June 25th 2015

Dharamsala, HP, India, 22 April 2015 - On being informed of the recent success of a project to recreate images of the Bamiyan Buddhas in situ, His Holiness the Dalai Lama issued a note of appreciation. He wrote,

“When the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan were destroyed in March 2001, it made me sad. The statues were importance not only to those of us who are Buddhists, but also to the people of the country where they were located, the Afghans, as historical symbols of our shared humanity.”

He added that although the statues had been destroyed, he was glad “to learn that recently a couple from China has succeeded in recreating images in their likeness using three dimensional holographic projection.” He was also pleased to hear that the technique has been successfully tested in the statues’ original locations in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

His note concluded: “This is a welcome development. I would like to thank Janson Yu and Liyan Hu and everyone else involved in the project for their admirable work.”