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After a hailstorm of protests and halted auction the Piprahwa relics to be on exposition in Delhi
View(s):A collection of 349 jewels forming part of the Piprahwa relics of the Buddha that were almost auctioned by the British firm Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in May, but were halted by a hailstorm of protests from Buddhist organisations worldwide and the Government of India, are to be presented for public exposition in New Delhi, the Indian Culture Ministry announced on Friday.
No date has yet been announced for the public exposition that is to run for three months.
A leading private sector firm in India, Godrej Industries Group, acquired the jewels for an undisclosed price after the Indian Culture Ministry issued a legal notice on the auctioneer and the family that held the jewels in possession put it up for auction. The Indian Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had raised the matter with the British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy, but was told the British Government cannot intervene in the matter since the relics belonged to private individuals.
India's Culture Minister and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekawat receives the sacred Piprahwa Gems of the Buddha at the airport in New Delhi, India, July 30 (Right) The Gems when they were advertised by Sotheby's in Hong Kong
The relics were inherited by the Peppé family from their great-grandfather W.C. Peppé who in 1898 dug them out of a stupa on his estate in colonial India (present day Uttar Pradesh) near the current India-Nepal border where they were buried by the Sakya clan together with parts of the bone and ash remains of the Buddha. While their great-grandfather gave the bone and ash remains to the King of Thailand at the time, he had retained one-fifth of the gems that were with the corporeal remains. He had given the remainder of the jewellery to the National Museum in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India.
The price paid by Godrej to the Peppé family is not known, but the jewels are estimated to be worth over USD 100 million.
Indian Union Culture Minister Shekhawat, whose ministry gave muscle to the campaign to win back the jewels plundered during the British colonial era, said that it was “an exemplary case of public-private partnership” to secure the collection.
“A large portion of the acquired collection will be on loan to the National Museum for five years, and Godrej Industries has agreed to display the entire gem collection upon its arrival in India for a period of three months”, he said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X; “It would make every Indian proud that the sacred Piprahwa relics of Bhagwan Buddha have come back after 127 long years. These sacred relics highlight India’s close association with Bhagwan Buddha and his noble teachings. It also illustrates our commitment to preserving and protecting different aspects of our glorious culture”.
The British Maha Bodhi Society that wrote to Sotheby’s in May to halt the auction in Hong Kong said, “Were it not for the vicissitudes of Indian history, such items would not now be offered for sale, rather, they would be preserved – alongside the Buddha’s corporeal relics – as objects of devotion and pilgrimage for all humanity”. Yesterday the society issued a statement looking forward to the public unveiling of the Piprahwa gems in India where they may be viewed by everyone.
According to a report in the Indian Express newspaper, besides the ornaments and gemstones that appeared for auction, the Piprahwa tranche comprises bone fragments believed to be of the Buddha, along with soapstone and crystal caskets, and a sandstone coffer.
Buddhist campaigners to stop the auction at the Sotheby’s Hong Kong branch pointed out that the sellers were targeting the affluent Chinese Buddhists purchasing these relics.
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