Destruction of Art in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is uniquely situated as a throughway of cultures throughout its history due to it geographic placement in South Asia. Afghanistan's location lends porous borders to trade routes between the East and West, while the Silk Road providing a vector for Buddhism and Hellenistic culture and even Egyptian influences from the west, renders an amalgamation of culture and art. Perpetual invasion and conflict has rendered a cyclic continuum of renaissance and destruction of art and culture in Afghanistan.

Even when not directly damaged due to State polices, art suffered during the decades of conflict as people struggled for survival, being forced to pack their belongings and move again, again and again. Art, a luxury, became one of the first casualties of war.

How wonderful that people show interest in our past, it means there is hope for the future.

Much of Afghanistan’s art can be traced back through the invasions, occupations and dynasties that so frequently have ravaged the country. Afghanistan has been a crossroads of cultures that make up the colorfully robust and dynamic foundation of Afghan art. These civilizations include, but are not limited to the empires and kingdoms that comprise Afghanistan’s political origins as a modern state. The more renowned, larger regional empires include the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, the Islamic Empire and the Sassanid Empire. Like the empires, Afghanistan’s transient and nomadic kingdoms and dynasties that rose to power (see Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Kabul Shahis, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Kartids, Timurids, Mughals, Hotaki dynasty and Durrani dynasty), helped shape the development of Afghan art as well as its preservation and destruction.

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Wikipedia