Co-sponsored by

Humanities and Honors Program-L.I.F.E. (Leaders Initiating Fascinating Explorations)

This head of a Buddha statue was unearthed, restored and photographed by Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi in the 2003 summer Bamiyan excavation. This excavation was the first official and legal excavation in Afghanistan in 24 years, and it is the first open-air excavation ever in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi presents slides of his Excavations in the Royal Monastery and Royal City of Bamiyan

Tuesday, April 19^th, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Creekside Room

For the past three years, Professor Tarzi has been excavating a site in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, that he had began researching in 1967 and surveying in the mid-1970s before his work was halted by the Soviet invasion.  In 2002, Tarzi returned to Afghanistan and started work on the first ever open-air excavation in Bamiyan. In 2003, and 2004 he found the Eastern monastery he was looking for and unearthed several Buddhist statues, of which at least one represented a Buddha confirming the existence of the monastery.

Tarzi’s work is the subject of the National Geographic Society documentary “Lost Treasures of Afghanistan” which will air on PBS May 4^th on the West Coast.

For more information call: (415) 485-3236