Exhibition of Buddha ‘relics’: HC issues notice to MP govt

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, Jabalpur | Updated: Oct 21, 2015 13:15 IST

People throng to see the Buddha relics in Bhopal. (HT file)

The Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday served a notice to the state government on a PIL seeking a probe into some individuals exhibiting the ‘relics’ of Gautam Buddha without following the process laid down by the Centre.

Vishwa Bouddha Sangh’s state president RK Mahale and national secretary Vijay Bouddha had filed the public interest litigation.

Chandrabodhi Patil, national president of Buddhist Society of India Bhopal, Nitin Gajbhiye, secretary, and R Gagan Malik, vice president of Punyashree Ahilyabai Holkar Bahu Uddeshiya Shikshan Santhan, directly communicated with the Sri Lanka’s archaeology department to bring the ‘relics’ to India, the PIL said.

The respondents had held an exhibition in Bhopal on October 19.

One of the petitioners, Vijay Bouddha, editor of Buddhist Times, said the respondents cannot bypass the authority of Union government and procure directly the ‘relics’ from the neighbouring country.

Buddha relics bind India and China

http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com
May 16, 2015, 02.00 AM IST

Buddhism is a strong bond between China and India. And, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda has made its own contribution in strengthening the bond that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is forging with China. The PM presented Chinese President Xi Jingping replica of a stone casket holding mortal remains of Lord Buddha that had been excavated by MSU’s archaeology department from Dev Ni Mori village of Sabarkantha in 1963.

The relics are preserved at MSU’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient History under the Faculty of Arts. “We handed over the casket replica to officials from the government’s industry department. The casket has great historical significance for Gujarat and Buddhism,” said Prof K Krishnan, head of the Department of Archeology and Ancient History. Gujarat is the fifth place in the world where relics of Buddha have been found. “The casket has inscriptions that authenticate that the mortal remains are that of Dasabala – an epithet Buddha.

The inscribed relic was unearthed from a mahastupa at Devni Mori in Shamlaji and is the most important discovery to promote Buddhist tourism in the state from across the globe. “The casket is made of green schist stone. It has a 7-inch diameter and 5- inch height. It was found inside an earthen pot at a depth of 13 feet from the top of the stupa in the core part of the mahastupa which dates back to 3rd-5th century,” the professor said, adding, “The inscription begins on one side of the casket and runs in three circular lines. The remaining text is inscribed in the base.

Lost Chinese Buddha Statue Rediscovered in Budapest

CT scan of statue. From Drents Museum

from Buddhistdoor International
Naushin Ahmed 2015-04-01

The statue, which contains the mummified remains of a monk, was on display at an exhibition titled Mummy World at the Hungarian Natural History Museum when its owner, a Dutch private collector, removed it on 20 March. A statement released by the collector said he had obtained the statue legally in 1994 (other reports say the transaction occurred in 1995 or 1996) from “a sincere Chinese friend in the art circles” (China Daily USA). The statue was bought for US$19,786 (china.org.cn) and shipped to the collector’s residence from Hong Kong.

That same year, villagers in Yangchun, Fujian Province, reported that a Buddhist statue had been stolen from their village temple.

Zhang Yongping, director of Fujian Relics Authentication Center, confirmed that the statues are in fact the same item: “We made several comparisons between the publicized information of the statue in Budapest, and the historical records of the stolen statue in Fujian—It’s a match. For example, Zhanggong Zushi the buddha is documented in the pedigree of Lin Family in Yangchun in the 11th century. The buddha was mummified after he died at the age of 37; Besides the identity, the cushion and kasaya on exhibit match our photo archive of the stolen statue, which were taken in 1989” (cctv.com).

On seeing the statue of their former ancestor on Chinese TV, the villagers of Yangchun wept and set off fireworks. The Cultural Relics Bureau in Fujian Province had been investigating the whereabouts of the statue since its disappearance.

The statue on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. 3 March 2015. From Xinhua/Attila Volgyi

Yangchun archives depict the mummy as a local monk praised for “helping people treat disease and spread Buddhist belief” (cctv-america.com). The monk, named Zhanggong Zushi, was mummified and placed within the statue after his death at the age of 37. According to the archives, the monk lived during China’s Song dynasty (960–1279). He has been venerated at the village temple ever since.

Buddhist relic discovered in central China

Archaeologists have discovered five precious sariras, believed to be collected from the cremated ashes of Buddhist masters, at an ancient tomb in central China’s Hubei Province.

Xinhua, January 13, 2015

Archaeologists have discovered five precious sariras at an ancient tomb in central China’s Hubei Province. [Photo/rmzxb.com]
It is very rare to find sariras in a tomb, as they are usually unearthed at Buddhist temples, Chen Qianwan, head of the archaeology institute of Xiangyang City, said on Tuesday.

The bead-shaped holy objects usually are kept in sacred containers. The most recent find was embedded on the top of a tomb belonging to an official from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) at the foot of the Xianshan Mountain in Xiangyang, according to Chen.

The largest of the sariras has a diameter of about 3 centimeters. In the light, they vary in color from red, purple, blue, cyan and orange.

The objects were found in late December and later identified by prestigious monks and researchers as sariras. They believe the owner of the tomb was a Buddhist.

The findings will be kept in the city’s museum.

[link]

1000-Year-Old Chinese Mummy Gets Ct Scan In Amersfoort

Picture: Jan van Esch / Meander Medisch Centrum

from http://www.nltimes.nl
by Janene Van Jaarsveldt

A special examination recently occurred in the Meander Medical Center. A nearly 1,000 year old mummy received a CT scan and had samples taken with an endoscope. Several hospital employees helped with this unique project in their free time.

The leader of this study is the Amersfoort resident Erik Bruijn, an expert in the field of Buddhist art and culture and guest curator at the World Museum in Rotterdam. Gastrointestinal and liver doctor Reinoud Vermeijden and radiologist Ben Heggelman received the Chinese mummy at the hospital for internal examination on September 3rd. The mummy was part of the Mummies exhibition earlier this year and dates from the 11th or 12th century.

Picture: Jan van Esch / Meander Medisch Centrum

The mummy is the mummified body of the Buddhist master Liuquan, who belonged to the Chinese Meditation School. The discovery of the mummy is of great cultural significance. It is not only the only one of its kind, but also the only Chinese Buddhist mummy that is available for scientific research in the West.

India’s Gift to South Korea: A Sacred Bodhi Tree Sapling

Indian Express
08th March 2014

India’s Ambassador to South Korea Vishnu Prakash (centre) holding the sacred sapling from India’s Bodhi Tree. | IANS

 

South Korea, almost a quarter of whose population of 50 million are Buddhists, has received a sapling of the sacred Bodhi Tree from India’s Bodh Gaya town, a fulfilment of an offer Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, as a special gesture of India’s friendship and goodwill, when she visited India in January this year.

The sapling, carried by representatives of India’s external affairs ministry and the forest service of South Korea, was received at Seoul airport Friday by Vishnu Prakash, India’s ambassador to South Korea, Jeong Byeongwho, deputy director general of South Korea’s foreign ministry, and Lee Chang-jae, director general of the Korean Forest Service, according to a press statement issued by the Indian embassy in Seoul.

The sapling will be temporarily housed at the Korea National Arboretum and, in due course, shifted to its permanent abode at a prominent Buddhist temple in this country to enable Buddhists to pay their respects, something that is being seen as yet another “powerful symbol” of India-South Korea friendship and close people-to-people ties.

[link]

Cambodia recovers stolen Buddhist relics

AP
February 07, 2014

Previous stories on this case may be found here. – Ed.

PHNOM PENH: Authorities in Cambodia have recovered a stolen urn made of gold that contains what are considered to be remnants of Buddha´s body.

The urn was taken from a mountain shrine 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside the capital in December.

Police say it was recovered Thursday in the southern province of Takeo, and one man was arrested in connection with the theft.

The national police force announced the news on their website on Friday, but gave few other details.

Several countries in Asia process relics believed to come from the body of Buddha, and the stolen urn holds enormous religious and cultural significance for Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist nation.

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Theft of Buddha relics sparks showdown between monks, Cambodian government

The Globe and Mail
JULIE MASIS
Jan. 21 2014

What makes the recent case unusual is that in the past, kings, not grave robbers, stole relics for prestige, not for monetary gain

Monks join in the general anti-government protests gripping Cambodia.
(Julie Masis For the Globe and Mail)

At 2 o’clock one morning in early December, a guard in a Cambodian village called his supervisor to report an extraordinary crime: The relics of the Buddha were missing.

What these relics were no one could say. Some accounts described them as the Buddha’s ashes; others said they were teeth, hair or pieces of bone. Enshrined in a golden urn that was locked in a multimillion-dollar monument on top of a hill that towered above the rice fields, the relics were Cambodia’s only remains of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

Shrouded in mystery and believed to transmit spiritual power, the relics have long played a role in political power struggles. Their theft has added to the running conflict over the legitimacy of Cambodia’s government. Hundreds of monks marched through the streets of Cambodia’s capital after the relics disappeared, demanding that the government do something to find them.

Cambodian Monks Call For Urgent Action On Stolen Buddha Relics

PHNOM PENH, Dec 17 (Bernama) — Some 150 Buddhist monks held a protest in the capital on Tuesday in calling the government to take urgent action to deal with last week’s theft of the country’s only Buddha relics, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We urge the government to launch a serious probe into the loss of Buddha relics last week,” the monks’ representative Venerable But Buntenh told reporters in front of the Chak Tomuk Theatre.

A golden urn containing what are believed to be relics of the Buddha including hair, teeth and bones was stolen from a mountaintop shrine in the former royal city of Udong in Kandal province last Tuesday.

Charged men ‘stole before’

Phnom Penh Post
16 December 2013

A man ascends the stairs of a stupa at Oudong Mountain last week. Authorities are investigating the theft of artefacts from the site. Heng Chivoan

Police knew some of the men guarding artefacts at the Royal Treasury on Oudong Mountain had stolen from the site in the past, an official said yesterday, as four security guards and a villager were charged and referred to an investigative judge.

Kandal Provincial Governor Phay Bunchouen told the Post that authorities knew some of the security guards were stealing statues of the Buddha from the site in 2010. Police also said that when they searched the chief of security’s house last week, they discovered numerous statues that had been looted from the site.