[MSN] Afghanistan. The treasures of Turquoise Mountain. Canadian-funded plan aims at breathing new life into ancient culture.

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The treasures of Turquoise Mountain
 TheStar.com - comment - The treasures of Turquoise Mountain
 
Canadian-funded plan aims at breathing new life into ancient culture

October 14, 2007 
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER

In Afghanistan, ragged gashes cut through the cliffs of Bamiyan, where giant
Buddha statues that symbolized an age of culture and tolerance once towered.

The Taliban's bombing of the 5th-century Buddhas outraged the world and
became an image of the annihilation of Afghanistan's past, as though the
claws of war had reached back in time to shred the very identity of its
people.

But deliberate destruction accounts for only a fraction of the losses of
Afghanistan's cultural treasures. Greed, opportunism and dire poverty have
propelled armies of looters through the country's museums and archaeological
sites, stripping away thousands of years of cultural history.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's artists and artisans fled decades of warfare and
repression, and most of those who remained were forced to abandon their work
for the art of day-to-day survival.

Former British diplomat Rory Stewart saw the sacking of Afghanistan's
culture first-hand, walking through the country shortly after the 2001 rout
of the Taliban. Two years ago, he returned to set up a project aimed at
replacing some of the losses and rebuilding a centuries-old culture.

Last week, Stewart's Turquoise Mountain Foundation was awarded a $3 million
grant from the Canadian government to train new artists and restore Kabul's
crumbling old market district of Murad Khane.

For Oxford-educated Stewart, a long love affair with Afghanistan's rich
history culminated in a near-fatal odyssey through mountains and plains in
the dead of winter, following a trail of destruction and dilapidation.

In west central Afghanistan, Stewart made one of his saddest discoveries: a
site that may be that of the legendary Turquoise Mountain, a city built in
the 12th century by the Persian-linked Ghorids, who presided over a Silk
Road trading empire boasting exquisite Asian art and crafts.

In his book The Places in Between, Stewart lamented that it was too late to
save the remains of the site, burned out by the Mongol conqueror Genghis
Khan and plundered by modern villagers who sold its unique artifacts to
antiquities dealers for a few dollars.

But on returning to Afghanistan in 2005, he says, "I realized that the
skills so triumphantly displayed at Turquoise Mountain were not entirely
lost."

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture was helping to restore historic
neighbourhoods of Kabul, where Stewart witnessed an Afghan craftsman,
73-year-old Ustad Abdul Hadi, carving a "crisp Islamic screen" and viewed
the painstaking work of traditional calligraphers and potters. 

But other areas of Kabul were in danger, including Murad Khane, which
flourished in the 18th century but now is without paved roads, water or
sewers, its buildings slumping precariously. 

Stewart was determined to save it from total ruin.

It helped that Britain's Prince Charles was an old acquaintance who once
hired him to tutor sons William and Harry. 

An architecture enthusiast who shared Stewart's passion for preserving
traditional Afghan arts and architecture, Charles met with President Hamid
Karzai to discuss the possibilities.

For expertise he turned to Stewart, who had a plan and the background to
carry it out.

Already experienced in restoration projects as a coalition deputy governor
in southern Iraq, he saw the restoration of the old marketplace in the town
of Amara win applause from local merchants and a carpentry school in
Nasiriyah take "200 unemployed and often radical men from the streets and
trained them in basic joinery.

"Almost all of them subsequently found work."

It was a blueprint for Afghanistan - and the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.

"This means that this city will be ready to welcome the citizens and artists
of Afghanistan with restored buildings, improved infrastructure and a
refurbished cultural centre," said International Co-operation Minister Bev
Oda, as the grant was announced last week in Kabul.

The Murad Khane restoration is "a project that would honour local culture
rather than attacking it," Stewart says, adding that it would be "quick,
flexible and visible and would generate as much employment as possible."

When Afghans see no progress, he points out, they quickly place the blame on
Western countries that present themselves as rescuers.

But Stewart's plan was also risky.

It could be dismissed as fanciful by embittered Afghans who've suffered
years of trauma and destitution. 

And the owners of the crumbling edifices could see more profit in
"McBuildings" than in carefully restored heritage sites.

With Afghans' general loss of skills - not to mention basic literacy -
rebuilding also means a large-scale crash re-education program.

The project has passed its first tests. 

It is regenerating the old town, saving historical buildings and setting up
galleries for traditional craft businesses that could be Kabul's future
Yorkville.

For now, a school and a health clinic have opened, new sewage drains have
been laid and local men can find construction and garbage-clearing jobs that
need no training. 

Meanwhile, the foundation has attracted some of Afghanistan's greatest craft
masters to teach new students almost-lost arts of woodcarving, calligraphy
and ceramics at a Centre for Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture. And
it is reviving the trade in high-end Afghan products to compete on the world
design market.

For Canada, which is struggling to chart a course in Afghanistan through a
thorny path of bad news, Turquoise Mountain may be a peak experience.

"This is a project which can have real symbolic and political significance
for the international community," Stewart says. 

"It is a project that will bring a better life to poor men and women. It is
also a chance for Canada to demonstrate its respect for Afghan culture and
leave something that hopefully Afghans and Canadians will be able to point
to with pride in 50 years' time."

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