The Reconstruction of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

In the valley of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, ca 1800 years ago, two big standing Buddha statues were carved out of the sedimentary rock of the region. They measured 53 and 35 meters in height and the Great one figured as the tallest representation of a standing Buddha worldwide. In March 2001 the Taleban militia demolished the colossal statues, as they were considered an insult to Islam. After the destruction, a consortium was established in Switzerland to rebuild the Great Buddha of Bamiyan at original shape, size and place. Our group volunteered to do the computer reconstruction of the statue, which will serve as a basis for the physical reconstruction. In this contribution we report the results of the 3-D computer reconstruction of the Great Buddha and the manufacturing of the first physical model of the statue at scale 1:200.