The NY Times ran a fascinating piece this week on the fate of the former site of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The two Buddhas, standing 121 and 180 feet tall, were carved into faces of cliffs in the valley in the 6th century, and surrounded by a complex of caves also decorated with sculptures and frescoes, where Buddhist monks lived. In 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan decided that the statues should be destroyed as part of a cleansing of un-Islamic imagery from the country, this despite their protected status as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage program. They were dynamited March of that year, raising a tremendous international outcry. Five years on, with the Taliban toppled, attention is again focused on the site, as the Afghan government and a coterie of international archeologists and donors working on preserving what remains decide how to proceed. The current plan seems to be that one Buddha will be rebuilt from the rubble, using as much original material as possible in order to retain the World Heritage designation, while the other will be left in ruins as evidence of what occurred. Another plan with tentative approval is a vast laser sound-and-light show proposed by Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata, which would project images of the Buddhas across the valley into the niches where they once stood. The whole thing would be powered by a battery of windmills that would also supply electricity to the valley. Neither of these undertakings will come cheap, however. The restoration of one Buddha could cost up to $50 million and require a crane bigger than any currently in Afghanistan; the laser installation has an attached price tag of $64 million. Though a restored site seems only just to many outside of Afghanistan and will undoubtedly drive tourism, there’s concern that this influx of international cash for ancient monuments, in a country where millions are still in extreme poverty and starving, will only result in further backlash against the site.

Click below for the Times’ video report from Bamiyan.