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Business Standard
02-05-2025
- General
- Business Standard
Ancient Buddha-linked Piprahwa gems set for auction despite backlash
Buddhist scholars and monks from around the world expressed concerns over the auction of ancient Indian gemstone relics which they say were widely considered to be imbued with the presence of the Buddha. The sale of the Piprahwa gems is scheduled to occur in Hong Kong next week. Sotheby's description characterises them as possessing 'unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical significance' and numerous Buddhists viewed them as physical remains, which had been violated by a British colonial landowner. The relics were discovered interred in a stupa, or burial monument, in Piprahwa, located in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. According to an inscription carved into one of the reliquaries, the stupa contained the remains of the Buddha himself. The gems were believed to have been combined with some of the cremated remains of the Buddha, who died around 480 BC. The gems are being auctioned by three descendants of British engineer William Claxton Peppé, who excavated them on his estate in northern India in 1898. The gems are anticipated to fetch around 9.7 million pounds. The British crown had claimed Peppé's discovery under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act. The majority of the 1,800 gems were sent to the colonial museum in Kolkata, while Peppé was allowed to keep about one-fifth of them. The bones and ash were gifted to the Buddhist monarch King Chulalongkorn of Siam. According to Ashley Thompson of Soas University of London, and the curator Conan Cheong, both experts in Southeast Asian art, for the Buddhists who deposited these relics — as for Buddhists today — the gems, bone and ash all belong to the Buddha and shouldn't just be sold to the highest bidder. Chris Peppé, a great-grandson of William Claxton Peppé who owns the gems along with two other relatives, said none of the Buddhist temples or experts he had consulted over the past 10 years regarded them as corporeal remains. "These perspectives do not represent Buddhist popular opinion,' said Peppé, a film editor and director based in Los Angeles. 'They belong to a Buddhist scholarship.'
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Auction of ancient Indian gems ‘imbued with living presence of Buddha' condemned
Buddhist academics and monastic leaders have condemned an auction of ancient Indian gem relics which they said were widely considered to be imbued with the presence of the Buddha. The auction of the Piprahwa gems will take place in Hong Kong next week. Sotheby's listing describes them as being 'of unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical importance' and many Buddhists considered them to be corporeal remains, which had been desecrated by a British colonial landowner. Prof Ashley Thompson, of Soas University of London, and the curator Conan Cheong, both experts in south-east Asian art, also claimed the auction raised ethical concerns about the ownership of treasures 'wrongfully acquired during the colonial era'. The gems, which are expected to sell for about HK$100m (£9.7m), are being sold by three descendants of the British engineer William Claxton Peppé, who in 1898 excavated them on his estate in northern India. They include amethysts, coral, garnets, pearls, rock crystals, shells and gold, either worked into pendants, beads, and other ornaments, or in their natural form. The gems were originally buried in a dome-shaped funerary monument, called a stupa, in Piprahwa, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India, about 240-200BC, when they were mixed with some of the cremated remains of the Buddha, who died about 480BC. The British crown claimed Peppé's find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, with the bones and ash gifted to the Buddhist monarch King Chulalongkorn of Siam. Most of the 1,800 gems went to the colonial museum in Kolkata, while Peppé was permitted to retain approximately a fifth of them. Thomson said: 'For the vast majority of devotees, these gem relics are not inanimate objects – they are imbued with the presence of the Buddha. 'The relics – bones, ash and gems – were all found together inside the funerary monument, and were meant by those who deposited them to be together in perpetuity. When excavated they were categorised as human remains on the one hand and gems on the other. This sale perpetuates the colonial violence of that separation.' Venerable Dr Yon Seng Yeath, the abbot of Wat Unnalom, the headquarters of Cambodia's Mahanikaya Buddhist order, said the auction 'disrespects a global spiritual tradition and ignores the growing consensus that sacred heritage should belong to the communities that value it most'. Mahinda Deegalle, a Buddhist monastic leader and emeritus professor at Bath Spa University, said the sale was 'appalling' and a 'humiliation of one of the greatest thinkers in the world'. Chris Peppé, a great-grandson of William Claxton Peppé who owns the gems along with two other relatives, said none of the Buddhist temples or experts he had consulted over the past 10 years regarded them as corporeal remains. '[These] arguments don't represent Buddhist popular opinion,' said Peppé, a film editor and director based in Los Angeles. 'They belong to Buddhist scholarship and don't help us find a way to get the gems into Buddhist hands. The Piprahwa gems were relic offerings made at the time of the reinterment of the Buddha's ashes over 200 years after his passing.' The film-maker, who wrote a piece for Sotheby's about his family's custodianship of the gems, said they had considered donating them to temples and museums but this proved to be problematic. 'An auction [in Hong Kong] seems the fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists and we are confident that Sotheby's will achieve that,' he added. One of the experts Chris Peppé consulted, John Strong, a professor emeritus of religious studies at Bates College, Maine, said the gems could be regarded in several ways. He said some experts and devotees saw them as special offerings intended to honour the bodily remains of the Buddha, while others viewed them as a special kind of relic, symbolising 'the ongoing incorruptibility of the quality of Buddhahood'. A Sotheby's spokesperson said: 'We conducted requisite due diligence, including in relation to authenticity and provenance, legality and other considerations in line with our policies and industry standards for artworks and treasures.'
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- The Guardian
Fears for fate of Bagan's towering Buddhist temples after Myanmar earthquake
Rising through the mist of the forest at dawn, with spires reaching more than 200ft, few sights on earth have impressed travellers like the temples and pagodas of Bagan. 'Jerusalem, Rome, Kiev, Benares,' wrote the Scottish journalist and colonial administrator James George Scott in 1910, 'none of them can boast the multitude of temples, and the lavishness of design and ornament'. Lying close to the major Sagaing fault line in the centre of Myanmar, the 2,200 11th-century Buddhist monuments have long been susceptible to seismic events. 'The last earthquake in 2016 caused considerable damage to key monuments,' said Dr Stephen Murphy, a senior lecturer in Asian art at Soas University of London. He added that it was unclear whether Friday's earthquake had caused a similar scale of damage. The stupas and temples were constructed on the banks of the Irrawaddy River by the first unified Burmese kingdom and one of the world's greatest Buddhist civilisations. Bagan's founder, Anawrahta Minsaw, started out with a heroic single combat against his step-brother in about 1044, going on to conquer surrounding nations. One legend, recorded on inscriptions at Bagan, is that he brought back 30,000 prisoners skilled in carving, painting, masonry and many other useful skills, including 'men cunning in perfumes, odours, flowers and the juices of flowers'. The cultural effect was profound: more than 10,000 religious shrines were said to have been built, many decorated with intricate detail that has survived earthquakes and ill-judged restorations by the military junta in the 1990s. Declared a Unesco world heritage site in 2019, the city has suffered under political turmoil and violence. Foreign tourism has plummeted in the last 20 years from about 200,000 to a few thousand visitors. 'We took many visitors until 2017,' says Marc Leaderman at the travel company Wild Frontiers. 'It's a site comparable to Angkor Wat and we're obviously deeply saddened for the people of Myanmar and Thailand.' The site has remained hugely important to local people with more than 400,000 visiting in 2023. Ashley Thompson, a professor of south-east Asian art at Soas, said: 'For populations subjected to sustained political violence over past decades, the glimmers Bagan provides of past prosperity can also sustain hope, even as its Buddhist imperial symbolism can be instrumentalised by those in the highest echelons of power.' The site is also home to a museum housing the Myazedi inscription, a pillar dated to 1113 sometimes called the Burmese Rosetta Stone. It carries four ancient languages, including the earliest known example of Burmese. 'The potential cultural loss Bagan is again facing may pale with respect to the loss of life, but will have an enduring impact on a country where today so many people struggle to simply survive.,' said Thompson.
