From the Purge of History to Heritage Interpretation:

Making Sense of the Taliban’s Iconoclasm at the Buddhist Site of Shakhuṛai (Swat, Pakistan)

Abstract

This article seeks to understand two opposite responses to the pre-Islamic tangible heritage, especially iconic, in the predominantly Muslim populated Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, formerly the North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The heritage site on which this study centres is called Shakhuṛai or Jahanabad. It consists of stupa remains, caves and, above all, Buddhist rock carvings and inscriptions. The Taliban attacked the famous Shakhuṛai Buddha three times between September and October 2007 and decapitated it. A nearby rock relief was also blasted in the early 2009. What this paper demonstrates is that both religious motivations and situations of current politics were responsible for these acts of destruction. However, these iconoclastic tendencies may not be seen as essential to any particular ethnic group. Historically informed alternative indigenous perspectives challenge the ideology of otherization and obliteration of heritage. What is finally argued is that this counter iconoclastic literary and cultural sphere, embodying a sense of identity and belonging to history, can be used in the process of peace-building and for the betterment of society.