The Buddhas of Bamiyan

The widow Sharabanu now lives in a cave

carved in the cliffs by monks long gone.

Her house was nearby but the Taliban

finally conquered the proud Hazara,

descendents of the ferocious Genghis Khan.

For eons, two statues of Buddha

watched over the caravans of merchants

travelling the Silk Road but could not

guide them away from their greed.

The Great Alexander marched his army

through the valley of Bamiyan

enroute to India, and planned

new, bloody conquests, even as they passed the looming, peaceful Buddhas.

Not long ago, the Buddhas of Bamiyan

were one of the great wonders of the world.

The Hazara, no Buddhists, were still comforted

by the idols as they went to work in their fields.

In the evening, electrification glorified the stone effigies.

As Sharabanu feeds Razia, her grandaughter,

a potato and a crust of bread

she declaims, “we had a good house.

Now it’s all gone. There’s nothing

good about this place”. How wrong.

Scrawled on the cliff where the two Buddhas

were once carved into its rock face

and where now two gaping holes bid bad karma,

are the words of the Taliban:

“Victory Is Always With Those

That Are In The Right.” How right.

(And defeat will be their epitaph!)

Sharabanu draws her thin brown shawl

more tightly around her face and shoulders

And says, “I miss the Buddhas. I’m so very sad

these statues are gone.” But Buddha lives on!

-by Mark S. Foley

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