Buddha’s sacred gems are heading for the auctions

On Wednesday, a dazzling jewelry cache linked to the fatal remains of the Buddha, which were hailed as one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries in the modern era, will pass under the hammer of Sotheby’s in Hong Kong.

For more than a century, these relics, discovered with a dusty mound in northern India in 1898, have remained largely invisible, rocked by a private British collection.

Now, while gems are preparing to leave the guard of their guards, they stir not only the appetites of collectors but also a little discomfort.

They come from a sparkling treasure of nearly 1,800 pearls, rubies, topaz, sapphires and patterned gold sheets, first dressed in the depths of a brick chamber near the birthplace of the Buddha in the current Pradesh in India.

Their discovery – alongside the fragments of bone identified by an urn inscribed as belonging to the Buddha itself – has passed on the world of archeology. Nicolas Chow, president of Asia of Sotheby’s and the world chief of Asian art, thinks that it is “among the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of all time”.

However, as these relics are now confronted with the dazzling of the auction room, the experts tell the BBC that a question is hung: can the sale of treasures so intimately woven in the sacred past of India can be considered ethical?

In 1898, William Claxton Peppe, director of the English domain, searched a stupa in Piprahwa, just south of Lumbini, where the Buddha was born. He discovered relics registered and devoted almost 2,000 years ago.

Historians agree that these relics, intact so far, are the legacy of the descendants of the Sakya clan of the Buddha and Buddhists in the world. The bone relics have since been distributed to countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where they continue to be venerated.

“Are the relics of the Buddha a merchandise which can be treated as a work of art for sale on the market?” Wonder Naman Ahuja, an art historian based in Delhi. “And as they are not, how is the seller ethically authorized to the auctions?”

“Since the seller is called the” goalkeeper “, I would like to ask – guardian on behalf?

Chris Peppé, William’s great-grandson, told the BBC that the family had planned to donate relics, but all the options presented problems and an auction seemed to be the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists”.

Julian King, international specialist in Sotheby and Head of Sales, Himalayan art, New York told the BBC that the auction house had made a thorough examination of jewelry.

“As is the case with the important elements and collectibles that are offered for sale at Sotheby’s, we have led the reasonable diligence required, including in relation to authenticity and provenance, legality and other considerations in accordance with our policies and industry standards for works and treasures,” said King.

Ashley Thompson, from Soas in London University, and the conservative Conan Cheong, both experts in Southeast Asia, have more questions. In a joint declaration, they told the BBC: “The other ethical questions raised by the sale are: should human remains be exchanged? And which decides what human remains are or not? For many Buddhist practitioners around the world, the gem on sale are an integral part of bones and ashes.”

The sale of relics also aroused the concern of Buddhist leaders.

“The Buddha teaches us not to take the property of others without authorization,” the BBC Amal Abeyaadène of the British Mahabodhi Society, based in London told the BBC. “Historical files indicate that the Sakyamuni clan has obtained custody of these relics, because the Buddha emanated from their community. Their wish was that these relics were preserved alongside parorats, such as these jewels, so that they are venerated by perpetuity by the supporters of the Buddha.”

Chris Peppé wrote that jewelry went from his grand-uncle to his cousin, and in 2013 came to him and two other cousins. It was then that he started looking for their discovery with his great-grandfather.

The television and editor -in -chief television director based in Los Angeles wrote that he had found newspaper reports from 1898 – from Reuters to the New York stand – announcing the discovery of the remains of Buddha.

“The colonization of India by the British had been a source of cultural shame for me [and continues to be] But, in the midst of the treasure hunters who brought their discoveries to England, there were also people focused on the pursuit of knowledge, “writes Chris Peppe.

He noted that his research revealed a lot about his ancestors whom he had rejected as “victorians prejudicial to a bygone era”.

“I learned that Willie Peppe’s first wife chose to travel to India for her honeymoon and loved the country and culture. Unfortunately, she died of an unpertified disease. I learned that my grandmother was naked by terrestrial laws that applied to Indian women.

“And I learned that the excavation of the stupa was an attempt by Willie Peppe to provide work to his farmers who are victims of the famine of 1897.”

He writes the “technical ramps and pulleys diagrams of his great-grandfather suggest that he was also a qualified engineer who could not resist a project”.

William Peppe has given the jewels, relics and relics to the colonial Indian government: bone relics went to the Buddhist King of Siam (Rama V). Five relics, a stone trunk and most of the other relics were sent to the Indian Kolkata Museum – then the Imperial Museum of Calcutta.

Only a small “portion of duplicates”, which he was allowed to keep, remained in the peppe family, he notes. (Sotheby’s notes say that peppe was authorized to keep about a fifth of the discovery.)

Sources have told the BBC that the auction house considers that “duplicates” as original articles considered to be an excess to those given, that “the Indian government has allowed Peppe to keep”.

Over the past six years, the GEMS have appeared in major exhibitions, including one in 2023. The Peppe family has also launched a website to “share our research”.

Some researchers argue that Buddha’s relics should never be treated as market products.

“The auction of Sotheby transforms these highly sacred materials into harmful objects, in the continuation of acts of colonial violence which extracted them from a stupa and called them ‘` jewels” and objects of interest for Europeans’ ‘, creating a false division with the fragments of ashes and bones with which they were devoted “, say Thompson and Cheong.

Chris Peppe told the BBC that in all the monasteries he had visited “no Buddhist considered them as bodily relics”.

“Some Buddhist academics in Western universities have recently offered a convoluted logic and defying the facts by which they can be considered as such. It is an academic construction which is not shared by Buddhists in general who know the details of the discovery,” he said.

Pepped said the family “examined the donation [of the relics] to temples and museums and they all presented various problems to a more in -depth examination “.

“An auction seems the fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists and we are convinced that Sotheby’s will be able to do it.”

Some also indicate the Koh-i-Noor, seized by the British East India Company and now being part of the jewels of the Crown, many Indians considering it stolen. Should Buddha jewelry be the next ones?

“The repatriation, I believe, is rarely necessary,” explains Ahuja. “Such rare and sacred relics which are unique and which define the cultural history of a land, however, deserve the exceptional attention of the government.”