Legacy MattersA remarkable story by James Robbins called National Treasures recounts how the Afghan treasures are reappearing, despite the Taliban's destruction of the Kabal Museum, thanks to the Afghan tradition of the talwildar, the key-holder.
The story of the survival of the artifacts begins with the Afghan tradition of the talwildar, the key-holder, a person who assumes responsibility to safeguard valuables. The key-holder would secure precious items in a box and seal it with a piece of paper, which he and witnesses would sign. Afterwards only the key-holder could break the seal, and he was responsible for the contents. Museum employees regularly assumed this role; in the years before the Soviet invasion the museum's valuables would be locked up nightly following the time-honored practice. In 1979, the museum's curators, knowing that their society was about to enter a dark age, and understanding the implications of that moment, carefully wrapped the artifacts in their care and sealed them in metal boxes. They signed the slips of paper, as they always had, and then scattered the treasures, hiding them in walls, beneath floors, burying them, placing them in barns or attics. Many of the original key-holders and witnesses subsequently died or disappeared, but their relatives assumed the responsibility. Any box of these art treasures would have brought a fortune if smuggled out to the west; yet through war, poverty, chaos and oppression the key-holders and their successors discharged their duties to their country and their honor, waiting for a time when they felt it was safe enough for the boxes to reemerge. And this year, with Afghanistan free of Taliban rule, with the country being reconstructed and on the road to democracy and stability, the key-holders brought forth their priceless consignments to be opened. The seals were broken, the artifacts unwrapped, and Afghan history reborn.
Those who are reflexively pessimistic about the chances for civil society being reestablished in Afghanistan should ponder the implications of this story. The people who preserved these artifacts represent the best elements of Afghan society, and were motivated by the finest instincts — not only the preservation of the past for the benefit of future generations, but upholding their personal responsibility and venerating the honor which they had been given. Under the circumstances they had to live through, it is astonishing.
Posted by Jill Fallon at November 22, 2004 10:13 AM | Permalink