AFGHANISTAN, located on the ancient Silk Road, is the crossroads of Asia. Throughout its history, people of different ethnicities and religions, including Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians, settled in the region bringing with them the rich diversity reflected in the paintings, sculptures, textiles, coins and everyday objects now displayed in the National Museum and provincial museums in Afghanistan.

After the Soviet Union forces exited Afghanistan, the people knew that the mujahideen would take over power. We at the National Museum, fearing the safety of our collection, in 1989 itself, secretly transferred the most precious objects to different locations in the centre of Kabul city for safeguarding. The collection included more than 20,000 golden artifacts. Ever since we broke the silence on our effort, many international institutes and organizations have shown an interest in exhibiting this collection.

Our efforts have also resulted in close to 9,000 pieces from outside Afghanistan being returned to the museum so that each year we are now able to hold a new exhibition. In 2009 we held an exhibition of artefacts from prehistory to the Islamic period. In 2013, we organized a specific exhibition on the Ghazni period in the National Museum at the same time when the Turquoise Mountain Foundation was showcasing its artefacts. In all our initiatives, we have received a lot of cooperation from the emerging countries, for instance in the reconstruction of the building of the National Museum of Afghanistan. Now, before sending the artefacts to other countries we showcase them in the Salam-e-khaas hall of the Presidential Palace.

 

One of the most important objectives museums serve is education. Considering the difficulty of bringing students to the museum, we started a programme whereby we take the relevant information in the form of slides to the schools. This initiative was appreciated by the students because they were able to far more effectively learn about their history and civilization. We welcome numerous visitors to the precincts on a daily basis. Now the landscape of the museum is changing for the better.

We also see museums as a link in enabling more cordial and peaceful relations with our neighbouring countries. We have a close relationship with India and other countries in South Asia. A look at our history shows how we have the same civilizational affinities. It is possible to conserve living cultures. Culture is a very big need. We do not divide or separate culture between India and present-day Afghanistan. We need to have a close relationship with China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Iran. Peace is very important. If we have peace in the region, much can be done.

I pray to the Almighty Allah that we have peace as soon as possible. Our kids have grown up in war for 35 years. Lot of artefacts have been looted. I dream of artefacts returning to our museums with help from UNESCO.

Let me begin by relating an incident. Once upon a time, not very long ago, in Afghanistan, a country ravaged by war and conflict, people were waiting in anticipation to usher in the new year. And then something made us all fall silent. An Afghan girl’s voice could be heard coming from a shrine. She seemed to be pleading with a man. And then what one saw was shocking. The girl was burnt and her body thrown in the river. I am still in shock. The same problem exists in all South Asian countries. We face lots of challenges, lots of violence, especially against women. As a museum professional, I ask, can a museum movement be developed to give a voice to the weak and voiceless?

Museums speak of networks and ties that snapped due to multiple reasons. They help trace the genealogy of civilizations that once were and those that survive in myriad forms. Museums can form a crucial link in connecting the dots and in forging amiable relations between people, gender, classes, age and nations that are otherwise conflict ridden. In the context of the South Asian countries and the defining concern of the Sasian Journey, museums have a unique role to play in showcasing the historically shared cultural practices. Not only that, museums can become arenas of coming together by way of appreciating what is usually ignored or wilfully misrepresented, characterised as it is by political motivations.

 

Adding to Omara Massoudi’s brief recounting of our efforts with National Museum in Afghanistan, my colleagues have used very basic tools to restore pieces damaged during the tumultuous thirty years of war. For instance, they used horses’ groove to put some of the pieces together.

Our collection now contains statues, architectural equipment, animal material, documents, weapons, textiles. The material used for these objects are mainly gold, silver, iron, fabric, copper, paper, precious and semi-precious stones. In 2012, the National Museum got a big project from Chicago University for the digitization of its inventory.

 

Most museums in our part of the world are government owned. We need more laboratories, professional teachers and training programmes for restoration work. While we have a faculty of social science, history, philosophy and archaeology, we lack expertise when it comes to the question of conservation. We need faculty experts for textiles and conservation who can help in the preservation of the same. As a case in point, Turquoise Mountain, is attempting to fill up a crucial gap in this respect. There is also a collaborative effort in the form of a Public Private Board (PPB) in Afghanistan which is looking at conservation.

We need to look at this issue where tangible structures have a huge intangible resonance. All of these require a lot of financial support. For this we need to rethink our means of being able to achieve the objectives and the end. But what is of great significance is that in our collective Sasian journey with shared hopes and desires, we must join hands and participate in the development of the less fortunate ones. We Sasians must put in our best to retrieve, preserve and help nurture the historical legacies that museums remind us of.

In the scheme of things, the Sasian journey as a repository, as an outreach programme and as a place for creating identities within the nations is of tremendous importance, though, it in itself requires lot of international support in terms of monetary grant and creation of opportunities and easy availability of resources at its disposal.