By Alastair Leithead,
BBC News, Bamiyan
When the Buddhas of Bamiyan were carved out of the mountainside, the Roman Empire still held sway.
巴米安的大佛自山壁雕鑿而出之際，羅馬帝國仍稱霸著一方。
They towered over a rich valley in what is now central Afghanistan, where caravans of traders would stop and rest on the Silk Road as they transported goods between east and west.
佛像高高地聳立於富庶的河谷，也就是現今阿富汗的中部，在絲綢之路上的商隊，載運各式各樣的物品往返於東西方之間，都會選擇在此地佇足休息。
For centuries the two huge statues stood guard over Bamiyan.
兩尊立著的巨大佛像，幾世紀以來，一直守護著巴米安。
But in 2001, just months before they were forced from power, the Taleban dynamited what they considered un-Islamic representations of the human form.
但2001年，就在塔利班被推翻的幾個月前，佛像就因人形塑像違反伊斯蘭教義而被塔利班以炸藥炸毀。
Today all that remains are the recesses where they stood, and the labyrinth of fragile caves surrounding them.
之前佛像佇立著的地方已空蕩蕩的，只剩下迷宮般脆弱的石窟依舊環伺。
Iconic art
Today there isn't even a paved road connecting the valley to Kabul, but yet inside the caves are a reminder of Bamiyan's past wealth and glory and a new claim to fame that could put the province back on the map.
雖然Kabul和這片河谷之間至今依舊沒一條鋪設完備的道路，但石窟的內部還是不斷的喚起世人對昔日巴米安富裕輝煌的記憶，而且最近大出風頭的發現讓這個省份又再度聲明大噪。
Inside those caves the steep, narrow steps are crumbling, there are cracks in the mud tunnels carved into the mountainside, and still visible high in the echoing chambers are pieces of Buddhist iconic art which are now thought to be the oldest oil paintings in the world.
石窟內部陡峭狹窄的臺階正逐漸在崩壞，鑿進山壁的泥道也出現許多裂縫，會產生回音的內部空間的高處依稀可見一幅幅佛像，這些作品目前被認為是世上最早的油畫。
Japanese, European and American scientists restoring the cave murals dating back to around 650AD, discovered oil was used in the paint.
前來修復這座擁有公元650年壁畫的石窟的日本、歐洲及美國科學家們，發現當時壁畫所使用的顏料中還參入了油。
Yoko Taniguchi, one of the Japanese experts working on the caves, told reporters this is the earliest known use of this technique in the history of art.
其中一位在石窟裡工作的日本專家Yoko Taniguchi告訴記者們這在藝術史上，是目前已知最早使用這種技術的。
She said it was previously thought the technique originated in Europe during the Renaissance, eight centuries later.
她說，之前普遍都認為這樣的技術是起源於八個世紀後的歐洲文藝復興時期。
But wandering through the Buddhist temples carved out of the rock, there is little left of the murals destroyed in the last 30 years of war after surviving for centuries.
但是漫步穿梭在石刻的佛寺之中，你會發現經歷了漫長幾個世紀的壁畫，在最近30年間的戰爭中已遭毀壞並且所剩無幾。
A tourist guidebook to Afghanistan written in the 1960s and 70s by Nancy Dupree, a famous traveller who dedicated much of her life to the country, gave an account of the artwork as it was then.
著名的旅行家Nancy Dupree幾乎將她的一生全部奉獻給阿富汗，她在1960年與1970年間寫了一部阿富汗旅遊指南，裡頭有對這些藝術品的描述。
Fragments
"The rest of the hall is elaborately decorated in a varied palette of burnt sienna, green, lapis lazuli blue, and yellow ochre depicting flowers, trees, stylised floral sprays, cornucopias and figures of kneeling worshipers," she wrote.
她寫道: "走廊其餘的部份到處都有精巧的裝飾，滿是用褐色、綠色、天青石藍、黃土色等各種顏色來描繪的花朵，樹木，植物花葉飾物，各種富饒的象徵以及跪拜著的信徒畫像，"
"A series of Buddhas dressed in sombre-hued maroon robes and framed with aureoles against an azure background walk on lotus pads set among flowers."
"一整排身穿暗淡褐紫紅袍的佛像，在美麗的蔚藍色襯托下，頭部頂著光環行走在花叢間的蓮葉上。"
There's little evidence of this today apart from a few scraps of colour and detail here and there, but there are isolated caves higher up the mountain, impossible to get to without a rope, where some of the best examples still survive.
然而現在在那裡，除了散佈在各處的極少部份和顏色之外，我們幾乎完全看不出來，但是在更高處的山壁上一定有其它隔絕且只能以繩索才能到得了的洞窟，在那裡一定倖存著絕佳的像那樣的作品。
A combination of the vibration from artillery shells, the Taleban chiselling away the depictions of faces and hands, and looting put paid to most of the paintings.
砲彈產生的震動、再加上塔利班鑿去了佛像的臉和手，還有偷盜等摧毀了大部份的畫。
But there are enough fragments left to give a hint of what it must have been like.
幸好留下的碎片足夠讓我們確定它原先的樣子。
The views from the caves looking out over the valley are stunning and there is another twist to the story of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.
從石窟朝河谷望去的景色真是美極了，而且關於巴米安佛像的故事還有一個意外的轉折。
A Buddhist pilgrim wrote around the time the paintings were finished in the mid seventh century of the amazing statues - but he described three.
一位佛教徒曾於七世紀中葉當這些繪畫已臻完工時前來朝聖，他寫下了這些驚人的佛像 - 但是他說的佛像卻有三座。
According to his account, the third reclining Buddha was a 1,000 feet long and lay on the valley floor.
根據他的描述，第三座是臥佛，全長1000呎，而且被平放在河床上。
It would be remarkable if it was buried beneath the river sediment and two teams of archaeologists, one from France another from Japan, are in a race to find it.
如果真被埋在河流的沉積物下，那會是多麼的驚人。因此兩組分別來自法國與日本的考古學家團隊都搶著要先找到它。
It sounds like an Indiana Jones film, but there have been many interesting archaeological discoveries in Bamiyan and this beautiful valley may not yet have revealed all its secrets.
雖然聽起來猶如印第安那瓊斯電影中的情節，但是巴米安已經有這麼多有趣的考古發現，而她美麗的河谷必定還存在著更多的秘密等待世人去發掘。
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7508917.stm
Published: 2008/07/17 09:38:53 GMT
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