Monitoring Desk
The ancient sandstone carvings in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan valley were once the world’s tallest Buddhas – but they were lost forever when the Taliban blew them up 20 years ago.
One made a poignant return on Tuesday night in the form of a 3D projection, glowing in the rocky alcove where it used to stand.
It capped a day of ceremony marking the destruction of the centuries-old figures in March 2001.
The statues had been carved from the cliff in the early 6th and 7th Centuries AD, when Buddhism was the region’s dominant religion.
“We do not want people to forget what a horrific crime was committed here,” said Zahra Hussaini, co-organiser of the “A night with Buddha” event.
![Residents and civil society activists hold lamps as they walk to the site where the Salsal Buddha statue once stood](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/5B5E/production/_117509332_lanternprocession.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![People holding lanterns stand beside the cliff](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/AF5A/production/_117509844_lanterns.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![A policeman holding a gun silhouetted against a darkening sky](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/172AA/production/_117509849_afghanpoliceman.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![An Afghan woman holding a lantern poses in the dusk against a carved mountainside](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/0D3E/production/_117509330_afghanstatueevent.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![A dancer in a white dress performs near the site where the Salsal Buddha statue once stood](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A411/production/_117510024_afghandancer.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![People watch a 3D projection of the 56 metre-high Salsal Buddha at the site where the Buddhas of Bamiyan statues stood before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001.](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A596/production/_117509324_bamiyan.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
![A Hazara man pushes a wheelbarrow along a road near the site of the Buddhas of Bamiyan statues](https://i0.wp.com/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/7D01/production/_117510023_afghanmanwheelbarrow.jpg?w=810&ssl=1)
Courtesy: BBC