Holiness for Sale? Dispute Over Buddha Relics Ahead of Hong Kong Auction

Indian the Ministry of Culture threatened to take legal action against the house Sotheby's auction house in Hong Kong if he does not stop the auction of jewels related to Buddha's relics, BBC reported on Tuesday. The Indian government has requested return of the gemstones. The auction is to take place on Wednesday.

The Indian Ministry of Culture said in a statement that the sale “violates Indian and international laws as well as UN conventions” and demanded that jewels be treated as sacred.

The conduct of the auction was also met with criticism from many Buddhists and art researchers around the world.

The auction house Sotheby's announced that the case was being handled by it under consideration.

The ministry also contacted Chris Peppe, the great-grandson William Claxton Peppe, who conducted excavations in India in 1898. It has been found that sellers who claim to be the owners of the stones noble, they have no right to "dispose of or appropriate property", which, is, as it has been described, “an extraordinary heritage of humanity.”

Chris Peppe told the BBC that the family was considering handing over the relics to the faithful, but - in her opinion - it turned out to be too a big problem and the auction seemed to them to be the "most fair and a transparent way to convey these relics to Buddhists."

The collection found by William Claxton Peppe includes almost 1,800 pearls, rubies, topaz, sapphires and patterned gold plates and an urn containing bones considered to be relics of Buddha. The treasure, dated over 2 thousand years old, was discovered in the present-day state of Uttar Pradesh, in the place considered to be the birthplace of Buddha. Nicolas Chow, chairman Sotheby's Asia, calls it "one of the most extraordinary discoveries archaeological sites of all time."

Shortly after his discovery, William Peppe donated the jewels and relics to the Indian authorities of that time. Today the valuables and bones are in collection of the Indian Museum in Calcutta. Only a small part remained in the hands the finder's family. According to Sotheby's, Peppe could have kept about one fifth treasure.

The ministry stressed in its statement that the jewels "are not may be treated as specimens", but as "sacred objects, placed in the grave and offered for the holy body" of Buddha. (PAP)

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