Regardless of style or purpose, we tend to accept that buildings are just that: built, on top of the earths surface, to be bigger and taller than we are. For centuries, the people of the Bamiyan Valley of Central Afghanistan has flipped that script. The Valley sits between the mountains of Hindu Kush, and since the 1st century, the surrounding cliffs and tributaries have been home to ancient monasteries and chapels, built out of caves and foothills. Twenty centuries later, thats not set to change: the Afghan government and UNESCO recently announced that the winning design for a competition to build a local cultural center would be a series of brick-lined passageways and rooms built directly into the land.

The winning team, a small firm from Argentina called M2R, had a lot to grapple with. In the 6th century, the people in the Bamiyan Valley of Central Afghanistan carved two Buddha sculptures into the cliffs to mark the most western point of Buddhisms expansion on the ancient Silk Road. They were massiveone stood almost 200 feet tall. Buddhists would meditate near them in the sandstone caves; monks visited from China to pray. The statues were integral not just to Buddhism, but to Bamiyan culture, which in more recent years had become more Muslim than anything. Locals even had a homespun fable about the statues, that they were ill-fated, star-crossed lovers from different religions, and thats why they turned to stone.

Then, thousands of years later in 2001, the Taliban destroyed the idols with dynamite, in an attack against pre-Islamic idolatry. In 2003, after the Taliban had fallen from power in Afghanistan, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the site a historic landmark, an action that immediately made locals, worshippers, and archaeologists ask: Will the Buddhas be rebuilt? The debate lasted for years. German archaeologists were keen to rebuild the statues, but UNESCO operates under the Venice Charter, which says that any monumental reconstruction has to be done with the original materials.

UNESCO eventually ruled not to. Instead, it staged an architectural competition for a new cultural center in the Bamiyan Valley that would both memorialize the destruction of the Buddhas, support archaeological work through storage, and allow for events. M2Rs winning proposal is called Descriptive Memory: The Eternal Presence of Absence. Judging from the renderings, itll be a peaceful piazza, like a contemporary version of the sanctuaries built into the foothills centuries ago. Excavating the landscape is part strategic, says project lead Nahuel Recabarren, because the soil there can store large amounts of heat, which helps to insulate the caves from the cold. Its also deeply symbolic, because it mimics the work of the Buddhist monks who, ages and ages ago, built caves into the landscape for their sanctuaries.

M2R faced a design challenge similar to one put to the architects for the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City: when youre honoring a tragic disaster so recent that the people visiting your site are the same people who bore witness to the tragedy, whats appropriate? In this case, M2R have taken a counter intuitive approach to construction by harnessing the negative space left by the Buddhas. We had to find an adequate way in which architecture could respond to the meaning and history of the place, Recabarren says. We thought that, given the breathtaking landscape and the deep cultural significance of the area, the Cultural Center should not impose itself over the site. Much of recent architecture has become obsessed with image and visibility, but not every building can be a monument.

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An Afghan Museum That Mimics Ancient Buddhist Monasteries

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Mahayana Buddhism and Sutra of Innumerable Meanings
A basic description of Mahayana Buddhism followed by introductory comments regarding the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (the prologue to the Lotus Sutra), specifically covering the essence of...

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Mahayana Buddhism and Sutra of Innumerable Meanings - Video

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Mar 07, 2015 Fundamentals of Buddhism (29) by Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Acchariya at TDS Dhamma Class
http://www.tdsusa.org Theravada Dhamma Society, Daly City Bay Area, California, U.S.A. Dhamma Class by Venerable Sayadaw U Osadha on March 07, 2015. Title: Fundamentals of Buddhism (29) ...

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Mar 07, 2015 Fundamentals of Buddhism (29) by Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Acchariya at TDS Dhamma Class - Video

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ACI 17 C5A Great Ideas of Buddhism Part 2 with John Stilwell
ACI 17 C5A Great Ideas of Buddhism Part 2 with John Stilwell - Captured Live on Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aci-17-great-ideas-of-buddhism-part-2-with-john-stilwell.

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New Zealander Philip Blackwood has been jailed for more than two years with hard labour, after being found guilty of insulting religion in Myanmar by using an image of the Buddha to promote the bar he managed.

Blackwood, 32, formerly of Wellington, and his two Myanmar co-accused were given the same verdicts and sentences when they appeared in a Yangon court today.

The V Gastro bar used an image of the Buddha wearing headphones in an online poster to promote a cheap drinks night.

The poster, which appeared last year on the Facebook page of the newly opened Yangon bar, sparked outrage on social media in the predominantly Buddhist country.

Bar general manager Blackwood, bar owner Tun Thurein, 40, and manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, were arrested and charged with breaching the Religion Act.

Agence France-Presse reports that the three men were sentenced to two years for insulting religion through written word or pictures and a further six months for breaching a local order including when a protest erupted outside the bar over the image in December.

Both terms carry hard labour.

Blackwood's lawyer Mya Thway had earlier told the court his client had not intended to insult religion and was simply promoting a cheap drinks night.

But AFP reports that Judge Ye Lwin said on Tuesday that although Blackwood posted an apology, he had "intentionally plotted to insult religious belief" when he uploaded the mocked-up image on Facebook.

The trial was seen as a sign of growing religious intolerance in Myanmar, with a growing Buddhist nationalist movement spearheaded by extremist monks, and often targeting Muslim communities.

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Kiwi found guilty of insulting Buddhism

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Friend Nathan Green believes the jailing of Wellington man Phil Blackwood in Myanmar is over the top.

A Wellington man sentenced to two and a half years of hard labour in Myanmar faces a very tough life shackled to other prisoners, according to a fellow Kiwi who has witnessed the work gangs.

Philip Blackwood learned his grim fate on Tuesday in a Yangon court after he and two Burmese colleagues were found guilty of offending Buddhism by posting an online advertisement of a psychedelic Buddha wearing headphones to promote their VGastro bar.

The harsh penalty has attracted wide criticism and prompted shock among his friends, who fear how he will cope.

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Kiwi bar manager Philip Blackwood has been detained in Burma.

"I have seen prisoners on the move shackled to each other with manacles on their ankles and chains that bind them from one man to the next. It reminds me of the hard labour slave trade in the 18th and 19th century. It is inhumane,"' said one of his Kiwi friends, who requested anonymity.

Earlier, humanitarian organisation Amnesty International condemned Blackwood's sentence.

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NZer found guilty of offending Buddhism with bar image

A Myanmar court has sentenced a New Zealand bar manager and his two business associates to two years and six months in prison for insulting Buddhism.

The trio was convicted on Tuesday for posting a flyer on social media that showed a psychedelic depiction of Buddha wearing headphones.

Phillip Blackwood, 32, Tun Thurein, 40, and Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, were given two years for insulting religion and six months for disobeying an order from a public servant.

The trial of V Gastro Bar manager Phillip Blackwood, bar owner Tun Thurein and employee Htut Ko Ko Lwin came as the predominantly Buddhist nation grapples with a surge of religious nationalism, including violence against members of the minority Muslim community.

The three were arrested in December after the image was used on Facebook to promote the tapas bar and lounge, and sparked outrage on social media.

The online ad was removed and an apology was posted, but the three men were detained in Myanmars notorious Insein prison.

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Myanmar court jails three for insulting Buddhism

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The Purpose Of Buddhism
Zen Master Bon Soeng talks about the purpose of meditation practice and how that connects with everyday life. We have Dharma talks every Wednesday evening at...

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The Purpose Of Buddhism - Video

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08.03.2015 - Basic Buddhism Meditation - #1
Many of us may have heard of Buddhism and seen rituals being conducted. What and Who are the Triple Gem? How is basic meditation practised? Join us as we explore and understand the basic ...

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08.03.2015 - Basic Buddhism & Meditation - #1 - Video

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3 Universal Truths Epic Funny Song
A Song about the 3 universal truths of Buddhism: Dukkha (suffering) Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (no soul/self). Enjoy! Lyrics: In Buddhism there are three Universal Truths Oh in Buddhism...

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3 Universal Truths Epic Funny Song - Video