Afghans unearth 19-metre Buddha statue, relics

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a 19-metre (62-foot) Buddha statue along with scores of other historical relics in central Afghanistan near the ruins of giant statues destroyed by the Islamist Taliban seven years ago.

The team was searching for a giant sleeping Buddha believed to have been seen by a Chinese pilgrim centuries ago when it came upon the relics in the central province of Bamiyan, an official said on Monday.

"In total, 89 relics such as coins, ceramics and a 19 meters statue have been unearthed," Mohammad Zia Afshar, adviser in the information and culture ministry, told Reuters.

He said the idol, in sleeping posture, was badly damaged. The other relics dated back to the Bacterian era and from Islamic and Buddhist civilizations.

Lying on the old Silk Road and linking West with the East, Bamiyan was once a thriving Buddhist centre where monks lived in caves. In 2001 the Taliban blew up two giant standing Buddha statues carved into a cliff face saying they were offensive to Islam, despite appeals worldwide.

Later that year U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government, and work has begun to restore the biggest of the two destroyed statues, once the tallest standing Buddha in the world. The mammoth task is expected to take a decade.

The latest discovery has raised hopes of finding a 300-metre-long Buddha statue that according to an ancient Chinese pilgrim is lying in Bamiyan, Afshar said.

Afghanistan has suffered decades of foreign interventions and civil war, and many of its historical relics, belonging to various civilizations, have been destroyed or looted.