with Llewelyn Morgan

Invisible East lecture series with the support of BIPS

15th September 2022, 5PM (GMT)

https://www.bips.ac.uk/event/afghanistan-from-buddhism-to-islam-8th-to-13th-century/

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a3qS0V88QmikMDaPKR3j2Q

In this lecture, Llewelyn Morgan discusses the Buddhas of Bamiyan and their wider context in the Bamiyan valley, explaining what we know of their origin and original appearance, partly from contemporary eyewitnesses. He will then trace the celebrity of these statues in Islamic texts and then in European accounts when espionage or warfare brought Westerners to Bamiyan from the nineteenth century. The final part of the discussion will consider the paradoxical fame and influence that the Buddhas have exerted since their destruction in 2001.