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Japan experts craft 'super clone' of destroyed Afghan mural
Using a mix of traditional and digital techniques, Japanese researchers have crafted a "super clone" of an Afghan mural destroyed by the Taliban.
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This photo taken on October 7, 2021 shows a replica of a cave painting of a blue Bodhisattva, part of artefacts destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, displayed at the Tokyo University of the Arts in Tokyo. (AFP/Charly Triballeau)
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apanese researchers have crafted a "super clone" of an Afghan mural destroyed by the Taliban, using a mix of traditional and digital techniques that they hope will salvage the work's "spirit" for future generations.
Not a single fragment remains of the seventh-century cave painting demolished in 2001 along with two massive Buddha statues and other artefacts in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, sparking global condemnation.
But a precise replica, the result of three years of state-of-the-art reproduction efforts, went on display at a museum in Tokyo in September and October, just weeks after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul.
The mural on the ceiling of a cave near the famous statues depicted a blue Bodhisattva -- or someone on the path to becoming a Buddha.
At six metres long and three metres high (20 by 10 feet), the intricate full-size copy has been dubbed a "super clone" by the reproduction team at Tokyo University of the Arts.
"We have succeeded in recreating a very precise representation in three dimensions," from its texture to the type of paint, said the team's co-leader Takashi Inoue.
Japan is a major donor to Afghanistan and has long been involved in heritage protection efforts at Bamiyan, a crossroads of ancient civilisations considered to be one of the birthplaces of Japanese Buddhism.
