NOTES ON SOME MONUMENTS IN AFGHANISTAN. 343 



The fifth statue , which is the recumbent one and which I had not an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing, is at Azhdahar on the right side of the Bamian valley above 

 Taibut. 



Plate xii shows the numerous caves in the cliffs at Bamian ; some of these are 

 now used as barracks, others are occupied by the local peasants, whilst many are 

 empty. Similar caves are to be seen in many of the smaller valleys in the neighbour- 

 hood. 



Hiuen Tsiang describes the statues as being of great beauty ; the largest, he says, 

 was 140 or 150 feet in height, whilst " its golden hues sparkle on every side and its 

 precious ornaments dazzle the eyes by their brightness." l It is difficult, however, to 

 identify them from his description of their situations, but the two large ones, to which 

 he refers as statues of Sakya Muni, are presumably those in the principal niches 

 illustrated on Plate xii, while the recumbent figure .that he describes as being in a 

 monastery to the east of Bamian, may be that at Azhdahar, "east" having been 

 accidentally used instead of ' c west." At the time of his visit they were all evidently in 

 an excellent state of preservation, since Buddhism then prevailed throughout the whole 

 of Afghanistan, and a consideration of the extreme smallness of the remnants now 

 left of the many statues, monasteries, stupas and viharas described by him leaves one 

 appalled at the barbarism displayed in their ruthless destruction by subsequent 

 conquerors. 



The illustration now published (Plate xiv) is from a photograph of the largest 

 figure, which stands in the niche seen at the left side of Plate xii. That published 

 by Dr. Gray is from a photograph of the figure in the niche at the opposite end of the 

 same plate. The sizes given for the largest of the figures vary considerably, ranging 

 from 120 feet (Burnes) through 135 feet (Griffith) and 140 to 150 feet (Hiuen Tsiang) 

 to 173 feet (Gray). Unfortunately I had not an opportunity of taking measurements, 

 but I should be inclined to accept Dr. Gray's figure, viz. 173 feet. The heights given 

 by the older Mahomedan historians are evidently only approximate. 



Burnes, when he visited Bamian, was told the same fable with regard to these 

 carvings as is repeated at the present day ; according to this, they represent, the largest 

 one a male, the next a female, wife of the large one, and the smallest, which is in a 

 niche between the two large ones, their child. Both Burnes and Masson failed to real- 

 ize the true nature of these carvings, but Griffith, probably as a result of his travels 

 in Burma and Bhutan, at once recognised them as of Buddhist origin. 



The frescoes above the heads of the two principal figures are now much dilapi- 

 dated ; those over the smaller statue appeared to be better preserved and are in parts 

 extraordinarily fresh and bright ; they appear to have been not unlike the frescoes 

 found in Buddhist temples in Tibet at the present day. The only subject that I was 

 able to recognise was a well-preserved painting of the Garuda bird. 



All the statues are carved out of the solid cliffs of Tertiary conglomerate, which 

 consists of small pebbles embedded in a fairly hard matrix of sandy clay. 



l S. Beal : Si-yu-ki : Buddhist Records of the Western World, i, 51 (1885). 



