Mirza Hussain, and other prisoners like him, had labored for hours to stack mines, bombs and dynamite be-neath the feet of Afghanistan's most i-conic public artwork — a 175-foot standing statue of the Buddha carved from the sandstone cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley sometime in the 7th century.

胡塞恩及其他和他一樣的受刑人，已經辛苦幹活了好幾小時，準備把地雷、炸彈和炸藥堆放在阿富汗最為人崇拜的佛像公共藝術作品腳下。這是一尊175呎高的立佛，大概在公元七世紀從巴米揚山谷的沙岩峭壁中挖掘雕刻出來的。

Initially, Taliban fighters had fired at the Buddha with assault rifles, stinger missiles and RPGs, to little effect. When the stacked explosives at the statue's base failed, Hussain and other prisoners were dangled over the edge of the cliffs to stuff dynamite into holes in the soft stone. "Our soldiers are working hard to demolish the remain-ing parts," announced Mawlawi Qudratullah Jamal, the Taliban's min-ister of information and culture, at a press conference in Kabul a day later. "It is easier to destroy than to build."

一開始，神學士民兵用突擊步槍、刺針飛彈、火箭推進式榴彈對著佛像掃射，但沒什麼成效。當堆放在佛像基底的炸藥未能成功炸毀神像時，胡塞恩和其他犯人被懸吊在峭壁邊緣，把火藥塞進軟石頭的洞口裡。「我們的士兵正卯足全力摧毀佛像殘骸，」神學士新聞文化部長賈梅爾一天後在喀布爾開記者會宣布說。「破比立容易多了。」

He was right. Within days the Tal-iban had all but decimated the re-mains of a magnificent Buddhist civi-lization that had for six centuries ruled this strategic valley at the crossroads of Central Asian trade.

他說的沒錯，幾天後，神學士幾乎把六世紀來這個宰制中亞貿易要衝戰略性山谷莊嚴宏偉的佛教文化遺址摧毀殆盡。

Locals say the figures in the images bore facial features typical of the Hazara, the persecuted Shi'ite minor-ity group that populates the province. The Taliban massacred hundreds of Hazaras when they took control of Afghanistan; many in the valley be-lieve that the destruction of the Bud-dhas was an extension of their geno-cidal campaign. "The Buddhas had eyes like ours, and the Taliban de-stroyed them like they tried to destroy us," says Marzia Mohammadi, a mid-wife. "They wanted to kill our culture, erase us from this valley."

當地人說，這些石像臉部五官形貌酷似哈薩拉人，也就是散居巴米揚省長期遭到迫害的什葉派少數民族。神學土接管阿富汗後屠殺成百上千的哈薩拉人，巴米揚河谷很多人相信，摧毀大佛是他們滅種行動的延伸。助產士瑪芝亞．莫哈瑪迪說：「佛像的眼睛很像我們，神學士摧毀他們，就像試圖毀滅我們。他們想扼殺我們的文化，讓我們從山谷中消失。」

Seven years on, archaeologists and volunteers from around the world are doing what they can to put the sym-bols of Bamiyan's Buddhist legacy back together again.

七年了，來自世界各地的考古學家和志工正盡其所能，想把巴米揚佛教遺產的象徵再拼湊復原。

Under debate, right now, is the question of how and whether the statues should be rebuilt. Little remains of the stucco coat and sculpted stone that gave the Buddhas of Bamiyan their definition. Putting them back together again would be akin to piec-ing together a puzzle of a million pieces — but without the benefit of an image printed on the box top.

目前正在辯論的是佛像如何及是否應該重建的問題。賦予巴米揚佛像特色的灰泥塗層和雕刻石像幾乎蕩然無存，再把他們拼湊回原貌，就像要用一百萬片碎片來拼湊串連出一幅拼圖，但包裝盒上又沒有印出原來的圖像。

Nevertheless, Habiba Sarabi, Bamiyan's governor, believes rebuild-ing the Buddhas is important for the psychic wellbeing of her province. "The Buddhas were a part of the life of people in Bamiyan," she says. "Now the empty niches of the Buddhas affect the landscape, so the people share the sorrow."

但巴米揚省長哈碧芭．沙拉比相信，重建佛像攸關她那個省的心靈健全和福址。她說：「佛像是巴米揚人民生活的一部分，現在佛像空蕩蕩的壁龕不只影響景觀，人民也同感哀痛。」

In a process called anastylosis, o-riginal fragments of damaged statuary can be pieced together with cement or other materials — as has been done at Cambodia's ancient Angkor Wat temple complex. But if less than half of the original material remains, says restoration experts, the new structure loses its historical value, and should be considered a replica. And being re-built as a replica could put the World Heritage Site status of the Bamiyan Buddhas at risk. Archaeologists have estimated that about 50% of the orig-inal stone remains, but a full study has yet to be completed.

在一種稱之為「原物歸位法」的過程中，損毀的雕像原始的片段可以用水泥或其他材料黏合，一如重建柬埔寨吳哥窟古廟群所運用的手法。但古蹟修復專家說，如果所留下來的原始建材不到一半，新的結構將喪失歷史價值，只能被當成複製品。而重建成複製品可能危及巴米揚巨佛世界文化遺產的地位。考古學家估計，約50%原始石材還留著，但得先完成完整的研究調查。

A bdul Ahad Abassy, head of Afghanistan's Preservation and Restoration of Historical Monuments department, sees a pattern in the Tal-iban's efforts to take down the Bud-dhas. One of Afghanistan's early Is-lamic kings tore through the caves in the 11th century, smashing idols as he went. And at the end of the 19th cen-tury the mother of then King Abdul Rahman had cannons fired at the standing Buddhas.

阿富汗歷史文物保存修復部部長阿巴希認為，從神學士打倒巨佛可以看出某種模式。阿富汗早期伊斯蘭君王於11世紀摧毀洞穴，並一路搗毀神像。19世紀末，拉曼國王的母親用大砲炮轟立佛。

Afghan history, he says, is filled with characters who attempt to erase the past. They, too, are part of Afghanistan's heritage — a heritage that it is his job to preserve. So, Bamiyan's Buddhas present a conun-drum. Brutal though it may have been, the Taliban legacy is an impor-tant part of Afghanistan's recent past. The empty niches of Bamiyan are testament to a ruthlessness that should not be forgotten — rebuilding the Buddhas would be a kind of erasure. "The present condition of the bud-dhas is in itself an expression of our history," says Abassy. "No matter how good or bad the Taliban were, we cannot tear that page from the book."

他表示，阿富汗歷史充斥著這些想一舉抹煞過去歷史的角色，但他們也是阿富汗傳統的一環，他責無旁貸要加以保存。因此，巴米揚巨佛也就形成一大難題。手法也許粗暴野蠻，但神學士的遺業也是阿富汗近代史重要的一部分。巴米揚空空洞洞的壁龕是一段冷酷殘暴統治的證明，不應遺忘，但重建大佛形同某種抹煞歷史。阿巴希說：「佛像目前的情況本身就訴說著我們的歷史，不管神學士有多好或多壞，這一頁將長留青史。」

Governor Sarabi sees a Solomonic compromise that both respects Afghanistan's recent history while cel-ebrating its ancient culture. "We have many empty niches to be reminders of the dark parts of our history," she says. "If we rebuild one Buddha, we can leave the other as it is."

省長沙拉比想出所羅門王的折衷辦法，既尊重阿富汗的歷史，又尊崇其古老的文化。她說，「我們已經有很多空洞的壁龕足以提醒我們這段黑暗的歷史。如果我們重建一尊巨佛，就可以讓其他佛像維持現狀不動。」

【詞解】

Taliban　神學士民兵

standing statue of the Buddha　立佛

sandstone cliffs　沙岩峭壁

Bamiyan Valley 巴米揚山谷

assault rifles 突擊步槍

stinger missiles 刺針飛彈

RPGs 火箭推進式榴彈

dangled over 懸吊

decimate 毀滅

genocidal 滅種屠殺

stucco coat 灰泥塗層

puzzle 拼圖遊戲

niches 壁龕

anastylosis 原物歸位法