Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's decision to destroy the statues in March 2001 was met with international fury -- UNESCO branded the act "a crime against culture" -- but the protests fell on deaf ears.
After trying for weeks to obliterate them with anti-aircraft guns and rockets, Taliban troops finally blew up the relics, placing explosives into holes bored into the rock.
"It was a very sad day for me," says Haiderzad, who saw the images on TV from his home in New York City.
"They didn't understand that these statues don't belong to the Taliban. They belong to Afghanistan, to human history."
The Buddhas' destruction was only one element of the Taliban assault on Afghan culture.
The Taliban banned music, television, movies and theater, and spent three days smashing statues in the Kabul Museum. A small version of the Bamiyan Buddhas sculpted by Haiderzad, now on display in Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, also was defaced by the Taliban.
Today, only rubble is left of the tall statues -- giant sandstone rocks are piled where the Buddhas once stood.
