On May 7, Sotheby’s Hong Kong will auction a collection of several hundred ancient Indian gem relics linked to Buddha’s mortal remains, estimated to sell for about HK$100 million (approximately $12.9 million USD).
However, the sale from a private British collection has been condemned by Buddhist academics and monastic leaders.
The Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha date back to Mauryan Empire, Ashokan era, circa 240-200 BC and have been described by Sotheby’s as “one of the most astonishing archaeological finds of the modern era” and “of unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical importance”.
In 1898, the gems were unearthed by British engineer William Caxton Peppé from a dusty mound in northern India, part of his estate.
According to The Guardian, “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.”
For a hundred years, the “amethysts, coral, garnets, pearls, rock crystals, shells and gold, either worked into pendants, beads, and other ornaments, or in their natural form” have largely not been seen by the public, due to being kept in a private British collection.
The British crown claimed Peppé’s discovery under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act. The cremated remains of the Buddha were gifted to the Buddhist monarch King Chulalongkorn of Siam, and have since been distributed to countries in South Asia where they are venerated, according to BBC News.
The Guardian also reported that “while most of the 1,800 gems went to the colonial museum in Kolkata, Peppé was permitted to retain approximately a fifth of them.”
Several historians interviewed by BBC News and The Guardian said the gems are the heritage of both the Buddha’s Sakya clan descendants and Buddhists worldwide.
“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,” Ashley Thompson, a professor of SOAS University of London, told the Guardian. “When excavated they were categorized as human remains on the one hand and gems on the other. This sale perpetuates the colonial violence of that separation.”
“Are the relics of the Buddha a commodity that can be treated like a work of art to be sold on the market?” Naman Ahuja, a Delhi-based art historian, told BBC News. “And since they aren’t, how is the seller ethically authorized to auction them?
“Since the seller is termed the ‘custodian’, I would like to ask – custodian on whose behalf? Does custodianship permit them now to sell these relics?”
Chris Peppé, William’s great-grandson, told the BBC his family looked into donating the ancient gems. However, he said an auction seemed the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists”.
The live sale will take place at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on the morning of May 7.
