LINK
This article attempts to explore the main impulses that might have led to the destruction of Buddha statues by Taliban in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. Drawing on existing literature, and anecdotal evidence, this article suggests that the main impulses that have led to destruction are rather linked to the overall political context of that time (i.e., political iconoclasm) rather than to pure Islamic iconoclasm or an explicit condition of disharmony in heritage (i.e., dissonant heritage). First, the Taliban did not consider the statues as "their" cultural heritage. The act of destruction, therefore, cannot be subscribed to the Afghan cultural dynamics but rather to the political-religious ideology imported by Taliban from outside of the country. Secondly, it seemed that Mullah Omar was viewing the statues as a revenue source at the beginning and as a political bargain chip at the end. In both circumstances, religion seems not to have played the main role. Lastly, the destruction seems a political iconoclasm-that is, a political exploitation, if not a direct political act. The Taliban and especially their external allies were very well aware of the consequences of the act of destruction. It seems implausible to suggest that there were no religion and/or culture in play when ordering the destruction of the statues. The latter is the least what this article aims for. However, to conclude that the destruction was solely triggered by theological and cultural factors might also be improbable. The author does not, in any way, attempt to rationalize the act of destruction, let alone justify the barbaric act.
DOCUMENT
The aim of the project is to upskill and reskill Cultural Routes Staff in all aspects related to digital and creative competencies to support Cultural Routes in the digital transition. The project will help Cultural Routes to manage and disseminate content in an engaging and effective way by promoting their cultural heritage through innovative gamification approaches.Societal issueThe aim of the project is to strengthen the skills and knowledge of European Cultural Routes’ staff, through digital and creative transformation, using an innovative gamification approach, in order to promote cultural heritage at a local, national and transnational level, making Cultural Routes known to the wider audience to increase their attractiveness.Benefit to societyThe NEXT ROUTES project comes from the need of addressing the digital transformation through the development of an innovative toolkit based on gamification elements aimed at delivering tailored training opportunities to increase the knowledge, and the digital and creative skills of Cultural Route managers and staff. The project will represent a great added value both at Cultural Routes level, through the improvement of skills and knowledge, and at EU level with the great impact that it will achieve among all the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, through the capitalisation of the toolkit and the NEXT ROUTES user manual.
Within this interdisciplinary project, we explore the integration of open-source databases, location-based gaming, and immersive storytelling to improve cultural heritage dissemination, interpretation and understanding of European values among younger target audiences. The students develop a game prototype which will be tested with the target audience during the project. The game is aimed to be implemented at cultural heritages sites along the heritage route of St Martin. The learning objective is to foster digital expertise, remote and virtual working proficiency, and the development of an interdisciplinary working attitude in a joint course setup of virtual workshops and MOOC-based lectures.
