- 5/9/2025
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00:00I'm flying into a war zone, into the crossroads of Eastern and Western culture, into Afghanistan.
00:19After 23 years of conflict, war against the Soviet Union, a bitter civil war, life under the tyrannical regime of the Taliban, and now the war against Al-Qaeda,
00:30no one really knows what has happened to the art treasures of this country.
00:35I've heard stories of terrible destruction, but also of lost ancient gold and looted treasures that may still exist,
00:43and what is the real story behind the Taliban's destruction of Afghanistan's giant Buddhas.
00:52I'm on a quest to find out what happened and what survives.
01:00Kabul, 10th of March, 2002. I meet my translator and guide for the next three weeks, Bilal.
01:12Of course I get a very funny sense about what you expect here in London.
01:21Things are, it's a good feeling.
01:24Lovely weather, sunny, warm, mushroom, all the life of the world.
01:28I've read reports of Taliban attacks on all aspects of culture throughout the country.
01:40Destruction of buildings and monuments, repression and persecution of artists and curators.
01:58And I've also heard rumours of untold treasures that still survive, hidden.
02:04I'm tired. I've just landed in one of the most hostile environments in the world,
02:09after a gruelling 16-hour journey.
02:12How much are you willing to put yourself out for the project in terms of your own safety?
02:21I think it would be very tempting to take risks.
02:24Maybe we will. Maybe we'll have to.
02:26But we've got to try and resist it to a degree.
02:30We want to find out what the implication is for the people of Afghanistan in losing their culture,
02:35having their culture destroyed in front of them by the Taliban.
02:40One does feel that we have a duty now to pursue this, to find out.
02:44And if that means taking for us, we have to do it.
02:48Oh, yes, very handy.
02:59This city is a ruin.
03:02But its once proud buildings are a symbol of the thriving Kabul of the 1960s and 70s.
03:09This is the Kabul Theatre.
03:11The only modern theatre in the land.
03:15Home to drama, opera maybe, dance, look over there.
03:23Wrecked during the Civil War and, of course, neglected by the Taliban.
03:32Decades of conflict have destroyed what was once a modern metropolis, aspiring to the future.
03:51So what's happened to this building now?
03:53Now it's broken.
03:55Broken?
03:56Look at these wonderful girls.
03:57What happened to these girls?
03:59You know, there they are, in their 20s.
04:03They're travelling all over Asia, certainly.
04:06They're now in their 50s in burqas somewhere.
04:08I mean, it's pine.
04:09It was extraordinary.
04:11It's like just taking Afghanistan's passed away in a box, isn't it, taking these?
04:15It's just so incredible, this world so, so, so, so, so recent.
04:21And so, in a way, familiar to us.
04:24Lovely Afghan tour.
04:25Happy days.
04:27Camel tourists coming here.
04:29Six years ago, among the ruins of Kabul, the Taliban Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue planned religious rules for life.
04:47Banned were American hairstyles, gambling, music, and kite flying.
04:59Most puritanically, they banned all images of living beings.
05:03Out went photography, painting, and sculpture.
05:07For the Taliban, this was sacrilegious.
05:11It was the creation of an idol, strictly forbidden by the Koran.
05:14It's like pictures in the 1890s, extraordinary.
05:23This is the National Gallery of Afghanistan.
05:26Its collection comprising the paintings most important to the nation.
05:30Almost all are now destroyed.
05:33Look at that down there.
05:35That's...
05:37That's something, man.
05:38That's so brutal, isn't it?
05:40This is a painting of an African man
05:42who was presented to the gallery by an African artist.
05:46This painting shows a man studying.
05:52I'm shocked and outraged to see this.
05:57The director must be much more so...
05:59How does he feel standing over this?
06:00When I came here and saw this, as an African I had tears in my eyes.
06:08Leave me.
06:10The director of the gallery introduces me to a man who, heroically,
06:16saved hundreds of works by painting over the offending humans and animals.
06:19I covered the living beings and oil paintings with watercolors to disguise them.
06:28That was covered with a watercolour camouflage, so to speak.
06:33Yeah.
06:35Watercolour.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Watercolour.
06:38Wasn't it a bit...
06:40Wasn't it easy to tell the difference between the oil paint and the watercolour?
06:43Couldn't the Taliban notice what had happened?
06:45It's very effective. I'm amazed how effective a bit of watercolour can be.
07:10If the Taliban had caught me, it would have cast my life.
07:22I'm off to the Kabul Museum.
07:24This is going to be a distressing experience, I know that.
07:28It was one of the great museums of the world, not much known, but fantastic collection.
07:33World-famous things, really.
07:36Ooh.
07:37Good gracious, it's much worse. Look, there's no windows. There's no roof.
07:42Yeah. No roof.
07:44Terrible.
07:46Thank you very much. Wonderful to be here.
07:49This is what happens to a museum during wartime.
07:54All the rooms are like this.
07:56But the damage here was through war. This is not the Taliban here.
08:01So what happened is the roof was burnt off. I mean, this is incredible destruction.
08:10It was reported on the 13th of May, 1995, that rockets had hit the museum.
08:16And it was on fire. It had a wooden roof, you see.
08:20The display cabinet and the treasures were on fire.
08:23The director shows me into a room that once contained the stupendous Bagram Ivories,
08:29before they were looted in the Civil War.
08:31Oh, gosh, the Chinese lacquer bowls over there.
08:35Oh, my goodness me.
08:37Well, this is the moment, yes, of mourning.
08:39This is one of the greatest treasures in the world.
08:41This is really where the barbarism strikes home, isn't it, and come into this room.
08:55Such treasures, nothing, not even a scene now.
08:58Can I ask you what the loss of the museum, the loss of the artefacts of the museum,
09:04what that means to the people of Afghanistan?
09:06Without a doubt, this is a sad time for the people of Afghanistan.
09:11They have lost their culture and their history.
09:14If a building is destroyed, you can rebuild it.
09:17But if a national heritage is lost, you can't bring it back.
09:23Looting and destruction during the Civil War led to the loss of three quarters of the museum's priceless collection.
09:30And what little survived fell into the hands of the Taliban.
09:33They set to work destroying any representations of living beings.
09:38I meet the curator who witnessed this attack.
09:41What happened to this particular figure?
09:44When the Taliban came first, they made us open up this room.
09:50They saw this statue of a man excavated at Kunduz province.
09:54They started hitting it with a hammer, but they could not break it.
09:57It's made of solid marble.
09:58So they came back the next day with a much bigger hammer,
10:02and a pickaxe used for breaking stones in the mountains,
10:06and smashed away at it all day.
10:09I was made to watch.
10:11Slowly the statue sustained marks and broke into pieces.
10:14Having worked here for so many years, loving the place, knowing the place well,
10:22I can't imagine how you felt when you saw the axes and hammers falling on these wonderful objects.
10:29I've worked with these objects for years, treated them with care and attention.
10:37I love them like my children.
10:40And then to see them being destroyed with axes, it was the most tragic day for me.
10:46Every human being would feel the same.
10:47How could anybody bring themselves to smash things like this?
10:55It's beyond comprehension, isn't it?
10:58Just beautiful, artistic objects, once worshipped,
11:03but no longer worshipped here. They weren't a danger to anybody.
11:06They were just part of the world's culture.
11:08These are not mute objects. They themselves have a voice. They speak, don't they?
11:15Of their own beauty, and of the tragic behaviour of human beings.
11:23Oh, my God.
11:27Face of suffering. Patient suffering.
11:32Bit of a lesson there, isn't it?
11:33There's more to this story than the Taliban and their ideological destruction of history, of culture, of beauty.
11:49Just looking around here is an astonishingly sobering sight.
11:56We're six miles from the centre of Kabul.
11:58This is an area called Darul Laman.
12:02This was laid out in the 1920s to be the new capital of Afghanistan.
12:09A country just recently liberated, finally, one of its liberation from the British Empire.
12:15On my left is the Great World Palace.
12:20Standing here one does understand with a particular power
12:24the suffering of Afghanistan over the last, well, 20 years, really.
12:31This is described in the 1970s as a luxurious park.
12:37To my right, with a palace sitting over it.
12:42Oh, my goodness, look. Yes. Excellent.
12:52Ten dollars. Five dollars. Five dollars. Five. Five.
12:57Okay. Three more. Three more dollars.
13:00Yeah.
13:02You've changed. Oh, you've got five. Five.
13:05Change. Okay. Thank you. Throw that in.
13:07Oh, thank you. Okay. You're fine, guys.
13:09Thank you. I've been looking for these. You wouldn't believe it. Very hard.
13:12So, incredibly lucky.
13:14Oh, another guy at Def Gun Museum.
13:17Hang on.
13:19How much is this one? Five. Five. Five.
13:21Five. Five.
13:22Right. So, hang on a moment.
13:24I was popping for this one. Is that right?
13:26I've given you 15 for all of those.
13:29Five. Five more. Five more?
13:31Five.
13:32Five.
13:33Five.
13:34Hang on. I've got lost now. This is 20 dollars for all of it.
13:38That's it. No more. Okay.
13:43These books, guides to the museum in Kabul, couldn't get hold of until just now.
13:49And this shows the museum in 1974. And, um, I'm just seeing it. The quality, the absolute quality of these things.
13:59This is the, uh, the Buddhist figure that survives in the museum just, like, just that bit left.
14:07Page after page tells the same story.
14:10There was no provincial backboard of the museum. This really was a place containing objects, artifacts.
14:18Of the highest quality.
14:20It had got this extraordinary cultural mix, representing the sort of cultures and civilizations that had moved through, possessed, Afghanistan.
14:28It was left there marked with artifacts buried in fragments of buildings.
14:32This Greek work here, Roman work, Hindu, Buddhist.
14:42These were looted, probably in the early 90s, during the fighting.
14:45Easy to put in your pocket.
14:48One of the fantastic ivory panels, showing these big, background women.
14:54Fantastic. Wonderful.
14:57Owned privately, criminally.
14:59It's one of the greatest cultural disasters, really, certainly in post-war years.
15:03Certainly in, certainly almost.
15:05Certainly, oh, I don't know, when such a thing happened.
15:08But since the Second World War, yeah, I suppose, the museum was wrecked.
15:11It compared to the wrecking of museums in Russia and Germany during the war.
15:17Absolute disaster.
15:18I'm leaving Kabul for the first time, which is significant.
15:30I'm not quite sure what the roads are like, or meet me along the road.
15:34I'm going to see the Minari Chakri, which is a monument, nearly 2,000 years old.
15:40Fantastic object.
15:41Until coming to Afghanistan, I believe the Taliban were just attacking images of beings, of animals, living beings.
15:56Because they felt those, you know, offended the Koran.
15:59They felt they were images of idols.
16:03This is a Buddhist monument.
16:05But, you know, it had nothing on it.
16:07It was within carvings of beings or animals.
16:09So I imagine it would be safe.
16:11But no, not at all.
16:12Clearly, since the Taliban were wiping out all monuments to the past, this column became a target.
16:20Now, I know it's been damaged, as I say.
16:23Not entirely sure how badly damaged.
16:31Things are going to be pretty bumpy from here in.
16:34Oh dear.
16:50We're forced to stop at a vehicle checkpoint.
17:05We need the local military commander's permission to proceed.
17:09Getting to the Minari Chakri is a very difficult time.
17:13We're forced to stop at a vehicle checkpoint.
17:15We need the local military commander's permission to proceed.
17:18Getting to the Minari Chakri will depend entirely on his goodwill.
17:23His guards invite us for tea while we wait.
17:27We're very happy that you're here to tell the story of what happened to our cultural heritage.
17:33It is such a cruel way to treat any historical object.
17:37How do you feel about the future of the country in terms of the children,
17:42growing up in a country that's lacking resources and that has so much of its culture and history destroyed?
17:49What do you feel will their future be?
17:51What a man remembers he tells his son, and he in turn tells his son.
17:58I'll have to tell my children of the wonders of this country and its history.
18:03They can destroy our buildings and monuments, but they can't destroy our minds.
18:08We all have memories, and our past and history now lives on in them.
18:15After two hours, the military commander arrives.
18:17On behalf of us, welcome to this inn.
18:22Thank you very much.
18:24You know why we're here, to see the remains of Minari Chakris.
18:28How do we get there? In your vehicle?
18:30In my vehicle, yes. You're welcome.
18:32OK.
18:34What is this?
18:35The military commander who's led us here has now decided that the road ahead,
18:50it's hardly road at all, could be mined.
18:53No problem.
18:54No problem. I believe you. Fine.
19:00Well, the local military commander remembered an urgent meeting in Kabul.
19:04It's gone.
19:06So we are now proceeding, minus him and his vehicle, but with his armed guards,
19:11over the minefield, as I can see.
19:15Which he thought was here, but no one else thinks is here.
19:18But no, he's gone, and we are here.
19:20However, we're driving as near as we can get to the ruins of the pillar,
19:26and then walking.
19:34We walk for an hour and a half, our guides slightly unsure of where they are heading,
19:40the sun beating down and the air becoming thin with altitude.
19:43There it is. Fantastic.
19:44This is all that remains of one of the most fabulous, most enigmatic structures, buildings, wonders of the world.
20:01The Minar Ichakuri.
20:02The Minar Ichakuri was built in the 2nd century AD.
20:13It stood dominating the landscape at 85 feet high.
20:252,000 years ago, Buddha wasn't shown in human form.
20:28He was shown simply as a symbol.
20:30And this represented the enlightened one, Buddha, standing on this mountain,
20:36commanding the plain of Kabul.
20:39And round about would have been a Buddhist monastery.
20:44Its loss is absolutely staggering, really.
20:47To me, to consider it survived so long as one of the wonders of the world,
20:52certainly to compare with the Pyramids of Sphinx.
20:55And there it is.
20:57What happened?
20:58Well, I say we're not entirely sure.
21:01People blame the Taliban, say they destroyed it because they were destroying history,
21:06destroying the past, destroying, well, Buddhist memorials,
21:10or more, mundanely, looking for treasure.
21:12Mystery surrounds what actually happened to the Minar Ichakuri.
21:25We go to the local village to ask if anyone knows.
21:32At night time we heard an explosion.
21:34The next morning we walked up to the Buddhist pillar.
21:37We found it destroyed.
21:38We don't know who did it, but this was during the Taliban time.
21:42Heard an explosion, suggesting there was a deliberate attack upon it.
21:47So, what does he feel about it, about the destruction of this wonderful monument?
21:53We are very sad.
21:55It was such an important thing for us, and so valuable.
21:58Back in Kabul, I have a date with Nancy Dupree, American writer of the 1974 Historical Guide to Afghanistan,
22:15the definitive book on the country's cultural heritage, now sadly out of date.
22:20Her connection with Afghanistan goes back 50 years.
22:23My question is about the recent events with the Taliban, and what you make of all of that,
22:29because I still remain somewhat confused what was going on.
22:33When the Taliban came in 1996, initially they were very, very supportive.
22:39And unfortunately, these hard lines began to take over the cabinet.
22:46No music that's profane, no flying of kites, no paintings.
22:52That's another element.
22:53They were wrapping things in the mantle of Islam.
22:59But really what they were trying to do is to wipe out this Afghan identity.
23:06They were trying to deny the Afghans an Afghan heritage.
23:12We are all Muslims.
23:15This is the Ummah of Islam.
23:17Take a very, very simple example.
23:21We used to have Radio Afghanistan.
23:24Yes.
23:26All of a sudden, Radio Sharia, no Afghanistan.
23:30Wipe it out.
23:32This was a control mechanism, which had been coming in on various angles.
23:37And this one with the culture was the most important.
23:43And when the world heard that they were going to harm the Buddha,
23:48that was just music to their ears.
23:52So they went up there, and they made an example to the world.
23:57Yeah.
23:58Of their will to destroy.
23:59Saying, Shane, we are in control.
24:02And that...
24:03And this goes on, you know, to September 11th, to what's going on now, to...
24:09Yeah, I realised at the time that on one level, the bigger the fast that was made to save the Buddhas,
24:14the more likely they would be destroyed.
24:16Yeah.
24:20Next day, we packed the 12-hour journey westwards into the mountains,
24:24to Bamiyan, site of the Taliban's infamous destruction of the giant Buddhas.
24:30But the day turns out to be a lot longer.
24:38We're halfway between Kabul and Bamiyan.
24:41One of the cars just broken down.
24:43I hope it can be mended, otherwise we'll be stranded in the dark on this path going into Bamiyan.
24:49That would be very unpleasant.
24:51Not this, not...
24:57Bigger.
25:00How long now before they're finished?
25:0330 minutes.
25:0430 minutes?
25:06Obviously they can't do it.
25:08Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:14In Taliban times, you couldn't have been selling this music.
25:16No.
25:18So what, did you have, or did you have these tapes?
25:21I was a refugee in Iran.
25:23I've just come back with all my tapes.
25:26What's a popular tape now in this village?
25:28What do people like to buy?
25:32Do you have one of her tapes?
25:3440,000, that sounds all right, isn't it?
25:36Do I have to deal?
25:3740,000 seems good to me, yeah?
25:38Good.
25:40I think that we will be there at 8 o'clock.
25:46But it gets dark at 5.36, isn't it?
25:49Well, no, I think he's thinking the roads themselves are dangerous, isn't it?
25:52We will see.
25:54There are mines by the road up there, so we might have to sleep by the roadside.
25:59Make a camp for the night, because we just can't go along those roads in the dark, can we?
26:03Let's go.
26:04Let's go.
26:05Let's go.
26:06Let's go.
26:07Let's go.
26:08Let's go.
26:09Let's go.
26:15Let's go.
26:30Let's go.
26:32Well, it's still about 3 hours from Bamyan, and night is falling.
26:36We haven't got to the Shabar Pass yet, and that's a bit of a worry.
26:40We'll have to go through the pass in the dark, and the roads are very, very narrow.
26:45We've got to go. The chaps are calling us on, so let's see how it goes.
26:56We're going through the pass now. This is pretty air-raising stuff.
27:01The roads are very rough indeed, windy, steep.
27:05There's snow around, so it's wet and icy.
27:08And the edge is only, really, sometimes a few inches away.
27:14And there's a thousand-foot trouble or so below.
27:17The advantage of being in the dark is I can't actually see what's down there.
27:22There's a curfew. It's about 10 o'clock, got to be off the roads.
27:26I don't think we're going to get to Bamiat by 10 o'clock.
27:29There could be a few rather active vehicle checkpoints.
27:32Along this road, we're treating happy chairs.
27:35We never knows what might happen.
27:37We arrive, with five minutes to spare before curfew.
27:42We arrive, with five minutes to spare before curfew.
28:00Bamiat, over 8,000 feet high in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
28:19The local Hazara people.
28:34Descendants of Genghis Khan's Mongol invaders.
28:38It is known they were much persecuted by the Taliban for their sheer Muslim beliefs.
28:43It's also known the Taliban destroyed their beloved giant Buddhas.
28:47But I'm here to discover the true extent of the people's suffering
28:51and the untold story of how the Buddhas were destroyed.
28:55It's been a long time.
29:14Well, it's 6 in the morning.
29:17Feeling pretty good, actually.
29:19Didn't sleep too well.
29:20It's pretty cold.
29:22But what a fantastic scene.
29:27And here, well, that's the niche, I guess, yes, that's the small Buddha.
29:32And the big Buddha over there.
29:35What, of course, is immediately apparent is that even with the Buddha villainously destroyed,
29:44the niche, you still have power.
29:51Bamiat's two Buddha statues, in their scale unique in the world,
29:55stood a quarter of a mile apart, the larger at 180 feet high.
30:01Carved in the 3rd and 4th centuries, they survived for 1,600 years,
30:06until March 2001.
30:09Bamiat's two Buddha statues.
30:14Wow.
30:15Now, this is the niche in which the big Buddha stood.
30:18There you see it.
30:19My God, this is an incredible moment.
30:21I mean, the pictures one saw of this.
30:24At the time, this was destroyed exactly, almost exactly a year ago.
30:28The world's reaction was fascinating, of course.
30:31The great works of art like this belong to the world.
30:34And that's particularly appropriate here, of course,
30:36because we're standing on the salt route, this great ancient road of commerce,
30:41culture, religion, linking all the civilizations of the 1st, 2nd century AD.
30:46China over there, Rome, the pure Rome, India.
30:50It goes coming up and down.
30:52The whole of this complex is a product of that movement of cultures.
30:56Religion came along this road from India, from Nepal.
31:00Buddhism arrived here.
31:01A Buddhist complex was built here, 1st, 2nd century AD.
31:06Later, the Buddhists cut these great majestic statues.
31:11They're the product of world culture.
31:14Of course, I'm standing on a large amount of the Buddha.
31:19The core, this is it.
31:21There we have it, the sacred stone, the sacred image.
31:27Produced to rubble.
31:28Anyway, let's try over here.
31:30I think there's nothing, nothing carved on this at all.
31:35I mean, there's no, this is simply part of the core.
31:38Christ, there's a hand grenade on, isn't there?
31:40Why is it being booby-trapped?
31:46Well, I won't look at the other ones.
31:48You know, it's a dangerous place still.
31:50People keep telling me that.
31:51I forget it.
31:52It is.
31:53I asked the people of Bamiyan how the Taliban went about destroying the Buddhas.
31:59As soon as they entered Aniyazara home, they asked us to leave.
32:04They asked us to put our shoes on, saying we had no right to live here.
32:09Then they put all our belongings in lorries and everything went.
32:12I know it all, I saw it all.
32:15People's belongings, animals and money.
32:18All they were allowed to wear was their own shoes.
32:22It seems most of the town was moved out before the explosion started.
32:27Some people have a brutal way.
32:30So, could you ask how they were forced to leave the village?
32:34We were forced out at gunpoint.
32:39They took my child from me and threw him on the ground, hurting his leg and breaking it.
32:46The Taliban crippled the boy.
32:49They threw him onto the ground.
32:51We thought he had been crippled.
32:53We didn't know what to do.
32:55Wherever we went for treatment, we didn't have enough money to pay.
32:59When we finally came back here, we took him to hospital.
33:02But now, he can't move his leg at all.
33:06At last, I meet a man who was present as a Taliban destroyed the Buddhas,
33:13who even, against his will, helped them.
33:16First, the Taliban decided to remove the people from this area.
33:21Most people went away.
33:23The Taliban then could do what they wanted to do.
33:26The first thing they did was to fire rockets and bombs at the statues, very high explosive ones.
33:31But it didn't work.
33:33Later, they brought six lorries of explosives.
33:36They forced me and some others to go with them as prisoners.
33:39They made us carry the explosives up and down, setting them in various bits of the Buddhas.
33:45There were Arabs and Pakistani engineers to plant the explosives and blow up the statues.
33:56This procedure took 25 days to one month from the first explosion.
33:59When it exploded, the whole region was on fire.
34:02The explosion was that strong.
34:04The whole of Bamyan was on fire with the strength of this explosion.
34:08What happened to the fragments of the Buddhas?
34:13All of them were sold, the pieces were sold.
34:16They took everything away, put them in vehicles and sold them.
34:20Tell me just what he felt at the time by being forced to do this.
34:25I was very angry.
34:27We all were.
34:28But we were not able to say anything.
34:30What could we say?
34:31There was no one except them, the Taliban.
34:34They terrorized people, put them in prisons.
34:37Even if we were angry, there was nothing we could do about it.
34:40They made the decisions, they brought the engineers from Pakistan.
34:43We couldn't do anything.
34:45Not only me, but everyone was angry.
34:48It was a symbol for Bamyan, for Afghanistan, even for the world.
34:52This was a barbaric act.
34:54He was a barbaric act.
34:55But he said he is not able to do anything.
35:01What we are seeing here, what we are documenting here, is a cultural and human tragedy of the First Order.
35:11The smaller Buddha stood at 125 feet high.
35:23Pilgrims would walk the sacred route
35:26up through staircases carved in the cliff around its head.
35:30Before the 25 days of sustained rocketing and blasting,
35:34the Buddha survived,
35:36with many original frescoes in adjoining rooms still intact.
35:41Oh, look!
35:43A moving amount survived of the drapery
35:46just over the right-hand shoulder of the Buddha on the left-hand side there.
35:51And that was painted blue originally.
35:53The statue was gilded and painted.
35:56I can't resist just touching the part of the fabric that survives.
36:04Again, making sure there's no ordnance lying around as there was.
36:10So here we have the drapery from the Buddha's body.
36:16And you see the fold still.
36:19Still enough to understand this was inspired by Greece and Rome.
36:23This is a great thing, this fusion.
36:25So you have the Grecian-style drapery over the body of the Buddha.
36:30And this was painted blue.
36:32And fantastic to see this ornamentation scooped out of the surface.
36:38How these holes, obviously at this colossal scale,
36:41would have given life and movement to the great statue up there.
36:45A colossal work of art.
36:47Now, let me try getting inside here.
36:51So half the doors buried are now following the route of the Buddha's pilgrim
36:57as he would have walked the staircase.
37:00Should take me up to a room behind the Buddha.
37:05Yes, I'm now on the side of the Buddha here.
37:07Bit of a drop here.
37:13But be a bit careful as we go along.
37:17I'm at the highest level now.
37:21The highest terrace.
37:22Three or four storeys, I suppose.
37:25Above where I started.
37:27The last of the sanctuaries or chambers.
37:30And a hole in the...
37:32Ah!
37:33My God.
37:34Well, there's more.
37:36But, of course, sadly red.
37:38But there's colour and the remains of decorative scheme.
37:42What has happened here?
37:44We're talking a little 4th or 5th century decoration.
37:47Fantastic dome.
37:50Wow.
37:53Figures.
37:54What are they?
37:55It's hard to tell me.
37:56People that have been recorded.
37:58It's Buddhism.
37:59The kingly figures.
38:00Donors.
38:01And so on.
38:03You get some sense in here of the glories of below.
38:07The lost glories of Bamiyan here.
38:10And you consider the whole cliff face painting colours like this.
38:13With architectural elements painted on.
38:16Timber frame.
38:17Archways.
38:18Cornices.
38:19What a sight.
38:20This gives you some, some inkling of the colours.
38:23These colours.
38:24If you consider.
38:25They may be over 1500 years old.
38:29It's incredible.
38:34Ah!
38:35And here, at last, some larger elements.
38:38Seated Buddha's faces hacked off.
38:40Oh, there's a charming one.
38:41And here, just fragment what's left behind.
38:44You see the original paint onto, claster onto hay and mud.
38:50There.
38:51Again, we go up here.
38:56Staircases.
38:57Cracks in the wall.
39:01Again, I assume from, from blasting.
39:05I'm now behind the Buddha.
39:09This is scary now.
39:10I should stop.
39:12Because that's about as far as one can go.
39:15With safety.
39:17So, the passage went round.
39:20The Buddha, the Buddha's head, was just there on my right.
39:24This video is very over exciting.
39:26And the thin air makes one very light headed.
39:33How's it feel to be up here?
39:37It feels very odd to be up here, you know.
39:44The sense of loss is just ghastly.
39:47I mean, I've got to keep reminding myself.
39:49Just, you know, over a year ago.
39:52It's one of the great sacred sites.
39:56Sacred images of the world was here.
39:59The site is still sacred.
40:01The image is gone.
40:02The presence, though, remains.
40:06It's one of the most moving moments ever for me.
40:12What's to be done?
40:14A moment I don't know.
40:17A mixture of anger and regret.
40:21But mostly regret at the moment.
40:24Poor, benighted fools, really, is all one can say.
40:36The road from Bamiyan was very dusty and the facility's limited, to put it mildly.
40:48So, a bit of a cleansing process now in order.
40:52Incredibly, during Taliban times, what I'm about to do now was a crime punishable with a good flogging.
40:59What is this wicked thing?
41:01A shave.
41:02A little trap somewhere.
41:03Oh, I think it's here.
41:05Here.
41:06Yeah.
41:07This is the place.
41:08If the Taliban had caught a shaving customer, we would have been jailed for a month and a half.
41:22Really?
41:23Really?
41:28Feels good.
41:39Put it ticky.
41:40Just a little bit there.
41:41Come, come.
41:42No.
41:43Oh.
41:44That'd be a miracle if I got that.
41:48Enough's enough.
41:49Thanks.
41:55I really appreciate it.
41:56It's lovely.
41:57It's very good.
42:00Lovely.
42:01Lovely.
42:02Very good.
42:03Feel much better.
42:04Younger.
42:05Fresher.
42:07Oh, my family jackets.
42:08Takes back to the 60s.
42:09I've forgotten about those.
42:10God.
42:11That is fantastic.
42:14My God.
42:15Traditional carpet, but with Russian weapons on over it.
42:18Tanks, big sort of Russian 50 caliber kind of machine guns, rocket launchers.
42:24Good God above.
42:25Can I have a look at the other ones?
42:26Yes, yes.
42:31My God.
42:33Let's see.
42:34That's a rocket.
42:35Yeah.
42:36A grenade, AK-47, Russian tanks, armored personnel.
42:39I've seen all these by the side of the road.
42:41Yeah.
42:42I can see them on a carpet.
42:43This is absolutely brilliant.
42:45Brilliant.
42:46But, so this has now become, this has now become like a traditional Afghan kind of carpet.
42:51This is absolutely amazing, isn't it?
42:55This sort of, I don't know, modern politics and, well, military technology, sort of combined
43:05with this traditional craft.
43:07These are beautifully made.
43:08This is the point.
43:09Beautifully made.
43:10Traditionally made.
43:11But, of course, in the past, images shown on these traditional carpets were images important
43:15to people at the time.
43:16Sufi symbolism, Islamic abstract forms, and now the important thing is victory over the Russians
43:23and the means by which that victory was achieved.
43:25This is the original one, which is they make 20 years before.
43:30Oh.
43:31This is tank, helicopter, it's the original one.
43:33But this is telling a story, isn't it?
43:34Yeah.
43:35They're now reduced to sort of traditional abstract images almost, aren't they?
43:37Yeah.
43:38So the helicopter, and, and, what else we've got?
43:41Helicopter.
43:42Here's tanks here.
43:43Here's tanks.
43:44Armored personnel carriers.
43:45And, and, and, and, and there's trucks.
43:47This means this is a Muslim country.
43:49It's a mosque.
43:50Okay.
43:51How much is this one?
43:52What?
43:53This is $3.50, my friend.
43:54$3.50.
43:55Yeah.
43:56This is a big one.
43:57This is an unusual piece.
43:58You will not get something everywhere such a thing.
44:00I could probably, if you went through all the bargaining, get it for about $2.50.
44:05I'm on my knees.
44:11We travel south, through the desert, to Ghazni.
44:15We are journeying into the Taliban heartland, towards the battlefront.
44:22The usual warm nature of the Afghans has changed.
44:26We are met with an icy, hostile reception.
44:34To our dismay, we find Ghazni's 11th and 12th century minarets,
44:39surrounded by an ex-Taliban military camp.
44:42It's hard to know who is in control here, whether these men are friends or foe.
44:54Just days before, a US helicopter was shot down in a battle in neighbouring Ghazni.
44:59These minarets are pioneering structures, built in the 11th and 12th centuries.
45:09They are amongst the world's first giant minarets.
45:12They really are of world importance.
45:15They stand here, in what was once a great capital city, a capital of the Ghaznavid Empire.
45:27This city was eventually leveled, destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1221.
45:32They were in terrible condition.
45:34They were damaged during the fighting with the Russians.
45:38The shells went through the minarets, obviously.
45:42Bits knocked out of them.
45:43And indeed, the battle is like it was yesterday.
45:46There were burnt out tanks, hulks everywhere.
45:49Extraordinary.
45:50It's the battlefield still, really.
45:54And I understand that the last threat to their very existence,
45:58only a few months ago, because there was a Taliban camp just down there,
46:02and the Americans bombed this very site to hit the Taliban.
46:06So these are incredibly lucky to survive that last onslaught.
46:11Exposed to the weather, there was a sandstorm over there.
46:15And I can't imagine these buildings can last much longer, with no help.
46:22What a strange place.
46:24That's, I mean, from my mind, if we only have a man down there and the nãoまで
46:31to go in and out it isousse to just see what I think is.
46:33If I knew I could tell, I may know.
46:34This is absolutely impossible.
46:35Gosh, this is absolutely beautiful, you know, as much as it would have been when Alexander
46:47the Great went through here over 2,000 years ago, but standing here, one really can see
46:55why this is a country worth fighting for, and why many people have felt it worth dying
47:00for, and the birds, it's hard to reconcile this with the savagery, the war, the desperation
47:21has beset this country and still does.
47:30Of all the mysteries surrounding Afghanistan's art treasures, the most perplexing is that
47:38of the Bactrian gold. Excavated in the late 1970s, the hoard of some 26,000 gold artefacts, dating
47:46from the 1st century AD, is one of the greatest archaeological finds the world has ever known,
47:52comparable with the great treasure of Tutankhamun. All we have to go on is photographs, caught up
47:59in the fighting of the past 20 years, the treasure has completely vanished. But sources claim
48:05it is still safe somewhere in Kabul. Is hiding place a closely guarded secret?
48:12Do you know much about the Bactrian gold? Is it here?
48:18It was lost scene during the Taliban regime in 1999 by a delegation of archaeologists. They
48:24saw it, it was intact. But since then, no one I know has seen it, or been able to check
48:30it survives.
48:31Where is the gold now? And I've been told, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture,
48:37particularly all the vaults below the Presidential Palace, do you believe it's one of those?
48:43It is one of those places, but we cannot reveal exactly where because of the tense security situation
48:49in the country at the moment. There's no way I can tell you.
48:53Well, and I'm not surprised. It just means that my quest goes on.
48:58I feel that it's still intact, that it's still there. I've heard that several governments tried
49:11to blow up the vault, thick concrete. They couldn't gain access.
49:20This is the Ministry of...?
49:21This is the Presidential Palace.
49:23In the Presidential Palace, former Royal Palace.
49:25In the Bank Vault of the Treasury, within the compound of the Presidential Palace.
49:31Which was a former Royal Palace, right.
49:33Again, I've heard that somebody did succeed. Then I heard that the key system, there were
49:48seven, eight keys necessary to get into the world.
49:51Each held by a different person, presumably.
49:53And each key in the hands of somebody else dispersed through the world now.
49:58You've handled these, you've seen these, haven't you?
50:01Seventy-eight, seventy-nine.
50:03And what's it like to do, I mean, to have, what's it like to handle wonderful people?
50:06The, the perfection of some of these small, small applicants.
50:15Even the Afghans were handling these things.
50:18Everyone was very close to weeping of, in the presence of something so superb.
50:28He said it shows that Afghanistan is a civilised country.
50:32Yes.
50:33If we came from something like this as part of our heritage.
50:41The Presidential Palace is over there.
50:43That's, of course, where the Bactrian gold is most likely to be in the vault.
50:47We might see the gold.
50:49Can't believe we will, but we might.
50:52Good luck, good luck, good luck. Who knows? Who knows?
50:55We are led to meet the civil servant in charge of interim administration affairs.
51:02Well, um...
51:03Can I explain?
51:04Yes, yes, sir.
51:05Yes, sir.
51:06Thank you very much.
51:07Thank you very much.
51:08Thank you very much.
51:09This is the Ministry of Culture and the BBC of the BBC.
51:13Thank you very much.
51:16Thank you very much.
51:18Mr. President.
51:19Mr. President.
51:20Mr. President.
51:21Mr. President.
51:22Mr. President.
51:23Mr. President.
51:24Mr. President.
51:25Mr. President.
51:26Mr. President.
51:27Mr. President.
51:28Mr. President.
51:29Mr. President.
51:30Mr. President.
51:31Mr. President.
51:32Mr. President.
51:33Mr. President.
51:34Mr. President.
51:35Mr. President.
51:36Mr. President.
51:37Mr. President.
51:38Mr. President.
51:39Mr. President.
51:40Mr. President.
51:41Mr. President.
51:42Mr. President.
51:43Mr. President.
51:44Mr. President.
51:45Mr. President.
51:46Another hour goes by.
52:00Well, we've got permission to enter the presidential palace,
52:04driving a few hundred yards from the ministry where we were waiting to the palace,
52:08which is over there.
52:10Ah, so, back entrance.
52:14I'm pretty sure it's over there.
52:18God, this is incredible.
52:20Our security man from the ministry is being frisked.
52:24Help?
52:26Yeah, I think so.
52:28No, I don't think so.
52:30Maybe knife?
52:32No, no.
52:34Money, knife, no, no knife.
52:38We're in.
52:40Incredible.
52:44Wow.
52:46How absolutely splendid.
52:48Glorious.
52:49Classical palace.
52:50Wonderful.
52:51At last, we are shown a palace, known as a palace of the heart's desire,
52:56but it's not the building containing the vaults.
53:00We persuade our guide to show us the main presidential palace in an attempt to get to see the vaults.
53:12Now, can I get inside this building?
53:16Oh, golly, look at that.
53:18Oh, golly, look at that.
53:20OK.
53:25As we enter, an argument breaks out between our Afghan entourage.
53:29Something is wrong.
53:31Restored.
53:34Left on our own.
53:36To look for the vaults.
53:38We should go.
53:39We want us to go with them.
53:49I was very lucky.
53:50We were not meant to be there.
53:51I don't know why.
53:56That's about as near as long as I get, I guess, to the gold, back from gold.
54:00If it survives as a collection, the gold is undoubtedly in vaults below the building we've just been in,
54:09or vaults below the bank over there.
54:12The authority's in control here.
54:15Well, they won't admit its existence, let alone show it to me.
54:19I understand that.
54:20Things are not stable in the country at the moment.
54:23And, um, a criminal element, if they know the gold exists, could indeed have a go at getting it.
54:33And, um, of course, elections, when they're held this summer, well, this could be chaos.
54:41I think we're being ushered out.
54:47Fears for security mean it's difficult to see any of this country's surviving treasures.
54:54This is the Ministry of Information and Culture.
54:58Somewhat decrepit in place.
55:01Ah, ladies.
55:07The authorities grant me permission to see one heroically safe item.
55:14Hidden since the Taliban began its historical and cultural purge.
55:19It looks terribly Roman, this to me, a Bacchanalian scene.
55:23Not a font, but it was a wine bowl.
55:26Here you see lovely, dancing, girl, naked.
55:30And, um, she seems to be handing out drinks, being handed drinks, by these...
55:34Beed by these chaps here. I can't quite make out the face.
55:39And Zekas himself.
55:41Another naked person up to something over there.
55:44And you saved it by, what, putting plaster or something over these feet.
55:47We covered images with cotton wool, paper and sellotape, and diverted the Taliban's attention to the bottom of the ball, claiming there were no images of living beings on it.
56:02Had the Taliban noticed the erotic imagery, they would have smashed it instantly.
56:10And here, more and more, troops of dancing girls, all naked, full of wine, levelling people, music.
56:18Gosh, the Taliban would have been crawling up the wall with this, wouldn't they?
56:22This is absolutely fantastic.
56:26It is wonderful, wonderful thing.
56:29The whole world must thank you for this.
56:32This is wonderful.
56:38It's the eve of Islamic New Year.
56:41For the first time since the end of the rule of the Taliban,
56:44traditional festivals and celebrations can be performed once more.
57:19It has been five years since we had been able to celebrate this night in our own way, free from threat of oppression.
57:34This is a special evening for us. It's the start of a new era of life, a new page of paper for the Afghans.
57:41They're hoping that there will be peace, that there will be stability.
57:46Men and women will be free to be educated. It's just the start of something we've been hoping for, for a long time.
58:00sub indo by broth3rmax
58:30On BBC Sounds, Greg Jenner dives into the BBC archives,
58:43stumbling across random dates,
58:44and listens to recordings to explore what they say about who we are now.
58:50Passed forward a century of sounds.
59:00Transcription by CastingWords
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