Saving the Past for Future Generations

In a sunlit spacious room, three men surrounded by trays bearing thousands of fragments of stone and ceramics are at hard work, painstakingly attempting to reassemble a smashed statue.

Two floors down, at the entrance to the National Museum of Afghanistan stands a second-century limestone statue thought to be of the Kushan-dynasty king Kanishka, found at Surkh Kotal in the north of the country.

Like the one now being pieced together upstairs, this too has been reconstructed after being smashed in early 2001 when the ruling Taleban embarked on an orgy of destruction, shattering images they felt were contrary to Islam.

"Our staff tried many ways to hide things from the Taleban," said museum director Omara Khan Massoudi.

"Within two or three months, they had destroyed some 2,500 objects," he went on, adding that staff were thankful that after destroying the offending artefacts, the Taleban left the broken bits, so that they could at least save these for posterity.

Even before the Taleban action, the museum had lost thousands of items from its rich collection, looted during the years of civil war that also left the building a roofless shell.

"We had more than 100,000 objects before the [1992-96] civil war, dating from pre-history to the 20th century," Massoudi told IWPR. "Seventy per cent of them were stolen, and only 30 per cent were left."

Among the items stolen were 40,000 coins. Much of the remainder would also have been taken, but for the foresight with which museum staff packed smaller and more precious items into boxes and moved them to the safety of the vault in the presidential palace in 1988. They lay there for 15 years.

This precious collection was the Bactrian Gold – a hoard of 21,000 pieces, mostly golden coins, bracelets, earrings, crowns, swords, belts, rings and anklets, that was excavated from six burial mounds in Jowzjan province in 1978.

The items dated back to the first century BC and the first century AD, said Massoudi.

The reappearance of the Bactrian Gold in 2003 was near-miraculous, as many had assumed it must have been plundered from its hiding place.

The hoard is just part of the surviving collection that Massoudi’s staff are now working to conserve.

"Since the fall of the Taleban, we have cleaned and conserved 1,200 items, and repaired 80," he said.

Besides working on restoration or acting as curators for the few pieces on display, the 34 members of staff are carrying out a complete inventory of everything that remains, most of it in poor condition, and labelling it in Dari and English.

After extensive repair work on the grey stucco building, the museum was officially reopened last year, and it marks its first anniversary of renewed operations on September 29.

Massoudi sees that first year as a milestone on a long journey which will include painstaking restoration work, training, publicity, and helping open other museums in the Afghan provinces, "because people [outside Kabul] need to know about their heritage".

"We have many problems. We need better security and storage, we need to train staff in different fields, and we lack showcases for the exhibits," he said, adding that Japan and the Netherlands had promised to provide more showcases, Italian and Japanese experts had held workshops, and some staff were to go for training in Japan.

Only five showcases containing small items like bronze bracelets and figurines are on display in the building.

The museum also has a room devoted to an exhibition of Kafir culture from the eastern province of Nuristan, displaying antique wooden standing figures and an impressive horseman.

One imposing piece that visitors first note in the museum is an immense marble basin. Known as the “Buddha's begging bowl” because of a lotus blossom inscription carved on the underside, the basin was just too heavy for anyone to steal, according to Massoudi.

Security concerns are still evident. A guard searched IWPR reporters both entering and leaving the building.

Between 200 and 500 people visit the museum each week, with children getting free entrance, Afghan adults paying five afghanis (10 US cents) each and foreigners one dollar.

The director wants to see more schoolchildren visiting but appeared hesitant about seeking help from the education ministry, saying, "It has got its own problems – like no schools."

Massoudi, 56, a history and geography graduate of Kabul University, came to the museum in 1979 after four years of teaching and a period with the information and culture ministry.

"For people who [like to] study history, a museum is the best place," he said.

It is not only the past that Massoudi examines - he also has an eye on the future. He believes a museum should be in the heart of the city, not 10 kilometres away.

He is just as anxious to move away from the present location close to the Darulaman Palace, whose ruined shell and former role as the defence ministry make a stark reminder of the civil war. "Museums should be away from military facilities," he said.

Land has been promised for a new museum in central Kabul, but it has been subject to an ownership dispute. Massoudi is optimistic that this can be resolved in two or three months, and that a work on a new museum can then go ahead.

"It should be a huge building with all facilities," he said.

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.