THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF

PROTECTING AND RESTORING A

PEOPLES CULTURAL HERITAGE
By OMARA KHAN MASOUDI
2014 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
Presented at the 56th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Lecture Series
29 August 2014, Manila, Philippines

A MONUMENT TO HUMAN HISTORY

The artifacts in Afghanistan: hidden treasures from the National
Museum in Kabul, began their journey thousands of years ago, when the
country we now know as Afghanistan lay at the crossroads of the ancient
world.
The four regions that comprised ancient AfghanistanBactria, Aria,
Arachosia and Paropamisadaiwere the sites of complex exchanges of
trade and culture. From 3500 BCE, Lapis lazuli from the Sar-i-Sang
mines in the north east was sent as far south as Mesopotamia and as far
west as North Africa. Later, the great Greek city of Ai Khanoum in
ancient Bactria rose and fell on the Oxus River, but not before Hellenism
had made its mark on Central Asia. Glass ingots exported from Egypt
throughout the ancient world would be refashioned by Roman artisans,
to make their way into the storerooms of Bactrian traders. Gold jewelry

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flowed east and west through the valley passes that crisscrossed the
Hindu Kush.
As many of the ancient civilizations of Afghanistan have left us no
historical traces or written records, these artifacts do more than illustrate
tastes and traditionsthey document human interaction in one of richest
cultural regions in the world. The National Museum of Afghanistan,
located in Darulaman, Kabul, is therefore more than just a national
archive; it is a monument to a shared human history.
In the late 1970s the Museum housed more than 100,000 objects.
However, over years of civil war and conflict have exacted a terrible toll
on its collection. During Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Museum
was commandeered by the military and many of its treasures were
hastily removed. Worse was to come. During years of civil war a rocket
attack destroyed the Museums roof and storerooms, allowing thousands
of artifacts to be lost and looted. By the mid-1990s only 30 percent of
objects could be located.
Were it not for the remarkable foresight and bravery of the Museums
staff to hide the greatest treasures and keep their secret safe, the world
might have lost a second Library of Alexandria. What was at stake
throughout is captured by nine words now engraved at the museums
entrance: a nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.
THE END OF GOLDEN AGE
In 1978 Kabul was a city of roughly half a million citizens, a bustling
hub of Central Asia.

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As the director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, I began working

that year and I wrote the words now immortalized at the Museums
entrance. In the two decades prior, the nearby Naghlu Dam began
supplying the city with hydroelectric power, the Kabul Airport became
operational, the countrys first rock music festival was held in 1975, and
an organization named the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan was founded.
This was also a golden age for archaeology in Afghanistan. In 1966 a
new rush to explore the region was provoked by the accidental discovery
by farmers at Tepe Fullol of golden bowls bearing Mesopotamian
designs. This chance find proved the importance of Afghanistan to
ancient trade routes. More exciting finds were being unearthed. Between
1964 and 1978 a French mission discovered the remarkably preserved
ruins of the city of Ai Khanoum, a bastion of Greek civilization in the
east. Then in 1978 Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi uncovered one
of the worlds great archaeological finds. On the slopes of Tillya Tepe in
northern Afghanistan, in six burial mounds, he unearthed the Bactrian
Hoard: more than 20,000 items of gold and precious metal including the
folding crown of a nomadic princess, gold buckles and brooches and
thousands of jeweled objects that illustrated the countrys immense
cultural wealth.
Yet that same year brought disaster for the Afghan people. In the early
hours of April 28, 1978, troops from the communist Peoples
Democratic Party of Afghanistan began a coup that resulted in the death
of President Mohammad Daoud Khan and most of his family. It would
become known as the Saur Revolution, but it was far from a peoples
uprising. In December 1979, Soviet troops entered the country to
support the communist government and fight the mujahideen, sparking a
decade of guerrilla warfare.

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A SAFE AND A SECRET

The Saur Revolution began an era in which the history of Afghanistan
was slowly erased.
The French excavation of Ai Khanoum was abandoned in 1978. The site
became a warzone, pock-marked not only by shellfire but also the
digging of looters. Though Viktor Sarianidi excavated six tombs in 1978
at Tillya Tepe.
'We call the period from 1978 to 2001 the lost history of Afghanistan' as
the ten years of war drew to a close and Soviet troops prepared to leave,
the Museum was confronted by an ever-worsening security situation.
The staff faced a terrible dilemma: risk packing up and transporting the
objects again, or take a chance on the stability of the government.
Ultimately, Museum staff, in consultation with the Ministry of
Information and Culture, decided to move the collections most valuable
objects from Darulaman to the city center for protection.
The objects were housed in several venues in order to decrease the odds
of losing further artifacts to theft or destruction. Objects from
Fondukistan, Bamyan and Hadda went to the Ministry of Information
and Culture. Large sculptures, frescoes and Islamic pottery remained in
the storerooms of the Museum. But the most prized objects were moved
in secret to the Presidential Palace under the nominal care of President
Mohammad Najibullah. In 1988, after the Soviets withdrew, the
situation became worse. There was shelling and rockets in the vicinity of
Kabul; the Museum is located just nine kilometers from the city center.
They decided to put precious objects such as the Bactrian gold in
Kabul central bank.

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In the years since the treasures were hidden, much has passed into
legend. Some say there were seven safe keys for seven secret key
holders, a claim which was denied. Certainly there was a strong practice
of personal responsibility within the Museums collection.
However, two things are clear. First, that the hiding of the treasures was
an act of necessity in a time of chaos. When they put those objects in, I
was there, and I was the representative of the Kabul National Museum.
There were some basements where they kept the money; it had thick
walls and big doors. There was no alternative; it was the only place that
was very safe in Afghanistan at that time, because it was guarded by a
lot of soldiers and it was close to the presidential palace. Second, the
individuals at the center of this act of cultural preservation were bound
by an oath: keep it secret, keep it safe.
A CULTURE BURIED
The fall of the communist government in 1992 bled into a civil war
between rival groups of mujahideen that lasted four years.
The long war years made the lives of Kabuls population hellish.
Industry, all marks of civilization, state provisions and private assets
were plundered or left in ashes. Thousands of Afghan families had to
leave the country. It also ushered in a disastrous era for the National
Museum. Darulaman became a no-mans land and the Museum again
became a military base. It changed hands between various mujahideen
factions several times. Each time soldiers were pushed out the
opportunistic ones would steal whatever they could take with them.

Copyright 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation

Nobody fully knows what has happened to these stolen items. Some
were likely sold on the black market, others melted down.
In a May 1993 attack, rockets struck the upper levels of the building,
setting them alight and causing the roof to collapse.
Amongst the objects destroyed were artifacts, photographs and even the
records and inventories of the collection, prompting the BBC to report
that Afghanistan may have buried its children, but should not be
burying its culture. In 1995 workers entered the building to survey the
damage and install steel doors and a temporary roof. What they found
was heartbreaking: the coin collection completely rifled, Nuristan
sculptures hacked into pieces for firewood, terracotta pottery senselessly
smashed. This hasty repair work had little effect; throughout 1995 more
objects were lost.
The Taliban rose to power in 1996, bringing a reprieve to the fighting.
Surprisingly, they instituted a program to protect the collection. The
Ministry of Information and Culture packed the remainder of works
from the Museum about 500 crates and removed them to the Kabul
Hotel, a project that took six months. Then the doors to the Museum
were locked for two years; some workers left the country and never
returned. In May 1999, a small core of museum workers picked up the
inventory that was begun in 1996, which then listed less than 4,000
objectsjust four percent of the original collection.
The reprieve proved illusory. In 2001, the Taliban tasked a special group
with destroying idolatrous images. This brutality resulted in the loss of a
further 2,500 works from the Museum and culminated in the demolition
using dynamite, rocket launchers, tanks and antiaircraft gunsof two
enormous sixth-century Buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the
Bamyan valley. These barbaric acts, which filled the heart of every

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decent Afghan with anger, represented an irreplaceable loss. Terrible

damage was caused at every archaeological site in the country. Neither
the coming generations of Afghans nor human history will forget this era
of tyranny and destruction.
Luckily, the key treasures of the Museum lay safely hidden
underground. In 2000 a secret ministry commission confirmed that the
treasures were still hidden. It is unclear whether the Taliban knew about
the vault or tried to access it. Here more myths enter the story: some say
a lock was deliberately broken and that the Taliban tried but failed to
force their way in. Others say the Taliban did not know, or did not care
the treasures were there. What is vital is that the crates stayed out of
their grasp.
A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS
The bombing of the Bamyan Buddhas foreshadowed another act of
violence. On September 11, 2001 two hijacked airliners slammed into
the World Trade Centre in Manhattan.
The Talibans subsequent refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden and key
members of Al-Qaeda led to the US-led invasion in October 2001. The
fall of the regime made it safer for some residents to return to Kabul and
the citys population soon numbered more than five million. Though the
security situation remained fragile, international aid allowed the
rebuilding of the Museum and its collection. Austrian conservators
assisted in restoring smashed Nuristani sculptures and specialists from
the Muse Guimet assisted with terracotta and stone objects.
Yet the public had no news of the Museums greatest treasures. In 2003
the Ministry of Information and Culture decided to inventory the hidden
treasures and a delegation ventured into the vaults. As President Hamid

Copyright 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation

Karzai explained at the time: It was like something out of a movie. We

had to go down three elevators under the palace and along a tunnel set
with booby traps, then through a door with seven or eight codes all held
by different people. In August 2003, before television cameras, Karzai
announced the rediscovery of the collection: Today, with the grace of
Allah Almighty, we have succeeded in seeing the central treasure of
Afghanistan. Fortunately, it is in place.
Yet after years of war and looting, verification of the treasures was
required. Were these the original artifacts, or could they have been
replaced by fakes? Key members of the Museum were missing, their
whereabouts unknown. In 2004 Viktor Sarianidi was brought from
Russia to authenticate the Bactrian Hoard. A locksmith, armed with
circular saw and blowtorch, cut open the first of six boxes containing the
gold that Sarianidi had discovered 26 years earlier. They found the
treasure intact Sarianidi recognized an artifact with a small wire repair
he had made with his own hands. It took months for a team, which
included the National Geographic Societys Fredrik Hiebert, to
inventory the collection, but ultimately every item was accounted for.
Every box we opened was like a Christmas package, Hiebert said.
The rediscovery of the treasure posed new problems of safety and
security. In 2006 the Afghan parliament made the extraordinary decision
to send the treasures abroad, first for conservation, then to be toured.
With the assistance of the French military the objects were brought to
the Muse Guimet in Paris. There, staff began conservation of 324 of the
objects. This collection would form the core of Afghanistan: hidden
treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, which has been exhibited
throughout the world.

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The tour continues the journey that the objects began thousands of years
ago, and in each country the exhibition visits, new cultural exchanges
are made. At the British Museum the Kabul staff worked with new
scientific tools to bring new meaning to the objects.
Afghanistan has been represented in ways to the Western world that are
very detrimental. Those images that we see in the media take away the
human element of Afghanistan. Theres real joy and emotion; theres
deep sadness and loss. Its a museums responsibility to challenge some
of those preconceptions about what Afghanistan is.
The National Museum of Afghanistan has seen many ups and downs,
and I personally have witnessed them, while serving the Museum for 33
years. But the sacred religion of Islam always promotes hope to
individuals.
The trend across the world is toward developing regional and localized
museums so that tourists and visitors who go to a community and go and
visit an archaeological site can then see a contextualized archaeological
museum.
Such a model would renew archaeology in Afghanistan and support the
development of museum networks. In 2013 an international design
competition sought to plan for the National Museums future. Yet until
the collections security can be assured the hidden treasures must remain
abroad.
For the sake of Afghanistan, the future of the Museum must be brighter
than its past. One has to be hopeful, Our people should try. They
should face every problem and struggle with it.

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Having hope is essential for life. We witnessed very difficult moments at

the Museum. We saw its destruction. But we did not lose hope.

Copyright 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation