Women carry water up the steep cliff slope to the caves where they have taken shelter near where the Buddhas once stood in Bamiyan. The cliff is dotted with such caves and tunnels which once housed Buddhist monks and monastaries and now are temporary homes for refugees who have fled fighting and drought. Bamiyan Valley is located in the Hazarajat at the edge of the Koh-i-Baba range the end of the Hindu Kush. Bamiyan was a prosperous Buddhist kingdom on the ancient Silk Road until the 10th century. Most of the people of this region are of the Hazara tribe and are Shi'a Moslems who have been persecuted for centuries by many of the Pashtun rulers of Afghanistan who are from the Sunni sect. They most recently suffered at the hand of the Taliban who tried for years to ethnically cleanse the region of its Shi'a people.
