The Loss of Palmyra and the Bamiyan Buddhas

Abstract

This essay analyses how the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is relevant to an understanding of the asymmetrical responses of the West to the destruction of two cultural heritage sites in Asia: the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, and Palmyra, the World Heritage Site in Syria. The singular focus on Palmyra, by the Western coalitions/countries has resulted in a transformation of memory about Palmyra in the aftermath of the ISIS attacks on Palmyra. Therefore, I argue that the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas does not receive as much attention as what has happened with Palmyra. This is primarily because the Bamiyan Buddhas have been inherently perceived as belonging to the Eastern realm or culture. When the West claimed custodianship of Palmyra, there was also an intense effort to reconstruct the spatial geography and architectural forms of Palmyra. It became a means of recovering place rather than the memory of the ancient and local culture of Palmyra. This section further discusses why the transformation of Palmyra in the hands of the West has a global impact. It also reassesses the prominence of Palmyra as a center of civilizational memory as reimagined by the West and how Palmyra became a patrimony of the West in the process. I conclude with the discussion that, these efforts to reclaim Palmyra by the West as a patrimony of the West must be juxtaposed against the reality that Palmyra’s antiquities have always remained present in the lives of Syrians and people living in the region. Therefore, the real Palmyra where it once stood majestically is lost somewhere in translation and transference.