The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bamian

a town in Afghanistan, located on the banks of the Bamian River (Kunduz River basin) in the northern foothills of the Baba Range.

Bamian is the administrative center of Bamian Province. Its population was 46,000 in 1961. Bamian has been mentioned in sources since the first century A. D. Until the Arab conquest (seventh century), Bamian was a very important Buddhist religious center with temples and monasteries in caves. Bamian has been part of the Afghanistan state since the second half of the 18th century. A Buddhist monastery compound (first to eighth centuries) cut into the cliffs has been preserved near Bamian. The monastery has over 2,000 grottoes (sanctuaries, cells, meeting halls, and so forth) interconnected by staircases and corridors and decorated with statues of Buddha, paintings, and carved ornaments. Enormous statues of Buddha (35 m and 53 m high) were carved in two niches. There is a historical and ethnographic museum in Bamian, and the town is a tourist center.

REFERENCES

Masson, V. M., and V. A. Romodin. Istoriia Afganistana, vol. 1. Moscow, 1964 (See the index and references.)
Hackin, J., and J. Carl. Nouvelles recherches archéologiques à Bāmiyān. Paris, 1933.

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