Buddha’s sacred jewels head to auction – should they be returned to India?

A memory of dazzling diamonds connected to the Buddha’s mortal bones, which have been hailed as one of the most astounding archaeological finds of the present era, will go under the nail at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

These remains, which were discovered in a filthy mound in north India in 1898, have sat mostly unobserved and were cradled by a secret English collection for more than a century.

Now that the gems are getting ready to leave their keepers ‘ custody, they are piqueing the collectors ‘ appetites as well as some unease.

They were first discovered deep inside a cement room close to the Buddha’s birth in present-day Uttar Pradesh in India, where they were a glittering stockpile of roughly 1,800 pearls, rubies, sapphire, sapphires, and patterned metal sheets.

Their discovery spread throughout the world of antiquities, along with bone fragments that were discovered by an placed pot as belonging to the Buddha himself. This is “among the most amazing historical discoveries of all time,” according to Nicolas Chow, president of Sotheby’s Asia and nose of Asian Art worldwide.

However, experts tell the BBC that a problem hangs high as these relics then face the light of the auction room: is the sale of treasures so deeply woven into India’s spiritual past been viewed as moral?

An English property manager named William Claxton Peppé excavated a stupa at Piprahwa, north of Lumbini, in 1898, where it is thought that the Buddha was born. He discovered treasures that had been buried nearly 2, 000 centuries ago.

These remains, which remain intact until then, are considered to be the history of both the Buddha’s Sakya community ancestors and Buddhists around the world. The spine treasures have since been given to nations like Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, where they are still revered.

Are Buddha treasures a product that may be sold on the market as a work of art? magic at the Delhi-based art writer Naman Ahuja. ” And since they aren’t, how is the seller ethically permitted to bid them?”

I want to know who the owner is since the owner is known as the” custodian” on their behalf. Do they now have the right to buy these items of treasures under the custody of the curator?

William’s great-grandson, Chris Peppé, told the BBC that the community considered donating the treasures, but there were difficulties and an auction sounded like the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these treasures to Buddhists” was the best option.

Julian King, Sotheby’s global expert and mind of sale at Himalayan Art in New York, claimed the auction house had conducted a thorough examination of the jewelry.

We conducted the necessary due diligence, including in relation to sincerity and origin, propriety, and various factors in accordance with our policies and business standards for artwork and treasures, King said.” As is the case with any critical items and collectibles that are offered for sale at Sotheby’s, we conducted needful due diligence, including in relation to authenticity and provenance, legality, and other considerations.

More inquiries are being raised by director Conan Cheong and Soas University of London director Ashley Thompson. They jointly told the BBC:” Recent social concerns raised by the sale include: May human remains become traded? And who ultimately decides whether or not people bones are preserved? The stones on sale are a necessary component of the bones and dust for several Buddhist professionals around the world.

Buddhist leaders have expressed concern about the price of the remnants.

According to Amal Abeyawardene of the British MahaBodhi Society in London,” The Buddha teaches us not to get other people’s property without agreement.” According to historical records, the Sakyamuni dynasty was given control of these relics because their community had the Buddha. They desired that the Buddha’s adherents would continue to venerate these relics along with other adornments like these gems.

Chris Peppé has written that his great-uncle gave his niece the jewels in 2013, and they also gave them to him and two additional relatives in 2013. When did he begin conducting his research into their revelation, which his great-grandfather had made.

The Los Angeles-based broadcast producer and director claimed to have discovered 1898 news reports announcing the discovery of Buddha’s remains, from Reuters to the New York Tribune.

Although the European colonization of India had caused me some social embarrassment, and it still does, among the treasurers who brought their discovers back to England, there were also people who were focused on the pursuit of knowledge, writes Chris Peppé.

He noted that his studies revealed a bunch about his predecessors, who he had dismissed as “prejudicing Victorians from a bygone era.”

I was informed that Willie Peppé’s second woman, who wanted to spend her honeymoon in India, adored the land and its traditions. She sadly passed away from a unforeseen disease. My mother was upset about Hindu women’s land laws, according to what I learned.

And I learned that Willie Peppé made an effort to rescue his tenant producers who had been affected by the hunger of 1897 by digging the temple.

He claims that his great-grandfather was a skilled expert who could not reject a job because “his technical diagrams of ramps and pulleys suggest that he was also a trained expert.”

The colonial Indian government received the bone relics from the Buddhist King of Siam ( Rama V ), and William Peppé gave them the gems, relics, and reliquaries. The Indian Museum in Kolkata, followed by the Imperial Museum of Calcutta, received five relic urns, a stone chest, and the majority of other relics.

He notes that the Peppé family only had access to a small “portion of duplicates,” which he was permitted to keep. ( Sotheby’s notes state that Peppé was permitted to retain about one-fifth of the discovery. )

Sources told the BBC that the auction house considers the “duplicates” to be originals that the” Indian government permitted Peppé to retain,” and that the” Indian government allowed Peppé to retain.”

The gems have been on display at major exhibitions for the past six years, including one at The Met in 2023. Additionally, the Peppé family has created a website to” share our research.”

Some scholars contend that Buddha relics should never be sold as market goods.

Thompson and Cheong claim that the Sotheby’s auction” transforms these highly sacred materials into sellable objects” in a continuation of colonial violence that divided them into “objects of interest to Europeans” and “geeks” from which they were consecrated, creating a false division with the ash and bone fragments they were consecrated with.

No Buddhists regard these as corporeal relics, according to Chris Peppé, who told the BBC in all the monasteries he had visited.

A few Buddhist academics&nbsp at western universities have recently provided a complicated, fact-defying logic that allows them to be regarded as such. It’s an academic construct that Buddhists who are well-versed in the details of the discovery are not attracted to, he said.

Peppé claimed that the family “looked into donation ] of the relics to temples and museums and they all had issues that needed to be examined more closely.”

We are confident that Sotheby’s will achieve that goal because it seems the fairest and most transparent way to give these relics to Buddhists are through an auction.

Many Indians view The Koh-i-Noor as stolen, which was taken by the British East India Company and is now a part of the Crown Jewels. Should the Buddha’s jewels be the focus next?

According to Ahuja, “repatriation is rarely necessary.” However, the government should pay close attention to these extraordinary and sacred relics, which are special and contribute to a nation’s cultural history.