On March 12, 2001, the two Bamiyan Buddhas, which had stood for over 1500 years, were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
However, amidst the lamentations of people around the world who cherish peace and civilization, these colossal statues were obliterated into rubble by the Taliban using explosives.
The then-Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered the use of various weapons such as cannons, explosives, and rocket launchers to destroy all Buddhist statues within Afghanistan.
This was an organized and premeditated act of destruction against historical relics of a different faith, a terrorist act against humanity and civilization, annihilating over a thousand years of human cultural heritage and fully exposing the Taliban's nature.
In the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism in ancient India, gradually spreading it throughout Asia.
In the 1st century CE, the Kushan Empire, established by the Great Yuezhi near present-day Afghanistan, rose to prominence, with its rulers adhering to Buddhism, marking a significant period of Buddhist flourishing, during which many statues and murals were constructed.
Over the next thousand years, Buddhism prospered in the Western Regions, with various Buddhist caves and temples scattered throughout, producing countless exquisite Buddhist murals and statues, and nurturing many eminent monks.
In the 6th year of the Zhen Guan reign (632 CE) of the Tang Dynasty, the monk Xuanzang journeyed to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures. While passing through Central Asia, he encountered two exceptionally beautiful stone Buddha statues, which he admired greatly and specifically described in his work "Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty."
These two Buddha statues were later the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban.
Afghanistan was once a place with a long tradition of Buddhism and a tolerant civilization, but how did it become the terror-infested desert it is today?
During the Tang Dynasty in China, Muhammad founded Islam on the Arabian Peninsula.
One of the main characteristics of Islam is its extreme exclusivity.
Muhammad and his successors used this ideology to control their followers, continuously launching wars of extermination against non-Muslims, swiftly conquering the entire Arabian Peninsula and expanding into Central Asia.
In 651 CE, the Arab expeditionary forces captured Herat and Balkh, and Eastern Iran (now western Afghanistan) fell into Arab hands.
From then on, Afghanistan began its Islamization.
In the tenth year of the Tianbao reign (751 CE), the Tang Dynasty clashed with Islamic states in the Battle of Talas, resulting in a major defeat for the Tang army.
From then on, the control of the Central Plains over the Western Regions began to weaken, and Islam continued to spread in the Western Regions.
During the Song Dynasty, influenced by the wars between the Jin and the Mongols, China was unable to effectively control the Western Regions, allowing Islam to spread in the region.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the ruler of the Western Regions, Timur Khan, converted to Islam and launched forced Islamization campaigns in the region of Gaochang.
During the Ming Dynasty, although the Western Regions were under the rule of the remnants of the Mongols, the spread of Islam continued to deepen.
By the Qing Dynasty, the Western Regions had completely Islamized, no longer tolerating the existence of other civilizations, a situation that persists in Central Asia to this day.
One of the greatest characteristics of Islam is its extreme exclusivity.
As the number of Muslims increased, they began to demand more privileges and even launched angry attacks.
When they became the majority, the entire country would be rapidly Islamized, non-believers would be forced to convert or expelled, and the state would only recognize Islamic scriptures.
Therefore, after Afghanistan was completely Islamized, it no longer tolerated the existence of other civilizations and other ethnic cultures, which also explains why the Bamiyan Buddhas were completely destroyed.
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