Buddhas rise again from the ruins - with a bit of Kiwi help

In the small town of Bamiyan in Afghanistan you can buy postcards for 50 cents which show Taleban tanks firing at ancient giant Buddhas carved into the cliff.

The regime decided the Buddhas, which had stood for 1800 years, were un-Islamic. They were false idols and had to be destroyed.

With the statues standing at 53 metres and 35 metres, this did not prove an easy task. In early 2001, the Taleban worked on them for weeks, proudly announcing they were using "everything at our disposal to destroy them".

They hacked at them with spades and pick-axes. They launched anti-tank rockets and fired anti-aircraft guns. They lobbed grenades and missiles and apparently even fired at them from aircraft. Eventually, they stuffed explosives in them and blew them sky high. Great piles of rubble lay where they fell.

But with a little help from the New Zealand Army, the ancient Buddhas may yet have the last laugh. A project is under way to save what can be saved and piece them back together, and New Zealand soldiers are in Bamiyan to help.

Lieutenant Colonel Greg Davies is deputy commander of a team which usually reconstructs buildings such as schools. Now, he and a few of his team have been working with German archaeologist Bert Praxenthaler, who specialises in restoring sculptures and stonework.

It was an unexpected call for help but one they could not turn down. Some of the pieces are so big and heavy, a crane was needed to shift them into a shelter before the winter set in - the Buddhas are made of sandstone which deteriorates quickly in the wet.

"The local guy who was operating the crane hurt his foot.

"So they got another guy up from Kabul who didn't know how to operate the crane and he managed to drop one of the big boulders on to the crane itself and damaged part of it."

Luckily, one of the New Zealand soldiers is a qualified crane operator and was happy to step in. Others helped with rigging up the rocks and strapping them securely.

Davies does not know much about the next phase of the reconstruction, but Praxenthaler - an authentic Raiders of the Lost Ark-type archaeologist ("he's got like a panama hat, little round glasses, and he's unshaven") - is due back next year.

Davies admits the job looked almost impossible. There was a lot of rubble and only some of it worth saving. "How they fill in the gaps I'm not sure, so it looks like an impossible task, but it appears they might have a plan.

"They're quite hopeful that, once they've pulled everything out, they may be able to find the feet at the bottom intact, which would be good."

The locals are in favour of the reconstruction. A few Taleban supporters are still around but many have converted and are now ex-Taleban.

Some within the Taleban were horrified at the destruction of the Buddhas and the spree of devastation carried out at museums around the country, where anything representing a human form was ruthlessly smashed. It is estimated half the ancient heritage of Afghanistan has been destroyed.

The pieces of the giant Buddhas are carefully guarded. Davies has not heard of a black market for the remnants, but many national treasures were understood to have been sold for high prices outside Afghanistan.

Davies says he experiences a sense of sadness and loss when gazing up at the empty niches indented into the cliff walls from where the Buddhas were cut.

"You wonder why someone would have wanted to damage them, given they were 1800 years old.

"It's never going to be the same, I guess. I know they're trying to reconstruct it, they're probably trying to go back to what it once was but I guess it's never going to be the real thing."