Merlion
06-19-2006, 08:18 PM
I notice this in the news, taken from here (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=22691).
Mr.Thaksin (the Thai Prime Minister) said he told the Afghan leader that Thailand, as a Buddhist country, would like to collect the remains of the Bamiyan Buddha statues to rebuild the new ones.
I wonder technically how this rebuilding would be done, as the original statues (carved from the side of a mountain, a photo is shown in the above article) were extremely large, the tall one had a height of 175 ft (53 m).
These huge statues were world heritage monuments. They were in the news a few years ago when they were gunned, bombed and destroyed by the Talibans.
Here below are details of the statues, taken from this Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Statues_of_Bamiyan).
Most likely built in the fifth or sixth centuries, the statues represented a classic blending of Greek and Buddhist art.
The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modelled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which was worn away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks, or casts. The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs which served to stabilize the outer stucco.
Mr.Thaksin (the Thai Prime Minister) said he told the Afghan leader that Thailand, as a Buddhist country, would like to collect the remains of the Bamiyan Buddha statues to rebuild the new ones.
I wonder technically how this rebuilding would be done, as the original statues (carved from the side of a mountain, a photo is shown in the above article) were extremely large, the tall one had a height of 175 ft (53 m).
These huge statues were world heritage monuments. They were in the news a few years ago when they were gunned, bombed and destroyed by the Talibans.
Here below are details of the statues, taken from this Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Statues_of_Bamiyan).
Most likely built in the fifth or sixth centuries, the statues represented a classic blending of Greek and Buddhist art.
The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modelled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which was worn away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks, or casts. The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs which served to stabilize the outer stucco.