International outrage was sparked in 2001 when Afghanistan’s repressive Taliban regime ordered two 1,600-year-old statues of Buddha in the country’s Bamiyan Valley destroyed, but despite pressure from Western countries to preserve the massive artifacts, the statues were wiped out. Now, a Japanese artist plans to commemorate the Buddhas with a laser-based installation in the Bamiyan Valley which is drawing funding from the United Nations. “Fourteen laser systems will project 140 overlapping faceless ‘statues’ sweeping four miles across Bamiyan’s cliffs in neon shades of green, pink, orange, white and blue.”