Afghanistan has a rich cultural heritage covering more than 5,000 years. Because of almost complete isolation from the outside world, however, little in art, literature, or architecture was produced between the 16th and early 20th centuries. Because most Afghans live outside the cities, their mode of living can be described as that of a peasant tribal society. Kinship is the basis of social life and determines the patriarchal character of the community. Religion plays a very important role.

Archaeological research carried out since 1922 has uncovered many fine works of art of the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. A revival of the traditional arts and an interest in new forms of expression have given a new dynamism to artistic creation. Of the new painters, some draw direct inspiration from the Herat school of the 15th-century Timurid period; others are influenced by Western styles. Through government initiative, some of the old monuments of architectural value are being restored and redecorated. The School of Fine Arts was established in Kabul in the 1930s. In architecture, the traditional Timurid techniques are preserved, particularly in the design of the exterior walls of mosques or tombs. Handicrafts include the world-renowned Afghan carpets and copper utensils.

Theatre as known in the West has flourished only since about 1960. Adaptations of European classics were introduced at first, but the present trend favours the didactic treatment of themes from everyday Afghan life. In addition to city theatres such as those in Kabul, Herat, or Qandahar, there are traveling companies that take plays to provincial centres or country fairs.

In music and dance, a revival of traditional folksinging has gone hand in hand with the imitation of modern Western and Indian music. Afghan music is different from Western music in many ways, particularly in its scales, note intervals, pitch, and rhythm, but it is closer to Western than to Asian music. Afghans celebrate their religious or national feast days, and particularly weddings, by public dancing. The performance of the attan dance in the open air has long been a feature of Afghan life. It is the national dance of the Pashtuns and now of the nation.

The culture of Afghanistan reflects its ancient roots and position as a crossroads for invading ethnic groups and traditions. Little the Afghans make is unattractive; even common grain bags produced to market are often embroidered to make them more beautiful. A camel caravan of nomads often looks like a circus parade, with the animals decked out in woven finery. The Islamic traditions of fine calligraphy and graphic arts are evoked in the fine filigreed flourishes that decorate many buildings. Poetry and poets are revered. Although the people of Afghanistan may have been sorely stressed by centuries of warfare and a difficult environment, their arts have prospered nonetheless.

Cotton and wool are the main material used in Afghanistan and these are woven and dyed and made into garments by each family or group. Women wear the Chadri, which covers a woman from head to foot. with a latticed slit for the eyes, is made of cotton in shades of blue, brown, black. In the rural parts, women working on the land dispense with this, but cover their faces in the presence of a stranger. The women near Pakistan's border wear long, full trousers, often red in colour, with a loose, long-sleeved tunic dress, rather like the kameez, together with a draped headscarf. This is the basis of many of the women's costumes and the tunic varies in length and design. In the northern areas striped material is used, often dyed red from madder or in shades of blue and brown. Loose sleeveless, hip-length jackets are worn in full-length striped coat for warmth.

Young girls go bareheaded, but women cover their heads with long headscarves, the colours varying according to the groups to which they belong. The scarves are tied round the head, leaving a long end hanging down the back, which can be drawn across the face. A white headscarf signifies the married status.

The men wear a thigh-length, long-sleeved shirt which is belted at the waist with a skirt effect to the lower half. A sleeveless waistcoat is worn over the shirt and there are loose fitting white trousers. Another form of dress is the long-sleeved, ankle-length 'chupan'. This is a long coat made in wool, often white in colour and worn by the mountain peopl in the winter season. The chupan is worn over loosely fitting jackets and trousers, or is wrapped round the body like a cloak. There is also a similar type of coat which is made in stripes of darkish colours.

In the winter, thick woolen, hand-knitted stockings are worn with leather boots. Children and adults wear sandals or a form of boot as protection against the rough mountainous ground or earth. The hide comes from the Yak, which is found throughout the highlands of central Asia. In the cities, the open toe sandals is very common and sometimes shoes with up-pointed toes are seen. There are various forms of headgear which include the large turbans with a long end hanging down the back, neat around astrakhan hats, woolen knitted hats and large fur sheep skin hats.

Afghanistan preserves a long and rich tradition of traditional handicrafts, the production of which has long been deeply rooted in the ritual or functional needs of society. However, traditional Afghan crafts have been neglected now for almost a generation. Carpet weaving, pottery, miniature painting, woodcarving and needlework need time and a sense of security before they can flourish again. Some crafts need equipment that refugees could not carry with them, such as looms and kilns. Tile workers need a building contract.

Afghanistan’s traditional handicrafts were once one of the country’s biggest industries, the others being dried fruit, oil and gas. In the past almost every province had its own handicraft industry, but today the lack of infrastructure, shortage of skilled crafts persons and few domestic customers means that this part of the economy has lost its reputation for quality.

Training apprentices, improving quality for the export and the tourist markets and identifying funds to pay for initial loans or the reconstruction of workshops are the key developmental needs of the moment. Yet miraculously some handicrafts workers have returned to half-ruined homes with no electricity or plumbing and lack of security. They are beginning to make their crafts again.

Carpet making

Carpet making in Afghanistan is a craft of great antiquity for which the country is justly famous. Before 1978 Afghanistan’s carpets ranked fifth amongst the country’s exports. Rich in form and colour, the flat-woven, hand-knotted and felt creations woven by highly-skilled Turkmen, Uzbek, Hazara, Aimed, Kirghiz and Baluch craftsmen once represented the highest quality in Central Asia.

When war came the weavers were forced to leave their homes. Many settled in Pakistan or Iran, where the looms were once again set up. At this time wool was still exported from Afghanistan, enabling the craft to continue outside the country’s borders. However, as there was no other work available the number of untrained weavers involved in carpet weaving grew, with the result that the quality of the product went into decline.

Over the past 15 years Aschiana, the school for street children, has been training women and children to make carpets at home, at times in secret. At one point its Director Mohammad Yousef was taken into custody by officials who were suspicious of his work with foreigners and baffled by his interest in helping the disadvantaged. Yet Aschiana continued to operate. Looms were provided and today many of its students are making and selling carpets from their own homes.

The NGO Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), known for its relief work, has also initiated a home workshop that allows people to continue weaving in spite of their family commitments. Under a UNESCO-funded initiative, ancient carpet and tile designs have been copied from museums around the world and given to CHA to create traditional carpets with natural dyes which can be ordered in any size or colour.

Pacific Carpet Company recently returned to Afghanistan with its looms and has now set up a factory outside Kabul. However, cheap factory-made imports from Iran are still flooding the market despite customs regulations forbidding their importation and few Afghans are able to afford the higher-quality hand-made ones.

Gilim weaving

Gilim are flat woven carpets that can be found as carpets, wall hangings and saddle bags (now also used as bicycle bags) They are very sturdy and are usually in a deep wine red with multicoloured patterns. As with other weavings and carpets different qualities of manufacture and materials can be found.

Tile making

Tile making has long played an important role in the development of Afghan art and architecture. The origins of this important craft date back to the first millennium CE and the same production techniques and basic designs of flowers, scrolls and lettering were still in use during the pre-war period. The design is made on paper and coloured pieces of glazed tile are chipped with a hammer to make the small pieces, which are then inserted into the larger tiles to complete the pattern. Glass is smashed to make a glaze and the tiles are fired. The tiles are then assembled in panels of the appropriate shape on a plaster backing and lifted into place on the relevant part of the building or area to be decorated.

In July 1999 the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH) began sponsoring apprentices in Herat to make tiles in the traditional manner. As monuments are gradually restored, the work of these tile makers will be increasingly in demand. Such training is timely; in an age when satellite television beams out images of gleaming modern buildings, the zeal of the Afghan people to repair their national treasures has already in some cases led to the ‘modernising’ of structures with garish imported tiles, cement and questionable workmanship.

Pottery

Comparison between prehistoric pottery shards and pieces from the pre-war period indicates that the basic shapes and designs of Afghan pottery changed little in 5,000 years. Glazes were rare and no noteworthy regional styles developed, with the notable exception of that of the hillside village of Istalif, just north of Kabul, once known for its subdued blue and white pottery decorated with unique black incised floral decorations and bird and animal motifs.

Unfortunately Istalif has been in the wrong place too many times. Thought to harbour dissidents by British forces, it was burned to the ground in 1842, killing an estimated 4,000 inhabitants and demolishing the kilns. Rebuilt, Istalif became the tourist town of the 1970s and the site of the king’s summer house. There was a swimming pool on a hill with a pump to bring water from underground springs. Located only 40 kilometres from the capital, Istalif was one of the contested areas that changed hands between the Mujahideen and the Taliban during the 1990s. Once again the kilns and houses were destroyed and the people scattered.

Today Istalif is in the process of being rebuilt. The remnants of houses clutch the mountainsides and roads wind up a hill lined with the shells of shops which once sold handicrafts to visitors. The reconstruction project aims to rebuild Istalif ‘holistically’. Numerous NGOs are working to recreate the town with its traditional kilns and woodworking shops, including the most up-to-date town planning to encourage its residents to return.

The potters of Istalif have for centuries worked from their homes. Training started at five years old. Often the grandfather was the manager while the women did the decorations. To date only a few families have returned to Istalif to make pottery but more are expected to return to rebuild their homes. Yet sadly the care once taken when applying the dark and light blue and creamy white colours or applying the glaze has all but disappeared.

CHA Gallery in Kabul is currently the only buyer for these pieces, and without better quality and more care in design the hopes for large export shipments and the chance of this craft surviving is low. Potential buyers have been identified, but until the quality returns to at least pre-war levels there will be no orders. Previously the glaze came from Germany but the materials used now are poor and leave an uneven sheen. The brown and orange colours are achieved by mixing the glaze with highly toxic liquid taken from car batteries, which constitutes a potential health hazard.

Afghanistan is rich in clays that can be used for pottery, but to date there has been no mapping of clay-rich areas. There is potential for the Kabul Polytechnic Institute in collaboration with skilled visiting ceramics engineers to research and map the best areas in Afghanistan for this resource.

Agnieszka Wojiek from the Academy of Fine Art in Wroclaw, Poland, is currently seeking sponsorship to assist the potters of Istalif including the mapping of clay rich areas. According to Agnieszka, in order to improve quality for export a new style of kiln needs to be designed. In the past the bowls were fired one on top of each other, with a three-legged prop in between. This was not only unsightly but also unhygienic in the event that the bowls were used for food since the unglazed part retained bacteria. A higher firing temperature is needed, but as there is no electricity in Istalif, either generators or a better-designed heat-retaining kiln will be necessary.

Before the wars shopkeepers gave artisans credit over the winter months. Constantly in debt, the families relied on the generosity of the merchants. Micro credit, co-operatives and better kilns which can work all year round would solve the problem of indebtedness. But money is needed to rebuild the kilns, buy quality glaze and establish a centre to train groups of potters. Hopefully potters from around the world would come to such a centre to exchange creative ideas and techniques. Istalif is currently in ruins and has few amenities, but the commute from Kabul is only one hour. The training centre could later be used as a work place, display area or shop.

Miniature painting

Great skill was needed to decorate manuscripts, and in past centuries rich patrons sponsored the best miniature painters throughout the wider Central Asian region. The earliest decorated manuscripts found date back as far as the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, but no greater artists were found than during the Timurud dynasty in 15th century Herat, during the reign of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (from 1470). Under his patronage the art flourished. The miniature artist Kamal al Din Behzad (1450-1535), claimed by both Afghanistan and Iran, is regarded as the master of this art form. The meticulous attention to detail that characterised earlier forms of miniature painting was maintained, but the subject matter was humanised to reflect real life.

The staid, mannered poses of the past changed and tea sellers, chatting soldiers and old men huddled in shawls can be seen in his work. Byron, travelling through Central Asia in the early 20th century, noted that because the railways carrying new styles by-passed Herat, the Behzad style of miniature painting had remained unchanged.

During the 1980s and 1990s training in miniature painting was sponsored in the refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran and works flooded the markets along the borders to Afghanistan. Today the Afghan Traditional Arts Training School - Ghulam Mohammad Maimanagi in Kabul and the Behzad High School in Herat are teaching this ancient art.

Both need supplies and new, larger premises. The large number of students who have applied to study in their free time is encouraging but there are not enough rooms and ‘classrooms under the sky’ are also filled. Students practice the art on newsprint and the paintings themselves are often done on both sides of a precious piece of canvas.

Calligraphy

Calligraphic art has been the accepted visual art form in the Islamic world throughout history, perhaps because the artist had freedom to express his creativity without worrying about fundamental restrictions. The political changes that forced other artists to flee their homeland or change their profession did not affect the calligraphic artist as much, although there were fewer customers for their art. Today calligraphy can be found in tilework on ancient mosques and as paintings in studios throughout the Muslim world.

From the late 19th century onwards Afghan artists began to experiment with western techniques, but the results were wholly derivative with no recognisably Afghan characteristics. The National Art Gallery was filled with European paintings in the Victorian style and later works copied from pictures in arts books. Even though it is thought that the first depictions of Buddha as a being originated in Afghanistan, sculpture never became popular in this Islamic society.

The German influence developed as a ‘third force ‘ to balance the powers of the British/American and Russian groups. The Germans were the largest foreign colony and began building schools and sending teachers to work in the universities and high schools. The Fine Arts College, predecessor of Afghan Traditional Arts Training School - Ghulam Mohammad Maimanagi, was located in the Isbn Durrani School (now a girls’ school) and taught ceramics, sewing, painting, carpet and fabric weaving and printing. There were two directors - one German who taught technique and one Afghan administrator - and each class had both a German teacher and an Afghan assistant.

When Afghan artist Abdul Ghafur Breshna (1907-1974) came back from Germany in 1933, he became Director of this school. He subsequently helped to standardise the quality of Afghan arts and crafts and did much to promote western styles of painting and sculpture. During this period all the materials and tools came from Germany and were of the highest quality.

Today there are few art galleries in which artists can display their work, although Afghan NGO Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA) has two rooms in which artists can exhibit. Work displayed there is generally concerned with traditional Afghan themes, buzkashi games, teapot repairmen or street and bazaar scenes. A few ‘modern’ artists have pieces on view which capture the styles of impressionist and later European artists to a remarkable degree.

Throughout different periods of its history Afghanistan has been subjected to Greek, Persian, Central Asian, Islamic, Mongolian, Chinese, Indian, Russian and British influences, all of which were reflected in the country's extant built heritage. Regrettably over two decades of war inflicted lasting damage on that heritage and also halted the training of skilled technicians with the ability to restore and maintain what was left. Efforts to educate Afghans about their own heritage are ongoing.

Background

The oldest settlements discovered in the country are the Bronze and Iron Age sites at Mundigak (c 3000-2000 BCE) near Kandahar. By the 3rd millennium BCE a tradition of monumental building was already well established and in subsequent millennia fortified towns with citadels surrounded by massive outer defensive walls appeared in strategic locations throughout the country.

Hellenistic architecture arrived with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 329-325 BCE; the remains of a Greek city founded soon after Alexander’s conquest have been excavated at Ai Khanoum on the northern border with Tajikistan.

The next major contribution to Afghanistan’s built heritage was made by the Kushan nomads from Central Asia, whose first capital was at Bagram, north of Kabul. What remains of the massive fortified terraced enclosure built by the Kushana to house their dynastic shrines at Surkh Kotal north of the Hindu Kush mountain range is sufficient to illustrate that architecture had by this time reached a significant level of development.

From the Kushana period (1st-4th centuries CE) onwards Buddhism became established as the dominant religion in Afghanistan. Many new types of Buddhist architecture began to appear and, whilst never conceived or perceived as works of art, Buddha images of this period reflect craftsmanship of the highest aesthetic quality. Another important Buddhist site from this period is the complex of stupas, monasteries and artificial cave complexes at Hadda near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

However, by far the best-known Buddhist site in Afghanistan is at Bamyan in the central Hindu Kush, where between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE some 600 to 750 artificial caves were carved out of the cliffs on the northern side of the valley. The unfortunate fate of the two giant Buddha statues carved out of niches in these cliffs is all too well known.

With the coming of Islam in the 9th century, Islamic art and architecture quickly flourished. The oldest extant Islamic buildings are those of the mosque in Balkh, the oldest section of which was built using materials, techniques and styles associated with the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq. Thereafter distinctive regional variations began to emerge.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the Ghaznavid established Lashkhari Bazaar and Ghazni in southern Afghanistan as important administrative centres. Here Islamic architecture developed along monumental lines, with characteristic use of glazed tiles, terracotta decoration and inscriptions written in angular and cursive scripts. Today the most important extant example of this style is the late 12th-century minaret at Jam.

Meanwhile in the west of the country the city of Herat grew steadily in importance after the Mongol conquests of the 13th century, becoming the capital of the Timurud Empire from the 15th century onwards. In subsequent generations splendid brick buildings were constructed here, decorated with copious amounts of glazed tiles, though sadly much of this important heritage was destroyed during the Russian and British incursions of the 19th century. More recently lack of maintenance has allowed most of the remaining buildings to fall into utter disrepair.

Notwithstanding these regional variations, the most popular style of monumental architecture remained the pure Islamic style, which originated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq and subsequently spread throughout Central Asia. Palaces and mosques built in this style are domed, with a window design drawn from three different types - half moon, triangular or arched. In some regions the roofs are covered with wood, whilst in others (eg south east Afghanistan) they are made of bricks and covered with clay. Interiors are either covered with tiles or brightly painted with calligraphy or traditional designs. A typical extant example of this style is the Poli Khushti Mosque, near the Maiwand Monument in Kabul.

From the 17th century onwards Islamic architecture in Afghanistan became increasingly derivative. This may in part be attributed to the opening up of new sea routes which offered a faster and safer option than the older mountain roads, stemming the flow of money, ideas and cultural influences. From this point onwards too, architectural repairs and extensions were of increasingly poor quality.

During the late 19th century western art and architecture became popular with the royal court and the educated elite, leading to the introduction of western styles of domestic architecture in many urban areas. At the turn of the century, King Amir Abdullah Rahman (reigned 1880-1901) built an arg or walled palace along western lines and ‘European’ style homes began to appear throughout the capital, especially in New Town (Sharh e Nau). These were followed in the early years of the 20th century by a proliferation of verandahed British Indian-style residences (eg the National Archives building) and, after the Anglo-Afghan War of 1919-1929, by a preponderance of 18th century European neo-classical style edifices - King Amanullah Khan’s government buildings at Darulaman, eight kilometres south of Kabul city centre, being the best example.

From the 1950s onwards a number of Afghan architects went overseas to study in the Soviet Bloc and town planning experts from the USSR flew to Kabul to study city planning problems and suburban housing needs. The result of this growing Soviet architectural influence was the emergence of Socialist Realist design in many public buildings constructed during from the late 1950s onwards, notably the concrete apartment suburb of Macroyan in Kabul.

Outside the cities ordinary Afghans continue to live as they have done since time immemorial, in traditional dwellings fabricated according to many regional variations from stone, wood, unbaked clay or mud with straw plaster. In the rugged mountainous regions such houses are built in tiers, with the roof of one house forming the yard of another, in order to leave as much as possible of the flat, fertile river valleys for farmland. The inner courtyards of these houses, functioning to shield the women from outside view, are frequently decorated with hand-carved walnut wood eaves and panels. Hand-carved doors and window frames and wall and ceiling plaster incised and painted with flowers or pictures depicting daily life may also be found in many areas.

In Kabul such decorative wood carving is done by professionals, although with few apprentices this craft is at risk of dying out. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has recently commissioned some instrument makers to do domestic architecture restoration work, and according to Osman Khiem Suleiman, Head of Architecture at Kabul Polytechnic Institute's Faculty of Construction, the Afghana Tarkonai Carpentry Shop is also training students in wood carving for the restoration of carved panels, window frames and doors. Suleiman also remarked that the Kabul Polytechnic Institute is currently using Nancy Hatch Dupree’s books about Afghanistan from the 1970s to teach history of architecture.

Today the growth of tent cities on the outskirts of the capital to provide temporary housing for returnees or internally displaced people offers a sad reminder of the devastation which has resulted from rocket attacks on housing areas.

The two Buddhas of Bamiyan stood about a quarter of a mile apart. The larger was 55 metres or 174 feet high, the smaller was 38 metres or 115 feet. They were probably carved in the late sixth century. Basically they are cut from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modelled in mud mixed with straw, coated with lime plaster. The lower parts of their arms were constructed from the mud mix supported on wooden armatures. The upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks.

The methods of construction can be seen quite clearly in the photographs. The Buddhas would also have been painted and gilded. Some traces of paint remained for archaeologists to examine in the 20th century, and in the 7th century, the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-Tsang thought they were made of gold. They were probably the first of a series of colossal cult images in Buddhist art.

The Buddhist cave monastery

The sandstone cliffs at Bamiyan in the Hindu Kush housed a huge monastery of Buddhist monks, who hollowed out living quarters and temples for themselves deep within the rock. By the 7th century, when the site was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-Tsang, there were 5000 monks living and praying in the cave monastery. The roofs of some of the caves are cut into elaborate vaulted forms, and many of them are richly painted. Into the cliff wall, the monks carved the three colossal Buddhas in huge niches, of which only two survived into the 20th century. By the ninth century, the area was under the control of Islamic Arab rulers. The Buddhist monks had probably left by the end of the tenth century, though legend has it that they were all slaughtered by Genghis Khan some three centuries later.