I have a different idea. I suggest that a small museum be built that would tell the story of the history of the Bamiyan Valley and the Buddhists who once were there. The Buddha statues were photographed countless times over the years -- an exhibition of photographs over time ending with the video footage shot by the Taliban of the destruction would show clearly what was there and what was destroyed.

During the day visitors could tour the museum and see the empty spaces formerly occupied by the statues. In the evening a three-dimensional light projection could recreate the images of the Buddhas in the now empty spaces. From the hotel across the valley, tourists could sit outside, drink tea, and see the projection of the now lost statues.

In this way people could understand what was once there and remember the destruction of these world cultural monuments by the Taliban.

With the coming of Islam to Afghanistan, the Buddha statues were many times at risk of being defaced or destroyed. When they were reproduced on Afghan postage stamps there were some protests from religious circles, but in general Afghans were proud of these historic monuments and Bamiyan was one of the most important stops for visitors to Afghanistan. During the Jihad years (1978-92) a Hizb-e Islami (Hekmatyar faction) commander fired a tank round at one of the statues.

With the coming of the Taliban the danger became greater. A story I heard in Kandahar says that when Mullah Omar invited Sam' ul-Haq - the head of the Akora Katak Madrassa (the "Taliban University") in Pakistan to Kandahar, he was given an Ariana Afghan Airlines ticket to Kabul -- on the back of the ticket was a photo of one of the Buddhas. Sam' ul-Haq was offended by this image and complained to his former student Mullah Omar. The seeds of the destruction were planted, although the final act was due to pressure from bin Laden and the actual engineering of the explosives was carried out by Arabs and Pakistanis as the local Talibs would not, or could not successfully plant the explosive charges.

Ed Grazda is the author of "Afghanistan Diary 1992-2000" and "Afghanistan 1980-1989" and has been covering Afghanistan since 1980.