Source When the two colossi were newly carved, the great Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang saw them in 642 AD and noted their brilliant reflection from a distance. The smaller Buddha was Maitreya and the taller one was Rocana In 2000, the Taliban destroyed two 5th century AD statues of Buddha in Bamiyan. One was 114… Continue reading WORD FOR WORD: The Buddhas the Taliban destroyed —Khaled Ahmed