Bamyan (Pashto[a],Dari[b]:بامیان), also spelledBamiyan,Bāmīān orBāmyān,[5] is one of the 34provinces ofAfghanistan with the city ofBamyan as its center, located in central parts of Afghanistan.
The terrain in Bamyan is mountainous or semi-mountainous, at the western end of theHindu Kush mountains concurrent with theHimalayas. The province is divided into eightdistricts, with the town ofBamyan serving as its capital. The province has a population of about 495,557[6] and bordersSamangan to the north,Baghlan,Parwan, andMaidan Wardak to the east,Ghazni andDaikundi to the south, andGhor andSar-e-Pol to the west. It is the largest province in the Central region ofAfghanistan.
It was a center of commerce andBuddhism in the 4th and 5th centuries.[5] In antiquity, central Afghanistan was strategically placed to thrive from theSilk Road caravans that crisscrossed the region, trading between the Roman Empire, Han dynasty,Central Asia, andSouth Asia. Bamyan was a stopping-off point for many travelers. It was here that elements of Greek and Buddhist art were combined into a unique classical style known asGreco-Buddhist art.
The province has several famous historical sites, including the now-destroyedBuddhas of Bamiyan, around which are more than 3,000 caves, theBand-e-Amir National Park, Dara-e-Ajhdar,Gholghola, andZuhak ancient towns, the Feroz Bahar, Astopa, Klegan, Gaohargin, Kaferan, and Cheldukhtaran.
Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the geographical area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west, and north. Artifacts typical of thePaleolithic,Mesolithic,Neolithic,Bronze, andIron Ages have been found in Afghanistan.[7] Urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BC, and the early city of Mundigak (nearKandahar in the south of the country) may have been a colony of the nearbyIndus Valley civilization.[8]
After 2000 BC, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan; among them were manyIndo-European-speakingIndo-Iranians.[9] These tribes later migrated further south to India, west to what is now Iran, and towards Europe via the area north of theCaspian Sea.[10] The region as a whole was calledAriana.[9][11][12]
The people shared similar culture with otherIndo-Iranians. The ancient religion ofKafiristan survived here until the 19th century. Another religion,Zoroastrianism is believed by some to have originated in what is now Afghanistan between 1800 and 800 BC, as its founderZoroaster is thought to have lived and died inBalkh.[13][14][15] AncientEastern Iranian languages may have been spoken in the region around the time of the rise of Zoroastrianism.
Afghanistan's significant ancient tangible and intangibleBuddhist heritage is recorded through wide-ranging archeological finds, including religious and artistic remnants. Buddhist doctrines are reported to have reached as far asBalkh even during the life of theBuddha (563 BC to 483 BC), as recorded byHusang Tsang. It became the site of an early Buddhist monastery. Buddhism was by this time in "an expansionist mode, offering religious practices that spoke to the masses and an appealing style of illustrative art, backed by the subtle philosophy of the Mahayana sect".[17] Many statues of Buddha were carved into the sides of cliffs facing Bamyan city. The two most prominent of these statues were standing Buddhas, now known as theBuddhas of Bamyan, measuring 53 and40 meters high respectively, which were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world. They were probably erected in the 4th or 5th century A.D. They were cultural landmarks for many years and are listed amongUNESCO'sWorld Heritage Sites.
In the 1980s, during theSoviet-Afghan War, the Hazara rebel leaderAbdul Ali Mazari began a resistance movement against the Soviets in the region, Shura-e-Itifaq-e-Islami. In the early 1990s, there was an agreement to run Bamyan under a council of "local ethnic and political groups".[20]
Later in the 1990s, the Taliban took control of the region and made their own government; one notable figure of this group was Mohammed Akbari, who effectively worked with the Taliban after meeting with one of their delegations in 1998 (and would later serve as an Afghan Parliament member in the 2000s). Some Hazaras allied with them. Bamyan was the main location for a rebellion against the Taliban, an alliance of armed Shiite groups named theHizb-e Wahdat. This led to a struggle in the western province of Bamyan,Yakawlang, which was regarded by both sides as being key to control northern and central Afghanistan.[20]
In 2000, the Taliban lost control of the district to local militias, but quickly took it back. To curb future rebellions, in early 2001 the Taliban arrested 300 civilian adult men and executed them publicly. TheSupreme Leader of the Taliban at the time,Mullah Mohammad Omar, allegedly stopped more retribution acts in the area, but he did not forgive the rebellion. In March, Omar ordered the Taliban to destroy the Buddhas of Bamiyan, claiming they were symbols of idolatry. UNESCO called it a "crime against culture".[20][21]
Later in 2001, theU.S. and NATO invaded Afghanistan, and local militias in Bamyan sided with them to fight against the Taliban.[20] There was evidence that Taliban fighters started massacring many Hazaras there in October.[22] The Taliban fled the region in December.[23] NATO eventuallycreated a new government in Afghanistan.[20] In 2003, Bamyan was recognized as one of the safest provinces in the country, which allowed for civil rebuilding.[24] Over the next few decades, women's rights would be restored.[20][25][26] It became the area of the country most visited by tourists, and it elected Afghanistan's first female governor of a province,Habiba Sarabi, who created theBand-e-Amir National Park.[27] A local Hazara named Haji Hekmat Hussein, a parliamentary candidate in the U.S.' new government, was secretly a Taliban intelligence officer who participated in the 2001 massacre. He would be arrested and jailed, but was released in 2020 as a part of theDoha Agreement between the U.S. and Taliban.[20]
A small number of troops from New Zealand would be stationed there, and theTaliban insurgency started targeting them in 2008.[20][28] The U.S. made a "protective belt" around the province that stopped anyone outside, including other Afghanis, from coming into Bamyan. Control of the belt was given to local militias, which caused conflict between various ethnic groups.[20] By 2009, the regionalAfghan National Police, who fought against insurgents, started running out of money, and had to be aided by U.S. and New Zealand troops.[29]
By 2011, the Taliban in Bamyan started gaining strength, and there was concern over their future plans as NATO began theirphased withdrawal from the country.[30] The U.S. and NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan formally ended in 2014.[31]
In 2021, the Taliban startedan offensive to retake Afghanistan. They made significant advances by July, and two districts, Saighan and Kahmard, had been taken. There was an effort by police and local militias to keep the Taliban 60 miles away from Bamyan city, which the Afghanistan government believed could be the start of a turnaround for their military in the region.[32] In August 2021,Ashraf Ghani's government collapsed, and the Taliban took Bamyan on August 15.[20][33][34] Initially, there was a conflict between different Taliban members in the area of whether or not policies put in place in the province to show the new Taliban government would be more liberal or moderate in its ideology. Other Taliban members resented the locals who embraced those ideals in the prior 20 years.[20] In July 2022, the Taliban forbid humanitarian aid into the province.[35] In August 2023, they banned women from entering Band-e-Amir National Park.[36]
Bamiyan has been particularly famous for its potatoes. The region is also known for a "shuttle system" of planting, wherein seed potatoes are grown in winter inJalalabad, a warm area of eastern Afghanistan, and then transferred to Bamyan for spring re-planting.[38]
Prior to the Soviet invasion of 1979, the province attracted many tourists.[39] Although this number is considerably fewer now,[40] Bamyan is the first province in Afghanistan to have set up a tourist board, Bamyan Tourism. A feature of this developing tourist industry is based on skiing. The province is said to have 'some of the best "outback skiing" in the world[41] and in 2008 an $1.2 million project to encourage skiing was launched by theAga Khan Foundation (AKF) with the help ofNZAID, New Zealand government's international aid agency.[39] The province hosts the Afghan Ski Challenge, a 7 km downhill race over ungroomed and powdered snow,[42] founded by Swiss journalist and skier Christoph Zurcher.Tissot, the Swiss watch manufacturer, is the principal sponsor.[43]
Bamyan Province is home to the region's only university,Bamiyan University in the city of Bamyan. The school was founded in the mid-1990s, and largely destroyed under the Taliban and by US airstrikes.[44] It was later refurbished by New ZealandProvincial Reconstruction Teams[45] following the fall of the Taliban.
The province of Bamyan has an estimated population of around 496,000 people. The residents areHazaras, followed by significant populations ofTajiks andPashtuns.[46]
^Bryant, Edwin F. (2001).The quest for the origins of Vedic culture: the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0-19-513777-4.
^Afghanistan: ancient Ariana (1950), Information Bureau, p3.
^M. Witzel (2000), "The Home Of The Aryans", Festschrift J. Narten = Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, Beihefte NF 19, Dettelbach: J.H. Röll, 283–338. Also published online, atHarvard University (LINK). p. 48. "The Vīdẽvdaδ list obviously was composed or redacted by someone who regarded Afghanistan and the lands surrounding it as the home of all Indo-Iranians (airiia), that is of all (eastern) Iranians, with Airiianem Vaẽjah as their center."
^Skaff, Jonathan Karam (2012).Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800. Oxford University Press. p. 190.ISBN978-0-19-973413-9.
^Recknagel, Charles (2001-12-31). "Afghanistan: Dream Of Hazara University Destroyed By War (Part 2) – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty 2011". Rferl.org. Retrieved 2011-02-13
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