Afghanistan 1969-1974Copyright © Dr. Volker Thewalt 1969 / 2002 |
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umgeben von einer Perlenborte; Fragment einer Wandmalerei aus Kloster D, Bamiyan Photo : Thewalt 1969 [ Vgl. Francine Tissot 2006, Catalogue of the National Museum of Afghanistan 1931-1985, UNESCO publishing 2006, Paris, p. 111: T.Sh.p. By. 217.10. Exc. no. D.12.; H 0.22; Painted stucco. MIZ, fig. 178; ROW, 66, fig. 75; DUP, fig. 37; D.D.B. 103.13; Tarzi, B55. Medaillon in a pearl border; two birds, facing each other and holding a necklace. Monastery D. Bamiyan (bamiyan province) The old city of Bamiyan is situated in a narrow valley in the centre of the Hindu Kush mountains. For centuries, travellers and pilgrims from Central Asia and Bactria passed through this valley, which may have been one of the easiest routes to the Indus valley and then on to the river Ganges in India. The famous Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang, who visited the site in AD 632, described the giant statues of the Buddha that dominated the valley. The many grottoes, both large and small, used as monasteries by the Buddhist monks and also as lodgings by the local villagers, are of particular interest. The chapels were carved in the rock and decorated with clay modellings and wonderful paintings. In the 1930s several carvings and paintings from Bamiyan and the nearby complex of Kakrak were brought to the Kabul Museum, under extremely difficult circumstances, by members of DAFA. The precise dating of the finds from Bamiyan valley and the surrounding areas is still problematic. They may belong to the period between the late Kushans and the Turki Shahis.
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