Kabul, Jan 21:
Zemaryalai Tarzi, internationally recognized as the senior Afghan archaeologist,
will speak and answer questions on recent finds at Bamiyan and the crisis of
looting and vandalism for archaeology in Afghanistan in "A Stop on the Silk
Route".
The event is cosponsored by the Near Eastern Studies Department,
the American Institute of Archaeology and the Association for the Protection of
Afghan Archaeology (APAA), Tarzi's own organization. Admission is free. A
reception will follow the talk.
Tarzi went to France on a scholarship at
age 20 to study at Strasbourg, where he now teaches, dividing his time between
the university and fieldwork in Bamiyan during the summer. He was an associate
of Daniel Schlumberger, the director of the French delegation of archaeology to
Afghanistan, at a time when France had an exclusive contract with the (then)
Kingdom of Afghanistan for excavation and research.
Tarzi directed the
Archaeological Institute in Kabul and edited the national journal for
archaeology, and specialized in the conservation of historical monuments,
particularly mosques and Buddhist temples. He established the outdoor museum at
Hadda, site of one of the largest Buddhist temples in Central Asia, and wrote
his thesis on the art and architecture of the famous caves at Bamiyan. Afghani
archaeology was coming into its own, scientifically, carrying on its own
research and partnering with international teams.
Then came the Soviet
invasion of 1979.
"My father was forced to flee to Pakistan, hidden in a
double-decker trunk, with my step-brother disguised as a girl," said Nadia
Tarzi, cofounder with her father of the APAA.
Tarzi (who will translate
for her father, lecturing in French) described the genesis of their project to
protect and promote Afghan archaeology: "I grew up in Strasbourg, where my
father came, after his escape. I knew he was an archaeologist, in the way
another kid might know her father's a dentist or accountant. I didn't really
understand what he did."
"One day in 1994," she continued, "He received
an express packet from a colleague still in Afghanistan. His whole demeanor
changed; he opened the envelope and became sad. When I asked why, he finally
picked up a book, showed me a picture in it of a beautiful niche with reliefs of
waves in an aquatic scene with statues standing around, Buddha fighting demons
from the Gandhara period-then said, 'Here's what it looks like today,' showing
me the photos he'd received, which looked to me like piles of mud. I started
crying. I understood my father's passion."
After the Taliban blew up the
giant statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley in 2001 ("and it took them four
days to destroy them because of the steel reinforcements my father helped put
in"), Tarzi suggested to her father that they co-found an organization to
educate the general public, both Afghani and Western, about the "5,000-year-old
cultural heritage-even before Buddhism, before Islam-of Afghanistan, the
diversity of cultures that have flourished there," to support further efforts in
research and recovery of antiquities "and to give some sense of national
awareness and pride to the Afghan people, who have such a task in rebuilding
their country."
Father and daughter founded the APAA in 2002. Tarzi
returned to his native country after the defeat of the Taliban to teach and do
fieldwork, dividing his time with teaching in Strasbourg. With the support of
President Karzai and of the first female governor of Bamiyan, work goes on, on
several different levels.
"There's been 20 years of rampant, relentless
looting," Tarzi said. "It's important to get archaeologists to the sites before
the looters and the dealers to at least document what's there. Bamiyan is
secure, and the population supportive, but elsewhere the Taliban is again on the
rise, and there's a debate whether or not to even continue
excavations."
Educational work has been carried on in Afghanistan and in
the Bay Area.
"The first schools I visited were in the Berkeley-Oakland
area," said Tarzi, who lives in Marin. "One class even put on a play about what
they learned. In Bamiyan, we hope to teach the children to make pottery, then
show them museum pieces in the same style. My own daughter taught me that. I
call it art with a heart."
Ends
SA/EN
