Bamiyan

Bamiyan is a valley in central Afghanistan, home to the two monumental Buddhas carved into a sandstone cliff, which serve as the setting for a pivotal journey in the novel. Hakim brings his daughter Laila and her friend Tariq to this site to show them their country's heritage, offering a rare moment of peace and beauty before their lives are shattered by war and loss. The valley's serene landscape and the ancient statues become a symbol of a lost Afghanistan, a memory that Laila clings to in her darkest hours.

Geography and Setting

The Bamiyan Valley is described as a lush, fertile area carpeted by green winter wheat, alfalfa, and potato fields, bordered by poplars and crisscrossed by streams and irrigation ditches. The main road through the town is lined with poplars, small shops, teahouses, and street-side barbers. Beyond the village, foothills rise, and beyond those, the snowcapped Hindu Kush mountains are visible. The sky above is described as an immaculate, spotless blue, and the silence is profound, a quality Hakim particularly remembers. The valley is also home to the two enormous Buddhas, chiseled into a sun-bleached rock cliff, which have peered down at the valley for nearly two thousand years. The cliff is pocked with myriad caves, once home to Buddhist monks who carved them as living quarters and sanctuaries for pilgrims.

The Journey to Bamiyan

In 1987, Hakim hires a driver for a day trip to Bamiyan, taking Laila and Tariq. The journey itself reveals the war-torn landscape of Afghanistan, passing snowcapped peaks, deserts, canyons, and the carcasses of burned-out Soviet tanks and wrecked helicopters. Hakim points out the ancient fortress of Shahr-e-Zohak, the Red City, built nine hundred years ago to defend the valley. The driver remarks that Afghanistan's story is one of invaders—Macedonians, Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, and now the Soviets—but the people, like the walls, remain battered but standing. The climb to the top of the larger Buddha is difficult, especially for Tariq, who has a prosthetic leg, but they reach the top, where they stand on the statue's head and look out over the valley.

Significance and Aftermath

For Laila, the trip to Bamiyan is a moment of profound connection with her father and Tariq. Hakim shares his dream of leaving Afghanistan for a peaceful life near the sea, perhaps in California, where they would open a small Afghan restaurant. Laila, however, realizes she cannot bear to be permanently separated from Tariq. The memory of the valley's peace and the sight of the Buddhas becomes a refuge for Laila in her later suffering. After the Taliban's rise, she learns that they planted TNT in the crevices of the Buddhas and blew them apart, calling them objects of idolatry. The destruction of the two-thousand-year-old statues is met with an outcry from around the world, but Laila is numb to it, feeling that her own life is crumbling dust. The Buddhas, once a symbol of Afghanistan's rich past, are reduced to grains of dust blowing about the Bamiyan Valley in the wind.