when Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan and Tarzi fled the country, he had already spent three decades studying the area and repairing the 55- and 38-meter standing Buddhas.

Now, as long as his health and finances hold up, Tarzi says he is willing to repair the newly discovered reclining Buddha. But he will require a lot of work.

“Most of the pieces are damaged. But we discovered a piece from the upper part of the right arm to the elbow. We discover his neck and shoulders. But the head is broken due to water damage under the ground. Still, the pillow he sleeps on is in perfect condition,” says Tarzi.

“If I had permission and lived long enough, I would definitely restore it for Afghanistan. And then the world will be able to see how important this discovery is.”

The cultural history of Afghanistan

Researchers believe that Bamiyan, once a stopping point along the Silk Road between China and the Middle East, was the site of monasteries housing up to 5,000 monks during its heyday as a Buddhist center in the 6th and 8th centuries. VII.

The region’s artisans were influenced by the Greek civilization that Alexander the Great established hundreds of years earlier in northern Afghanistan. Researchers believe that cross-pollination of European and Asian influences led to Bamiyan being the site of some of the first statues showing the face of Buddha. Previously, artists depicted Buddha as a footprint or an umbrella.

Another significant discovery this year in Bamiyan was made by Japanese researchers who discovered that many murals in the caves near the Standing Buddhas contained oil-based paint. Since the paintings date back to approximately 650 AD, the discovery overturned common perceptions about the origins of oil paintings, which were previously thought to have emerged in Europe hundreds of years later.