The holy jewels of Buddha go to the auction

On Wednesday, a dazzling jewelry associated with the deadly residues of the Buddha, which was welcomed as one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of the modern era, will go into the hammer in Sotheby in Hong Kong.

For more than a century, these effects, which were discovered from Tel Gabbah in North India in 1898, sat largely invisible, which was achieved with a special British group.

Now, while gemstones are preparing to leave their guards custody, they raise not only a university appetite but also some discomfort.

They come from a sparkling wardrobe of nearly 1,800 pearls, rides, beep, rubies, and engraved gold panels, which were first dumped inside a brick room near Buddha’s hometown in the current Uttar Pradesh in India.

Their discovery – besides the bone fragments identified by the engraved jar as belonging to the Buddha himself – echo across the archaeologist. “This is among the most unusual archaeological discoveries ever.”

However, these effects are now facing the glow of the auction room, the BBC experts tell that the question is a heavy suspension: Can the sale of woven treasures closely in the holy past in India be considered?

In 1898, William Klaston Bibi, English Real Estate Director, Stopa in Baevahua, southern Lombini, dug, where Buddha was born. He revealed the effects of engraved and dedicated for nearly 2000 years.

Historians agree on these effects, so that it is the heritage of both the descendants of the Buddha and Buddhist clan around the world. Since then, the effects of bones have been distributed to countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where they are still reverent.

“Do Buddha’s effects can be treated as a work of art to be sold on the market?” Naman Ahuja, a historian of the art of Delhi. And since they are not, how is the seller ethically authorized for their auction?

“Since the seller is called” the guardian “, I would like to ask – the guardian on behalf of that? Is the guardian now allowed to sell these effects?”

Chris Bibi, William’s grandson, told the BBC that the family looked at the donation of antiquities, but all options that have made problems seem to be the auction “most extravagant and most transparent to transfer these traces to the Buddhists.”

Julian King, Sotheby’s International Specialist and Head of Selling, Himalayas, New York, told the BBC to a auction house a comprehensive review of jewelry.

“As with any important elements and holdings offered for sale in Sotheby’s, we conducted the required due care, including in terms of originality, legitimacy and other considerations that are in line with our policies and industry standards for artwork and a place,” King said.

Ashley Thompson, from SAS University in London, Coordinator Konan Cheung, both experts in the art of Southeast Asia, have more questions. In a joint statement, they told the BBC: “Other ethical questions raised by the sale are: Is it necessary to circulate human remains?

The sale of effects also caused anxiety among Buddhist leaders.

“Buddha teaches us not to take others’ property without permission,” Amal Abiwarin of the Mahabouodi Association in London told the BBC. “Historical records indicate that the SAKYAMUNI clan was given the custody of these monuments, as Buddha has emerged from their community. Their desire to preserve these effects besides the adornment, such gemstones, was largely justified by Buddha’s followers.”

Chris Bibi has written The jewelry moved from his old uncle to his cousin, and in 2013 he came to him and two other cousins. This is when the search for their discovery began by his grandfather.

The Los Angeles -based TV director and film editor has written that he had found reports of 1898 newspaper – from Reuters to New York Tribune – announcing the finding of the remains of Buddha.

“The colonialism of India by the British was a source of some cultural shame for me (and still), but among the treasure fishermen who operated their discoveries to England, there were also people focusing on seeking knowledge,” wrote Chris Bibi.

He pointed out that his research revealed many of his ancestors who rejected “the biased Victorians from the past.”

“I learned that Willie Bibi’s first wife chose to travel throughout India to spend the honeymoon and loved the country and its culture. Unfortunately, she died of an unspecified disease. I learned that my grandmother was angry at the laws of the land that applied to Indian women.

“I learned that the excavations in Stopa were an attempt by Willie Bibi to provide work for the tenants who were victims of the famine in 1897.”

He writes his grandfather’s “artistic” plans from slopes and rollers indicating that he was also a trainer who could not resist the project.

William Bibi handed the gemstones, monuments and treatments to the Indian colonial government: the traces of the bones went to the Buddhist king Siam (Rama V). Five grales of residue, stone chest, and most of the other monuments were sent to the Indian Museum in Kolkata – then the imperial museum in Calcutta.

Only “a small part of the repetitions”, which was allowed to keep it, note in the Bibi family. (Sotheby Notes He says that Bibi allowed to keep about a fifth of the discovery.)

The BBC sources told the auction house that “repetitions” are original elements that are considered a surplus for those donors, which the Indian government allowed to keep.

Over the past six years, gemstones have appeared in the main exhibitions, including one in MET in 2023. The Peppé family also launched a Website To “share our research”.

Some scientists argue that the effects of Buddha should never be treated as commodities on the market.

“The Sotheby auction transforms these very sacred materials into things that can be for sale, in the continuation of the colonial violence that it extracted from Stopa and described it as” jewels “and” things of importance to Europeans “, and created a false division with the ashes and bones assigned to it,” Thompson and Cheong.

Chris Babbi BBC told all the monasteries he visited, “There are no Buddhists who consider these physical effects.”

He said: “A few Buddhist academics in Western universities have recently presented an equivalent logic and conditional as they can be considered in this way. It is an academic building that Buddhists do not generally share with those who are aware of the details of the discovery.”

Bibi said that the family “looked at the donation (from the effects) of temples and museums, and they all provided various problems in precise scrutiny.”

“The auction seems the most and most transparent way to transfer these effects to the Buddhists and we are confident that Sotheby will achieve this.”

Some also indicate to KoH-I-NOORThe British East India Company seized and is now part of the crown jewels, where it saw many Indians as stolen. Should the next Buddha jewels be?

“Restoring to the homeland is rarely necessary,” says Ahuja. “Such rare and unique effective effects that define the cultural history of the Earth, however, deserve the exceptional attention of the government.”