Bamiyan: Professor Tarzi’s Survey andExcavation Archaeological Mission,2003

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The head of a Buddhist divinity excavatedat Bamiyan in 2003

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The Bamiyan Valley is one of the sitesmost often referred to in studies re-garding the history and archaeology ofCentral Asia. It figures especially instudies of the expansion of Buddhism,thanks to the region’s strategic loca-tion between India and China. Bamiyanis best known for its two giant stand-ing Buddha statues, carved into therock of the great cliff dominating thenorth side of the peaceful valley. Onestatue was 55 meters high and theother 38 meters high. The destructionof these two colossal statues by theTaliban in 2001 was headline news inall the international media.

Ever since the signature of the Ar-chaeological Convention between theFrench Republic and the Afghan king-dom in 1922, French archaeologistshave expressed an interest in Bamiyan.In his first report on the archaeologi-cal remains of Afghanistan, AlfredFoucher, who had played a major rolein drafting the convention, had under-lined the importance of conducting ar-chaeological studies in Bamiyan. Sometime later a mission was dispatchedunder the direction of André Godard,accompanied by Joseph Hackin andJean Carl. A second mission followed,this time under the direction of JosephHackin, accompanied by his wife andJean Carl as his architect. The resultof their efforts is in volumes 2 (1928)and 3 (1933) of the Memoirs of theFrench Archaeological Delegation inAfghanistan (DAFA Memoirs) Thesetwo missions studied the colossal stat-ues, their niches’ murals and the ar-chitecture and décor of the grottos in-cluding their reliefs and murals. Onlyone excavation was opened in the col-lapsed Grotto G, where, in addition tovery old décor, objects such as Greek-Buddhist moldings and wood statues

of the Sui dynasty were also found in akind of storage pit.

Following World War II several archaeo-logical studies were undertaken inBamiyan. The most important ones,which provide a clear date for the foun-dation of Bamiyan and its remains, arethose by Zemaryalai Tarzi, TakayasuHugushi and Deborah Klimburg-Salter.During the 1970s, eager to preservethe grottos of this famous valley in theHindukush, Afghan scholars were as-sisted by Indian experts from the Ar-chaeological Survey of India.The major projects were com-pleted during the 1970s underthe direction and supervisionof Directors of Archaeology andPreservation of HistoricalMonuments, Chaibai Mosta-mandy and Zemaryalai Tarzi.

A great deal was accomplishedin these studies. One focus ofthe work was the architectureof the region. Marc Le Berre,then DAFA architect, studiedthe Hindukush fortifications inthe Bamiyan area and its sur-roundings. The result of sev-eral years of surveying, Pre-Islamic Monuments of the Cen-tral Hindukush, was publishedin 1987 as a posthumous workin volume XXIX of the DAFAMemoirs. In 1965 Paul Ber-nard, who was also DAFA di-rector, studied the Shahr-eZohak (the Red City), situatedto the east of the Bamiyan Val-ley. There he found medicalmanuscripts in Sanskrit datingfrom the fifth century C.E.Other research focused on thestudy of ceramics: Jean-Claude Gardin dated ceramics

from the Muslim period found duringsurveys in the ruins of the Ghol-Gholacity; Bertille Lyonnet and Jean-ClaudeGardin studied the ceramics collectedby Marc Le Berre in the ruins of theHindukush fortifications. Until the ex-cavations of 2002-2003, however, noone had attempted to study the free-standing Buddhist monuments and re-lated monumental architecture.

In preparation for this, Zemaryalai Tarzihad undertaken several survey mis-sions during his travels to verify the

Zemaryalai Tarzi

The Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg

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Overview of the 2003 excavation at Bamiyan

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testimony of the famous Chinese pil-grim Xuanzang, who had visitedBamiyan in 632. In a conference atthe Guimet Museum in Paris Prof. Tarzireported on his unfinished research andexpressed confidence in the existenceof the “Eastern” monastery whereXuanzang saw a reclining 1000-foot-long Buddha statue. The “Eastern”monastery is located to the southeastof the 38-meter standing Buddhastatue, somewhere in the lower areaof the eastern part of the great cliffand not far from the only Bamiyanstupa. Now a French citizen, Prof. Tarziwas named Director for the FrenchSurvey and Excavation Missions inBamiyan, funded by the French Minis-try of Foreign Affairs. The work beganin 2002 but was unfortunately broughtto a halt by General Djawad.

In 2003 the team of three Afghans andthree French went to Bamiyan to con-tinue the work aborted in the previousyear. One goal was better to under-stand the topography of the terrain,which had been substantially alteredby cultivated, terraced fields. The ex-cavation was difficult and dangerousbecause of the fragility of the layers ofheterogeneous sediments, which wereextremely damp from intensive irriga-tion of potato fields. Thus the surveyswere done on a large scale, with theinstallation of a 5-meter grid. Thedepth of the excavation was generallyabout 3.5 meters but in some placesas deep as 5.6 meters, such as in sur-vey A9 where, however, even at that

depth the floor was not reached.

Three large sites were opened: Site A,composed of nine rectangles of 9 x 2.5meters, along the north-south easternborder of the large (100 x 80 meter)square M; Site B, to the north, westand south the stupa and also part ofthe large square M; and Site E openedin the large square east of the 100-meter side. These three sites provideddata on the geomorphology of the ter-rain, cycles of flooding, snow melt, theagricultural system, the initial estab-lishment of the Buddhist site and itspartial recovery during the Ghaznevidand Ghurid periods.

In the absence of coin discoveries orspecific ceramic data, at present theinitial establishment of the “Eastern”monastery site cannot be dated with

certitude, although it may be as earlyas the third century CE. Excavationsin 2004 will examine the two-meter ac-cumulation of soil which separates thelayer of the initial period from that ofthe second. The stratigraphic similar-ity between Bamiyan, on one hand, andTape Tope Kalan of Hadda and Lalmaand Tape Sardar of Ghazni on the other,deserves careful study.

Bamiyan’s second period is revealedmost clearly around the site of thestupa. There one finds three roomswhose floors were tiled with cut lime-stone or schist. The final fire, probablyinitiated in the ninth century C.E. bythe well-known Saffarid iconoclast,Yaqub b. Layth, left traces by trans-forming the limestone tiles into lime.Ceramic shards with relief from theGhaznavid period (late tenth-eleventhcenturies) were collected from aroundthe base of the stupa. And glazed ce-ramics were also collected in an ap-proximately two-meter thick layer, theoldest shards being from the Ghuridperiod (late twelfth century).

Finally during survey A9 Prof. Tarzi’steam made the most remarkable dis-covery consisting in a substantial num-ber of clay moldings which had fallenfrom the upper parts of a monumentinto a kind of well over an area 9 x 2meters square and one meter thick. Inthis heap of fragments and clay stat-ues seven heads or masks of the facesof Buddhist divinities were excavatedwith some difficulty due to the moistconditions and compression. This dis-covery confirms that the excavatorshave discovered the Bamiyan ”Eastern”monastery visited by Xuanzang wherethe 1000-foot-long reclining Buddhastatue may yet be found.

The Bamiyan Valley (view to the north)

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About the Author

Born in 1939 in Kabul, ProfessorZemaryalai Tarzi completed his stud-ies under the supervision of ProfessorDaniel Schlumberger, in the processobtaining three PhDs.

From 1973 to 1979, he was DirectorGeneral of Archaeology and Preserva-tion of Historical Monuments of Af-ghanistan. He later directed the exca-vations in Bamiyan and Hadda on thesites of Tape Shotor and Tape TopeKalan. Exiled to France in 1979, heassumed the post of Professor of East-ern Archaeology at the Marc Bloch Uni-versity of Strasbourg, France. He iscurrently Director for the French Ar-chaeological Missions for the Surveysand Excavations of Bamiyan. Prof.Tarzi is the author of some sixty articlesand books, he is also President for theAssociation for the Protection of AfghanArchaeology, Inc. based in San RafaelCalifornia.

For more information please contactinfo@apaa.info and/or visit www.apaa.info.

References

Foucher, A. “Rapport A. Foucher.” Jour-nal Asiatique, April-Jeune, 1923, 354-68 (a letter adressed to E. Senart aboutthe Antiquities of Bamiyan).

Foucher, A. La vieille route de l’Inde deBactres à Taxila, 2 vols. Paris, 1942-47 (MDAFA 1)

Godard, A.; Godard, Y.; Hackin, J. Lesantiquités bouddhiques de Bamiyan.Paris and Brussels, 1928 (MDAFA 2).

Hackin, J. and Carl, J. Nouvellesrecherches archéologiques à Bamiyan,Paris, 1933 (MDAFA 3).

Hackin, J.; Carl J. ; Meunie, J. Diversesrecherches archéologiques en Afghani-stan (1933-1940). Paris, 1959 (MDAFA8).

Hichuchi, T. Bamiyan: Art and Archaeo-logical Research in the Buddhist CaveTemple in Afghanistan 1970-1978.Kyoto, 1983 (in Japanese).

Klimburg-Salter, D. E. The Kingdom ofBamiyan, Buddhist Art and Culture ofthe Hindu Kush. Naples and Rome,1989.

Kodera M.; K. Maeda, K.; and Miyaji.Bamiyan. Nagoya, 1971 (in Japanese).

Rowland, B. The Wall-Paintings of In-dia, Central Asia and Ceylon. Boston,1938.

Tarzi, Z. L’architecture et le décorrupestre des grottes de Bamiyan, 2vols. Paris, 1977.

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The 55-meter high standing Buddha at Bamiyan

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