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I Saw The Destroyed 4th Century Buddhas of Afghanistan – Transcript
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- Drew Binsky visits Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, a mountainous region located roughly 240 kilometers northwest of Kabul that was first settled around 3000 bc.
- Bamiyan is most well known for its massive fourth-century buddha statues carved into the side of a mountain, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
- Ninety-five percent of the population in Bamiyan belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, and women experience more rights, freedoms, and educational opportunities compared to the rest of Afghanistan.
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i went to bamiyan afghanistan four weeks ago and has taken me this long to edit and release this video because of a horrible event that really takes a heavy heart to explain just two weeks ago there were two massive bomb blasts that hit the main marketplace in bamiyan leaving 14 people dead and over 50 people wounded in all honesty i left my heart in bamiyan because it's a place that i enjoyed so much and it has been really hard for me
to know how to react to the situation just two weeks before the bombs hit i was walking in that exact same marketplace i was eating street food from the vendors and chatting with the most friendly locals who welcomed me with big smiles almost all the city shots that you are about to see in this video are now in ruins and i am just devastated since the latest attack in bamiyan in 2001 the town and province has been recognized as
the safest place in afghanistan so i've decided to proceed in telling the bamiyan story in the original way that i experienced it with the hopes that life will carry on and continue to thrive in one of the most beautiful places in the world i really hope you guys will watch this video to the end because i have a lot of things to say about bamiyan i really had an amazing time there when i went and with that all being said let's begin the video i want all of you guys to stop what
you're doing right now and join me in appreciating this outstanding nature here in the bamiyan province of central afghanistan
thank you that was really good everywhere in bamyan you have incredible views mountains valleys the trees are changing colors right now which is extra special and man what a paradise land what a hidden treasure of the world really bamiyan afghanistan
oh my god this place is just about as good as it gets just arrived here in batman at the airport and it's freezing outside like zero celsius 32 fahrenheit literally freezing how are you man i'm okay how are you good how was the flight it was nice yeah
thank you for coming roughly 240 kilometers northwest of kabul is a mountainous region about 2 800 meters high in elevation and it was first settled around 3000 bc the first thing that i like in bermuda is security in a in a in all over afghanistan bomyan is a secure place for us from a
global standpoint bamyan is most well known for its massive 4th century buddha statues that were literally carved into the side of a mountain this marked the world's westernmost expansion of buddhism and it was a crucial hub for trade during much of the first and second millenniums so noah and i are now walking next to the incredible mountain that had the buddhas carved into the mountain
from 4th century the small buddha it's 36 meters the big one salsal it's 55 meters these buddha statues are basically like 1600 years old yes that's wild yeah like nobody thinks that buddhism came to afghanistan you know that they think about china tibet or maybe even like into thailand and cambodia that's like buddhism but
afghanistan afghanistan used to be the center of the buddhism one day like in here they used to teach buddhism out here wow lots of important people used to come here to meditate in batman and pray here in bangkok sadly the buddha statues were destroyed by the taliban in 2001 and since then have never been replaced in here are pieces of the buddhas they've been kept here by unesco whoa
one of the buddhist temples it looks and feels like a stupa like you'd see in other buddhist parts of the world stairs are steep really steep wow cool so this is bamiyan yeah
we are like almost at the top of the buddha here um can you imagine drew one day all this area the ceiling the sides all this area was nicely painted in blue and different other colors with buddha meditating and of this their their followers coming and praying with him even during the recent years before the explosion the pictures were here and as soon as the explosion happened all of
those plasters and pictures fold down down there and smashed out so we're standing up here kind of in the opening way of the second largest buddha there's a picture of the original buddha and that's where he stood right here we are now standing above the head of where the buddha used to stand and guys let me tell you something we are high up here
like how did they build this that long ago uh in the very uh early days they had the type of uh scaffolds by scaffolds they used to climb and climb and work and work and work it was like three generation took that this buddha was completed almost a whole century so the guy who started the buddha he never saw this finished wow yeah we are way up here
it's incredible how they were able to build it so high so long ago while these buddha carvings are one of the single coolest things i've ever seen in my entire life i came to discover that bamyan is a lot more than that just across the valley is an ancient citadel on top of a mountain that carries a fascinating history that place looks stunning it's a 12th century citadel that is like partially in ruins partially still standing and
it's a unesco site and it just looks spectacular i mean look at this place have you ever seen anything in the world that looks like this surely i have not we are here at the city of screams it's a very old settle that was destroyed by genghis khan during the 12th century why is it called the city of screams uh during the 12th century when genghis khan attacked this area he faced to a very strong people who fought
against the genghis khan severely and during this clash his uh grandson was injured by a spear and then he was died and then the genghis khan went crazy and said okay like smash this wall smash this city whatever you found killed him every single living thing was killed at this attack yeah so all the destruction that we see left
today is from genghis khan yeah his empire yeah back 800 years ago yes so let's go walk around and walk up to the top of that watch tower yeah sure pretty cool to walk around here it feels extremely old like i'm actually pretty impressed how they built this so long
ago you know these are part of the original walls those are renamed like restored this original let's go this is the original walls wow but it used to be bricks look at this how many years of history coming off these walls there's a lot of different rooms to walk in now that is a wash tower oh man you can really see the whole valley here so there are several washing
towers everywhere in the valley but this is the main washing tower to protect the city this elevation is no joke man when you walk up hill and breathing heavy wandering around here is like a maze i don't even know which way to go in here it's like amazingly if you drive another half hour deeper into the valley you'll come across another citadel that is just as
impressive in its own way all right noor so where are we now my friend yeah drew welcome to zuhak city or the red city in arizona there's this place called sedona which is all these red rocks and this really looks like that it's like these red mountains people still believe that the color the red color comes from lots of bloodshed during the the course of the history and empires fighting here and what year was the
citadel mate uh 12th century i just stepped in dug as i said that not dark horse damn it wow man this is so cool this place is just awesome like super red rocks and then all of a sudden you're walking up and you see this like
old settlement citadel thing wow that's the main entrance to the city out there holy smokes all of these uh sights and stuff that you see out there there are the washing towers they used to uh watch from those little holes to make sure the city is safe i'm thinking we fly the drone from here we can look like kings up here
yeah let's do it from here all of these historical sites are just incredible but what really captured my heart was the people and culture of bamiyan the main town of a hundred
thousand residents is filled with colorful markets a variety of street food and a different face smiling at you from every direction and just when i thought i couldn't discover anything more spectacular in bamiyan i found people living in cave homes okay we have now found this uh little village here where the homes are caves in the mountains literally i've never seen anything that looks like this before all of them are mine mate drew them in
all of them these caves are from hundreds of years ago this is so cool we're just walking through these literally cave homes i've never seen actual cave homes before this one is probably a house where they keep their animals in sight oh it smells like horses
this is cool oh man welcome to african cave houses cave home always the living room looks the same in every house in this country that's the cutest thing i've ever seen this accurate
now you may have noticed the faces of the people in bamiyan which closely resemble those from mongolia or east asia and that's because 95 of the population here are hazara which is the third largest ethnic group in afghanistan sadly they are the ones who have been targeted the most throughout history especially from the taliban over the last 25 years we the hazara people have suffered a lot during the course of the history in this country especially
like we had a king during the 17th century who didn't really like hazaras and he executed like 62 percent of bazaar people in the central afghanistan and then things became much better for hazard people until we had this taliban popped out in 1994 and 1995. i remember the the governor of taliban shout out loud behind the mic when they captured mazar sharif uzbek
should go to uzbekistan tajik should go to tajikistan land and hazara people should go to this cemetery i mean digital did and then they should go to hill that's that's what they meant but through all this suffering the hazara people are strong and resilient and they have found a safe haven in bamiyan as nor told me this has been the most stable region in the country for the last 20 years and it's the only place that i don't have to be