Erik Davis on 17 Apr 2001 15:52:19 -0000 |
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[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> disposal of surplus buddhas |
> > >Well, he did not want to be worshipped, though lots of his followers seemed >to forget that. > >The interesting story, and perhaps nettimers might have the details (I >don't) is that the Taliban were upset with the cultural mission that came to >discuss the statues but would not allow the restauration funds be used for >aiding people/refugees. It was at this moment that they decided to trash >the statues. In short, the tolerate-no-icon reason given by the clerics was >not the main reason. > >Anyone know more about this? A young man sent to NY to represent the Taliban spoke quite explicitly about these matters to the NYT. This surprised me. Unlike the media portrayals (and what I can only imagine is the frequent reality) of the hardcore clerics, he was pretty reasonable, and spoke explicitly about the offense they took to the lack of care exhibited by, I believe, the UN representatives about feeding the kids, etc. While he still rolled out the anti-iconography line, from this interview, he seemed to be acknowledging that the destruction was pretty much a "fuck you." This destruction has produced some interesting responses in the Buddhist community. What most people focus on isnt the slip into idolatry (which itself is a rather complex question) but rather the impermanence of everything, including the dharma. The Buddha himself proclaimed (or at least the sutras proclaim) that the dharma itself would fade away, which it did in northern India and Afghanistan and much of the Silk Road mileau where it once thrived. Though some Buddhists were very upset about the destruction, others were like: "Hey, what did you think all this impermanence stuff was about?" These folks werent gonna be caught dead clinging to such obvious forms. For some people the usual religious response -- to get all angry and upset about such sacrilege -- was itself seen as the gauche and "unenlightened" response. erik > ># distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission ># <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, ># collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets ># more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body ># archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold