a lament for the bamiyan buddhas

This week marked a very sad ten-year-anniversary. In 2001, two beautiful 6th-century standing buddhas carved into a cliff-side in the Bamiyan valley (a lovely region of central Afghanistan) were destroyed by the Taliban, who were seeking to eliminate all pre-Islamic and "idolatrous" artifacts from the country.

When it happened, I don't think the magnitude of this loss, in cultural, religious, and historical terms, registered with me. (I was thirteen at the time.) Now it makes me want to cry every time I think about it. The buddhas, which once overlooked an ancient monastery, survived over 1,500 years of natural wear & tear, war, and several invasions, only to be destroyed by some assholes with dynamite out of of sheer cruel small-mindedness.

There has been a movement, both within Afghanistan and around the globe, to reconstruct these statues. UNESCO is meeting in Paris this week to discuss the future of the site, i.e. whether to rebuild or simply preserve what is left. Here's the story.

I can't decide whether or not I think rebuilding them is a good idea. At first, I'm all for it. But then I think that maybe leaving these empty spaces in the cliffs, like scars, would serve as a reminder to us all of the absolute finality of the losses suffered in religious conflicts. These beautiful statues were casualties in an wide, tragic, and still-raging war on religious tolerance. Maybe they could be rebuilt, but it wouldn't be the same. And, lest we forget, human lives certainly cannot be reconstructed.

Okay, it is a Saturday night - Enough sad realities. Time to relax and have some fun. Hope you have a good one, too.

epitaph on a tyrant

With figures like Mubarak and Gadhafi dominating the news lately, and the fact that you can't open a history book without stumbling across one brutal despot or another, and finally because I've been teaching students about Hitler and Stalin this past week, I have had tyrants on the brain.

For your reading pleasure:

caligul

" Epitaph on a Tyrant"
 
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And he was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with
          laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

- W.H. Auden

the wonderful world of albert kahn

I'm in a history nerd tizzy over the photo collection of Albert Kahn, a Frenchman who amassed examples of the earliest type of color photography (autochromes) from all over the world in the early 1900s: Morocco, Germany, Cambodia, Iraq, Brazil, China, Benin, Syria, and more. The pictures are fascinating - sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing (like one from Mongolia; there's a woman with her head sticking out of a big wooden box, sentenced to death by starvation). I've included a few examples, but you've got to check out the whole thing (from Musée Albert-Kahn). BBC Books has recently published the collection in ridiculously-expensive-hardback form, and it's definitely going on my wish list!

a french cutie hanging out next to some rifles, circa WWI

chinese dude not looking stereotypical at all

my dutch kin (where i get my good looks)

hotties

swiss guard - as always, snazzy dressers

samhain: for pagans who like to party

guy in bow tie: creepiest person in picture

I don't know about you, but my parents knew that letting me go around the neighborhood in a Tinkerbell costume on Oct. 31 collecting Almond Joys and M&Ms wouldn't lay open my soul for demonic possession. Believe it or not, this is a legitimate concern for some people. Some parents actually refuse to let their children trick-or-treat because they think the holiday is evil. Despite my disdain for the Halloween paranoia that reigns in some Christian churches and schools (which I rank on the weirdo-meter right up there with their crusade against Harry Potter, but that's for another day), I must admit that they are not just epic party-poopers: The holiday really IS a bizarre pagan tradition. And, yeah, it all got started because of the belief that evil spirits roam the earth on this one night. Ever heard of Samhain? Weeeelllll.

Samhain is the basis for Halloween. The ancient Celts, who lived about 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the U.K., and northern France (where they were, and still are, a lot less poncy and obnoxious than their countrymen - just so you know where I stand on the French), believed that on Samhain night the line between the world of the living and the dead became blurred. The dead spirits would show up to steal babies, kill animals, destroy crops, and wreak havoc for fun. The Celts got ready for this by throwing a big party for their gods: They'd put on their best animals heads and skins, light a bonfire, sacrifice some sheep (and maybe a virgin or two), dance a bit, and tell each others fortunes. They celebrated this festival in the beginning of November, when they knew that a hard cold winter (which always equaled starvation, sickness, and death back in the day) was right around the corner. So Samhain wasn't exactly a big happy brouhaha; It was all about the Celts anticipating evil spirits making their lives miserable and maybe not making it through the winter. Modern-day Christians can't logically begrudge them for trying to appease their deities this way instead of turning to Jesus or going to the "Fall Festival" at the local Baptist church, because, um...Christianity didn't exist yet.

this pumpkin is having the time of his life

When the Romans showed up and conquered the Celts they brought their own brand of paganism, including Feralla, a festival marking the passing of the dead in late October. But it was the Catholic church who, in the 800s, introduced All Saints, All Hallows, and All Souls Days. This string of fall festivals was dedicated to martyrs and saints (aka the dead) and was specifically meant to replace the older Celtic and Roman traditions (which, as it happens, were also all about...the dead). These festivals were collectively referred to as - ta da! - Hallowmas. And yes, beginning around 1000 AD, the celebrations included bonfires and costumes. Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian folk artist, wrote a really beautiful song about it.

So basically the Catholics just slapped a new name on Samhain and kept the tradition alive. They tend to be more down to party than their Protestant brethren, who are usually the ones getting all up-in-arms over Halloween. Most of our holidays actually have roots in pagan traditions, but Halloween is the one that gets picked on (understandably, I guess) because of its ancient association with death and the supernatural. And there are some odd people out there who really take its roots very seriously. I don't spend my Halloweens with pagans, but they don't freak me out nearly as badly as the gaggles of women who asphyxiate one another while Christmas shopping on Black Friday...speaking of evil traditions.

they've definitely been dipping into the trashcan punch

Most of our Halloween customs have very colorful stories behind them:

• Jack O' Lanterns: What happens when you go boozin' with the Devil
• Trick-or-treating: When beggars knocked on your door instead of hanging out at traffic lights
• Costumes: Because demons are big scaredy-cats

I think it's cool (and harmless) that this millennia-old festival has survived and evolved into what it is today. I think of Halloween in purely secular terms, but I guess it's what you make it. Want to wear some fox pelts and dance around a fire? Want to dress as a slutty cop and drink trashcan punch? Want to keep your kids inside because you're uncomfortable with the whole thing? Do what you do, y'all. I myself will be carousing in a sock monkey costume this Samhain. Cheers!