A row over Buddhist relics: Who owns them, where they should belong?
With all due respect for what seems to be an unusually charming and harmless religion, it is surprising, for me at least, to see a public row over Buddhist relics. I thought that was a Christian thing.
I recall when I was still a student, enjoying Albert Finney playing Martin Luther in the play of the same name, lamenting that 'Jesus Christ had 12 disciples and 15 of them are buried in Germany.'
John Calvin, the most austere of Protestant reformers, was similarly baffled by the numbers, writing that if all the relics were catalogued, it would be found that 'every apostle has four or more bodies and every saint two or three.'
Erasmus was also suspicious. 'What would Jerome say,' he wrote, 'could he see the Virgin's milk exhibited for money; the miraculous oils; the portions of the true cross, enough, if collected, to freight a large ship?'
And indeed, the field does seem to attract the unscrupulous, like the man who claimed to have found the coffin of Jesus' brother (he allegedly had four brothers and a sister). This manifest forgery was at least surfaced plausibly in the Holy Land. What can we say for the enterprising individual who claimed he had found part of Noah's diary … in Michigan?
Anyway, the story that sent me scurrying down all these historical byways concerned a stash unearthed in India by a colonial official called William Claxton Peppé in 1898.
This included a pot inscribed with the claim that it contained some of the bones of the Buddha, which, according to the usual unreliable sources, were distributed to various pious monarchs after his cremation. There were also other boxes and a variety of small jewels.
The finder was not the keeper. Colonial attitudes to such matters had improved by this time, and the finder passed the lot to the Imperial Museum in what was then called Calcutta. The bones were then passed to the nearest Buddhist monarch, the King of Siam.
Some of them have since been exported to various Buddhist centres, where they are venerated. The finder, though, was allowed to keep some of the jewels on the grounds that they were straight duplicates of other items in the collection.
These were then passed down his family until last week, when it was announced that they would be auctioned in Hong Kong. Cue bitter complaints from India's (aggressively Hindu) government, after which the auction was postponed for negotiations.
The jewels are, according to the Indian government's complaint, 'inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community.'
Well, I am not sure about the cultural heritage. Most of the pieces appear to be very small and not much worked. It may be, of course, that like the profusion of gold bees found in the tomb of the early Frankish King Childeric I, the jewels were attached to a garment that has since rotted away.
The religious claim rests on two questionable pedestals: that the interred bones were in fact those of the Buddha, who had died at least 200 years before the burial (estimates of the date vary) and that the jewels are 'relics' because of their entirely posthumous physical proximity to the remains.
Inevitably, these two questions have been rather overshadowed by two other issues. Should items that found their way out of colonies while they were colonies be the property of the liberated former colonies? Is it appropriate that items of sacred significance to some people should be offered in the marketplace as cultural commodities for purchase by non-believers?
The would-be vendor, Chris Peppé – a descendant of William Claxton Peppé, says he has done some research and in Buddhist circles these items are not regarded as sacred relics. It appears that Buddhists are not as keen on the whole relics idea as Catholics used to be.
This may be so. But I fear few readers will have been impressed by Mr P's claim that the family looked into donating the jewels to a temple or museum but decided that an auction was 'the fairest and most transparent way to transfer these artefacts to Buddhists.' Too convenient.
Also, I must say that historically, the idea of 'relics' was by no means confined to remains of the body of the holy individual concerned.
Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, for example, had a famous collection of more than 5,000 relics. This included a piece of the Saviour's beard, the inevitable particle of the Virgin Mary's milk, St Anne's thumb, and 76 pieces of 'bones from holy places which, on account of faded writing, can no longer be read and identified.'
But there was also a twig from the burning bush, 'one piece of the diaper in which He was wrapped, one piece of the straw on which the Lord lay when he was born,' one sample each of the gold and myrrh presented by the three kings, and no less than 32 fragments of the Holy Cross.
The collection was shown to the public for the last time in 1522, but the souvenir catalogue, with illustrations by German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, can be seen in museums. Which is perhaps where this whole story belongs.
HKFP is an impartial platform & does not necessarily share the views of opinion writers or advertisers. HKFP presents a diversity of views & regularly invites figures across the political spectrum to write for us. Press freedom is guaranteed under the Basic Law, security law, Bill of Rights and Chinese constitution. Opinion pieces aim to point out errors or defects in the government, law or policies, or aim to suggest ideas or alterations via legal means without an intention of hatred, discontent or hostility against the authorities or other communities.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
6 days ago
- RTHK
Air India flight returns to HK over mechanical issue
Air India flight returns to HK over mechanical issue The Air India aircraft involved in the Hong Kong incident is of the same model that crashed in India last week. File photo: Reuters An Air India flight departing from Hong Kong for New Delhi landed safely back in the SAR on Monday after the pilot reportedly decided to circle back over a suspected mechanical problem. Flight AI315 was back at Chek Lap Kok less than an hour after taking off. Indian media reported that the pilot detected a possible technical issue in mid-air for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. "[The cockpit] requested local standby at around 1pm today," the Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement. "The flight landed safely at around 1.15pm. The airport operations were not affected." The incident comes days after an Air India flight to London, using the same type of Boeing aircraft, crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad moments after take-off. All 242 people but one on board were killed. In total, at least 270 people were killed as Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area. (Additional reporting from Reuters)
RTHK
7 days ago
- RTHK
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims Relatives carry the coffin of a victim who was killed in the Air India flight crash during a funeral at a crematorium in Ahmedabad. Photo: AFP Grieving families held funerals in India on Sunday for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the world's worst plane crashes in decades. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in the western city of Ahmedabad. "My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?" said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. "How will they react when they open the gate? But we'll have to do it," Leuva said at the mortuary on Saturday. One victim's relative who did not want to be named said they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. Around 20 to 30 mourners gathered at a crematorium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, chanting prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff. Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 32 identified as of Sunday. "This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only," Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital, said late Saturday. The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, he added, with one or two remaining in critical care. Indian authorities are yet to detail the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners. Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the recovered black box, or flight data recorder, would "give an in-depth insight" into what went wrong. Just one person miraculously escaped the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. (AFP)
RTHK
13-06-2025
- RTHK
Air India crash survivor left amazed by ordeal
Air India crash survivor left amazed by ordeal Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh in hospital in Ahmedabad. Photo: AFP The lone survivor of 242 people aboard a London-bound passenger plane that crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad was on Friday struggling to explain how he miraculously walked out alive from the fireball explosion. "Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn't believe how I managed to come out alive from that," British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh said from his hospital bed, speaking in Hindi to national broadcaster DD News. The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane, which was full of fuel as it took off for a long-haul flight to London, exploded into a burst of orange flame on Thursday afternoon just after taking off. Ramesh – who was in seat 11A according to media reports – was the only one aboard the plane not to be killed, with at least 24 others killed on the ground. His brother was also on the same flight, his family in Britain said. "Within a minute after takeoff, suddenly... it felt like something got stuck... I realised something had happened, and then suddenly the plane's green and white lights turned on," Ramesh said. "After that, the plane seemed to speed up, heading straight towards what turned out to be a hostel of a hospital. Everything was visible in front of my eyes when the crash happened." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Ramesh on Friday at the hospital where he is being treated for burns and other injuries, footage on his YouTube channel showed. Ramesh, 40, is from the British city of Leicester, according to Britain's Press Association news agency. The plane smashed into the buildings just outside the perimeter of the airport. "Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive," he said. "I saw the air hostess and aunties and uncles all in front of me," he said, his voice trailing off in emotion, using a term of respect used in India for older people. "I unfastened my seatbelt and tried to escape, and I did. "I think the side I was on was not facing the hostel," he added. "Where I landed was closer to the ground and there was space too – and when my door broke – I saw that there was space, and I thought I could try to slip out." Videos shared on social media showed Ramesh soon after, dressed in a bloodied T-shirt and limping, but walking towards an ambulance. "My left hand got slightly burnt due to the fire, but an ambulance brought me to the hospital," he said. "The people here are taking good care of me." (AFP)
