The feelings of the people after watching the statues crumble could probably only be described as powerless. They could do nothing, especially if the world leaders and the UN couldn’t. So now that the Taliban and the statures were gone, the world slowly began to once again feel like they might be able to do something. If the statues could not be saved, why not do the next best thing and rebuild them, exactly as they had been before the blast? It was the least people could do, and even the residents of Bamiyan had been describing how sad, empty and almost frightening the hollowed out niches where the Buddha’s once occupied now seemed. The worldly response to this catastrophe has been great, and a huge number of people, from the entire Japanese and Thailand governments to a single afghan sculptor who said he would gather a team to build over the course of 5 years, have over the years vowed to somehow recreate at least one of the statues. However, 9 years have now passed and people are no closer to rebuilding then they were a year after the destruction. It would be an exceptionally costly endeavour and would take a huge amount of time, labour and people to be able to pull it off properly.
The last true foreign offer was in 2006 when the Thailand government offered to fund and rebuild the statues, but as of yet, it is clear that nothing has happened or will be happening anytime soon. The Afghan government is still interested in the restoration project, for both their heritage and the prospect of re-attracting all the tourists that were lost because of the lack of the popular monuments. There are debates as to whether they should at all be rebuilt. ‘Monuments get destroyed all throughout history and their remains are just a reminder of the dark event that took place during that period of time. The empty niches will always be there, to tell the story’. This explanation however does not please many people, however, there is still the middle ground of re-building one statue, and leaving the other niche empty as it became the day the Taliban attacked.
The determination of the people, and the governments are still there, and perhaps all there needs to be is more time do debate and decide on what is to become of the areas where the Buddha’s once stood.