Leshan - The disappearance of a kitsch replica

Each year, thousands of Chinese tourists visit the seated Buddha in Leshan which, at 71 meters, is the largest Buddha statue in the world. And in mysterious looking poses, they all have their photograph taken in front of the 14-meter long giant head. The photos should give the impression that the subjects are touching the 7-meter long ear, or the 5-meter long nose or the one-meter high forehead. Rumour has

The commercially operated "Oriental Buddha Kingdom Park", with over three-thousand Buddha replicas - a sort of Disneyland for Buddhism -, is very near the Leshan Buddha. Immediately after the destruction of the Buddhas in Afghanistan, the park owner had the idea of reconstructing the giant Bamiyan Buddha. In autumn 2001, three-hundred stonecutters under the directions of the "Sichuan Art Academy", began with the construction of the Bamiyan replica. Archaeological details or authenticity had little meaning for the stonemasons. As the original Bamiyan Buddha had lost its wooden and metal face hundreds of years ago, the Chinese stonemasons decked out "their" Buddha with a fantasy face.

"Our Bamiyan Buddha looks down on a beautiful landscape. I'm sure he's happier here than in the desert in Afghanistan."

(Liang Enming, Oriental Buddha Park Chairman)

This Buddha is being repaired and is not on view... it's no longer here... closed... Finished... it's in Afghanistan and not here in China... the Buddha is undergoing a facelift and is temporarily closed to viewing... there was never anything like that here.

Why all this secrecy? Why may nobody see this Buddha again? Finally, the abbot of a Buddhist monastery put the filmmakers on the right track.

ETH Zurich - Reconstruction, thanks to Swiss high-tech?

When university graduate Fabio Remondino puts on his 3D-goggles and measures two superimposed images of the giant Bamiyan Buddha using a floating mark, one could imagine watching a science-fiction film. Thanks to photogrammetry it has been possible to make a virtual reconstruction down to the last detail of the Bamiyan Buddha on computers at the ETH Zurich. The Buddha is there again; three-

This data could be used to assist physical reconstruction in Bamiyan. That would punish the ignorance of the iconoclasts, promote tourism and hand back a piece of Afghanistan's cultural identity.

There are numerous projects around the globe for reconstructing the Bamiyan Buddhas. But the Swiss project headed by Paul Bucherer and Professor Armin Grün is the one having the greatest chance of success.

In the film "The Giant Buddhas", there is a sequence in which for just a few seconds Nelofer Pazira has the feeling that the giant Buddha of Bamiyan is once again standing in the niche. Patrick Lindenmaier and Paul Avondet of Andromeda Film AG, who have been working for months in close collaboration with the ETH Zurich, were responsible for the visual effects which made this "miracle" come true. Thanks to precise image data provided by the Afghanistan institute in Bubendorf, Switzerland, and Kyoto University

UNESCO - The debate surrounding authenticity

The debate surrounding possible renovation, restoration or reconstruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is, of course, interesting for a documentary filmmaker as it involves authenticity and veracity. Christian Manhart from the UNESCO headquarters in Paris is responsible for Afghanistan but he has other priorities in Bamiyan: A reconstruction of the Buddhas is not at the top of his list. However, the niches in

The film accompanies the UNESCO team of experts to Bamiyan and we discover that the final decision on the future of the Bamiyan Buddhas is still to be taken. Should a memorial be laid out on the ground? Should a laser hologram illuminate the niche at night? Or should the Buddha be reconstructed from fragments using anastylosis?

The voices of the narrators in the film summarise the views of the team of experts as follows:

"Time has come for the experts and their Power Point presentations, for meetings and scientific debates. Thanks to the magnetic alignment of the minerals, it is possible to determine, to the exact centimeter, where each fragment of the Buddha comes from.And then? What use is all this knowledge? Will the Buddha ever be resurrected?

No question, the remaining frescoes need to be preserved, the broken parts in the niches protected and identified. The niches themselves need to be stabilized. They have been damaged by the explosions and are on the verge of collapse.