Today’s
Enlightening Entertainment
will be presented
in Dari, English,
French, and German,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Japanese,
Korean, Malay,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Welcome, loyal viewers
to the continuation
of our program about
an exhibition that features
the Bactrian Gold
of Afghanistan.
The exhibition,
“Afghanistan:
Hidden Treasures,”
is a selected collection
of the National Museum
of Afghanistan and
is currently on display
in Bonn, Germany.
The findings
of the excavation site,
Tillya Tepe, are some of
the most exciting treasures
of this exhibition.
Tillya Tepe means
“golden mound”
and dates around the time
of Christ’s birth.
In 1978-79
Russian archaeologist
Victor Sarianidi
and his team discovered
the more than 20,000
objects mostly made of
gold and silver which
belonged to nomads.
These finds belong to
mid-first century BC,
the first century B.C.
And these are the finds
which were extracted
from six burial sites
in Sheberghan.
And now a small number
of them are brought
to this exhibition,
every one of which owns
a different ornamentation.
The treasures
of Tillya Tepe reveal
the close connection
that the nomadic people
had with Greece,
Rome, China
and southern Russia.
All of a sudden you look
at this gold and say,
“Oh, my goodness, it’s
a mix of East and West.”
And that’s what you see
in these collections:
true art.
As we go through
the collections, you’ll see
many amazing things.
They were wearing
these solid gold anklets,
and as we studied
the inventory in this,
we learned things
by handling these objects
that we could never
have learned from
looking at photographs
of some of these things.
Each weighed
two and a half pounds
a piece.
What we are looking at here
is a very interesting
economic aspect.
This is actually the
nomadic banking system.
Think about the definition
of a nomad, right?
Nomads have no houses;
thus they have no banks.
They carry all their wealth
with them.
They were, each person,
each individual,
these six nomads,
was wearing
about 20 pounds of gold.
That is truly
an amazing thing.
One of the sophisticated
objects of Tillya Tepe
is the “Ornament
for the neck of a robe.”
Intended to be sewn
to the neck of a gown,
it has small tubes
for thread soldered
to the reverse
of the double crescents.
What pieces
do you like most?
Can you tell our viewers
something about them?
Which pieces?
It is difficult
to make a selection
because there are
many beautiful pieces.
Perhaps
the most spectacular,
the most unexpected,
is the crown
of the famous princess
of Tillya Tepe;
how it is very floral,
very elegant, very pure
and at the same time,
very special indeed.
It is the single crown
of this type that
has been found, though
it evokes another world,
even the Far East,
as a matter of fact.
Dr. Hiebert was also
impressed by the beauty
of the crown
of the nomadic princess.
We have
such a large number
of remarkable objects.
I look at the exhibition
and I try to imagine,
what is my favorite object?
And every day
I have a different object.
But let me tell you
about a few that I think
are truly unique and tell
the story of Afghanistan.
We have a series
of gold objects from
northern Afghanistan
that are 2,000 years old.
And this crown is a
wonderful piece of artwork.
It has points on the crown
that look like trees.
Well, it’s a nomadic crown,
so that when it was found
they realized that it
actually could come apart.
You could take the points
off the top like trees,
and put them in a pouch
and fold up the band and
you could put it in a pouch.
I could just imagine
the nomadic princess,
who would be
wearing the crown
and decided to gallop off
to some other side,
would put her crown
in her pouch,
gallop off and then
put it back on her head.
It would be marvelous
to see her put her crown
back on in the fields
of northern Afghanistan.
We’ll continue
our exploration
of this remarkable exhibit
of Afghan art
when we return.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
Afghanistan was a crossroad
for all the civilizations,
from the Achaemenid,
from Greece, from India,
Buddhism, Roman,
and of course Islam.
In every those facts are
one common is the culture.
Every one of us
has the beauty of it.
Later on they made
all these pieces of art
with the influence of course
from other cultures
but also from the local.
So you can see
in Tillya Tepe,
there is an Aphrodite,
but that Aphrodite doesn’t
look like an Aphrodite of
in Greece, the clothes,
the face is local.
Welcome back
to our feature about
the Afghan heritage
that is on display
around the world in
an extraordinary exhibition.
We just heard about
the treasure of Tillya Tepe,
which reveals works of art
of incredible beauty
and craftsmanship.
And he had these
beautiful boot buckles
that he was wearing, one
on each side of his boots.
And I remember
these pictures from
the National Geographic
article,
and I remember saying,
“Ah, these are Chinese.”
Look at them very carefully,
you see, on each piece
you see a chariot,
and there is kind of
a Chinese looking guy
riding in a chariot,
and the chariot is pulled
by two dragons.
The chariot has a parasol,
very typical
of the Han Dynasty,
So we said, “Check off,
this is education of China.”
By the time
we saw this piece
and actually handled it
and turned it over,
we realized, “No, this is
also made in Afghanistan.”
Same Afghan gold,
same Afghan turquoise,
not just one barrel,
but all the barrels,
objects were exquisitely
made for them
in Afghanistan.
Here’s another one
of my favorite pieces.
There is a
“Necklace with a cameo”
and it shows a head
in profile.
The helmet is typical of one
worn by
Graeco-Bactrian kings.
Other beautiful and even
more refined necklaces
are also displayed.
Further, we see a “Small
cylindrical lidded box
with Greek inscription”
and a “Brooch in the form
of a five-petalled blossom.”
Beautiful pendants
and hair ornaments
are also to be seen.
Often times
animals are depicted, like
in the “Pair of bracelets
in the form of antelopes.”
This is not like
King Tut’s gold.
These are objects
that they wore during life
and were interred with
when they were
buried with it.
And what beautiful pieces
they are as well.
These are hair pieces.
And the beauty
is they take influences
from East and West.
This is a famous
hairpiece called,
“The Dragon Master.”
You see it, there’s a man
holding back two dragons.
And, it’s from
ancient Near East.
Professor
Nazar Mohammad Azizi
told us about
one special bowl
that had been found.
And especially
in Tellya Tepe
of course there are
some objects very special,
with the influence
of the Greek…
For example,
we have a golden bowl
from Tillya Tepe
in this exhibition.
On the brim of this bowl
there is written:
CTA MA.
CTA MA is a, like you say,
a kind of weight
in Greece.
For example 1 kilogram,
2 kilogram
or a half kilogram.
CTA MA is not the name
of the artist, but instead
a measure of weight.
And that is very precious.
This golden belt
consists of eight sections
of a flexible band
of braided gold chains.
Between the gold chains
there are nine medallions.
All nine medallions
show the same image:
someone sitting
on the back of a panther
with a bowl in his hands.
But the reliefs vary
in detail from medallion
to medallion.
Each was made separately
and then soldered on.
This belt, unlike others
that have been found,
belonged to royal authority.
Afghanistan is
a very rich culture and
very rich country because
of its natural resources.
It’s a country
that has high mountains
and vast deserts, and
in between the mountains
and the deserts
they have minerals and
they have wonderful places
for farming.
It’s an area
of natural richness
that has attracted people
for literally centuries.
They export all sorts
of items from Afghanistan
in the past, as today.
From very earliest times,
people have been
interested in the minerals
of Afghanistan.
Northern Afghanistan
for example, is one of
the only known locations
of the beautiful
blue stone Lapis Lazuli.
It was exported
far and wide.
It was exported
all the way to Egypt
thousands of years ago,
and it was exported
in very large quantities
so that even the Great Mask
of King Tutankhamun
was covered in the stones
from Afghanistan.
That’s just one example.
Of course, it was rich in
so many other minerals
and metals as well.
It has that native wealth.
It also had enough
agricultural potential
and so many resources
that in the past,
many great cities grew
and the population
of Afghanistan
was quite large
4,000 years ago,
3,000 years ago,
2,000 years ago.
I am very happy
to organize
this kind of exhibition.
Most of people
showed their interest,
from the beginning
of this exhibition
in five countries,
like France, Italy,
Netherlands,
United States, Canada.
Many people will have
visited that exhibition,
even more than
one million people.
This is a key
of cultural activities
that as you know now
are the way
to the globalization.
I think that
the world is too small.
It is really important
to have very close
cooperation together.
Organizing
of this kind of exhibition
is really important,
that people have to know
about the past of our race,
country, and also
they can compare.
We always wish
our activities
to always exist with
other countries as well,
and theirs with us.
We always carry
this hope and desire
that cultures go together
step by step.
Which (archeological) finds
do you love the most?
I…
All of our finds are
infinitely valuable to us,
we don’t differentiate
between them.
Whatever culture in which
work has been done
is very invaluable.
Thank you for your
company today.
Next week,
on Tuesday, August 31,
we will continue the last
of our 3-part program.
Now, please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television
for Words of Wisdom,
after Noteworthy News.
May art bring us
closer together.
Thank you for your
company today.
Next week,
on Tuesday, August 31,
we will continue the last
of our 3-part program.
Now, please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television
for Words of Wisdom,
after Noteworthy News.
May art bring us
closer together.
For more information
about the “Afghanistan:
Surviving Treasures”
exhibition in Bonn,
Germany lasting through
October 3, 2010,
please visit
Standing on the roof
of the world, Lhasa,
the capital of Tibet,
one can seem to touch
the clear sky and
hear above the clouds.
Here is the traditional
residence of
the Dalai Lamas:
the Potala Palace.
Find out about this sacred
Tibetan Buddhist site,
Sunday, August 29
on Supreme Master
Television’s
The World Around Us.