Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

From reading the information on this website, it seems that Neil Peppe (whose grandfather found the Buddha's relics and jewels at Piprahwa) is going to auction (sell) the jewels:

On 31st May, 1.45pm (UK Time) I appear on the Channel Four programme "Four Rooms" where I show the jewels to several of Britain's top dealers.
If you are interested in owning some of these historical jewels please contact the well respected London dealer of Asian antiquities and art - John Eskenazi
(email: [email protected])

I wonder who will buy them and if they will be available for the public to view them? Wouldn't it be better to offer them to a Buddhist institution that would take proper care of them?

The Piprahwa Jewels

“This relic deposit of the Lord Buddha is the share of this renowned Sakya brethren, his own sister’s children and his own son.”
Translation of the inscription on the Piprahwa reliquary

This website tells the story of how my ancestors became involved in one of the most significant archaeological and religious finds in Buddhist history - the discovery of the Piprahwa Stupa in India, the location of the Buddha's ashes and the beautiful jewels interred with them.
It also endeavours to address the conspiracy theories about the Piprahwa excavation using archaeological and documentary evidence, rational and scientific argument, and the academic opinion of several world leading experts in Indian history and languages.
On the 11th May this year the documentary Bones of the Buddha shown on the National Geographic Channel conclusively showed that the Piprahwa inscription is authentic and could never have been forged.

http://piprahwajewels.co.uk/

Fascinating story of how the Buddha's relics (saririka-dhatu) were discovered at Piprahwa stupa and identified as real, together with an ancient Asokan inscription in Brahmi script:

Bones of the Buddha (National Geographic documentary)
http://youtu.be/Zfxn9lNfiL8

Hi,

So it seems that recent National Geographic documentary was a 40 min. advertisment of the auction?

gavesako wrote:Fascinating story of how the Buddha's relics (saririka-dhatu) were discovered at Piprahwa stupa and identified as real, together with an ancient Asokan inscription in Brahmi script:

Bones of the Buddha (National Geographic documentary)
http://youtu.be/Zfxn9lNfiL8

Fascinating indeed! I can't believe these precious jewels date back to the time of Emperor Ashoka. That's over 2000 years old.

Some of relics are now at the top of Wat Saket in Bangkok. I think they sometimes take them out to show during Visakha Puja.

Here are also some nice pictures showing the relics discovered in India:

http://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpr ... sy-part-i/
http://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpr ... y-part-ii/
http://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpr ... -part-iii/
http://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpr ... y-part-iv/

For a different view of these matters from that accorded by the film, see 'The Piprahwa Deceptions' at http://www.piprahwa.org.uk

National Geographic released a documentary recently (5 days ago as far as youtube is concerned) on the tomb of Siddartha Gautama, and I'd recommend giving it a watch. Worth the 50 minutes IMO.




Regards,

Benjamin

The whole story is described at length in this recent volume:

The Buddha and Dr Fuhrer: An Archaeological Scandal
by Charles Allen
Publication Date: 10 Mar 2011
This true account of the scandal that enveloped the discovery in 1898 of an inscribed casket said to contain the ashes of the Buddha, is set against the background of the high noon of the British Raj. In January 1898 a British landowner, William Claxton Peppé, excavated a large Buddhist brick stupa on his estate close to India’s border with Nepal. At a depth of 24 feet he uncovered a huge stone coffer. What made this discovery so important was an inscription found on the top of one of the reliquary caskets - declaring it to contain ashes of the Buddha. This news aroused world-wide interest since no other so well authenticated relics of the Buddha had ever been found. But almost immediately it became known that a German archaeologist, Dr Anton Führer, working nearby at the same time had not only made bogus claims and faked his results but had also been associated with the dig. Führer was quickly unmasked by a British magistrate who himself had a stake in the excavation.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Buddha-Dr-F ... 1906598908

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VAPq ... r_versions

interesting documentary

gavesako wrote:The whole story is described at length in this recent volume:

But almost immediately it became known that a German archaeologist, Dr Anton Führer, working nearby at the same time had not only made bogus claims and faked his results but had also been associated with the dig. Führer was quickly unmasked by a British magistrate who himself had a stake in the excavation.

So it looks like this is a fake too? There probably is little to no hope in finding the real remains.

When I lived in Israel I visited the Old City of Jerusalem often and there were Palestinian and Arab-Israeli vendors selling splinters and pieces of the "true cross" of Jesus to tourists. When they ran out of supply they just went back to the local lumber store.

I have noticed this too with the so-called relics of Buddha, Sariputta, Moggallana, etc. There are so many temples with supposedly bone fragments of the Buddha that if they are real, the Buddha must have been about 1,000 feet tall to produce so many remains.

The relics found by Srivastava in 1971 seem to be most reliable ones:

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 797182.ece
http://www.akshardhool.com/2012/08/the- ... t-iii.html

The only possible place for a real relic of the Buddha would be in the middle of the great Asokan stupa at Sanchi, and it's highly unlikely that it will ever be disinterred. As for Srivastava's alleged Piprahwa bone relics of 1973, the question must be asked why, if the existing Piprahwa stupa is Asokan (highly doubtful) bone relics were found at two levels within the same site. The answer that is given in the film - Asokan reinterment of an earlier deposit - is disingenuous, since Asoka is said to have raided the original eight stupas to REMOVE their relics, and he would certainly not have left them in two levels as a result of his action. That wouldn't make sense!

diptych4 wrote: As for Srivastava's alleged Piprahwa bone relics of 1973, the question must be asked why, if the existing Piprahwa stupa is Asokan (highly doubtful) bone relics were found at two levels within the same site. The answer that is given in the film - Asokan reinterment of an earlier deposit - is disingenuous, since Asoka is said to have raided the original eight stupas to REMOVE their relics, and he would certainly not have left them in two levels as a result of his action.

AFAIK, Asoka didn't "raid" the original eight stupas to remove relics.

http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/rhy1.htm

Piprahwa stupa shows the reverse process - all kinds of bones believed to be Buddha's relics were collected and interred over the top of original relics.

I have noticed this too with the so-called relics of Buddha, Sariputta, Moggallana, etc. There are so many temples with supposedly bone fragments of the Buddha that if they are real, the Buddha must have been about 1,000 feet tall to produce so many remains

lol - thats why it bothered me when in the film they said something like : " the only claimed remains of the buddha"

The showpiece of the film is the sequence where Harry Falk, from Berlin University, examines the 1898 Piprahwa coffer and inscribed urn, and endorses them as genuine Asokan artefacts. In 1991, Falk wrote a piece which examined the Kapilesvar stone slab found in Orissa in 1928, which shows a badly-copied version of the Lumbini pillar inscription. Against all other expert opinion - which decreed it to be an absurd modern fake - Falk solemnly asserted that it was an early pilgrim’s souvenir from the Lumbini site, and dated it to 4th - 8th cent. AD. He now confesses that he was wholly wrong however, and that the slab is, indeed, a risible modern forgery. For the details, see his ‘Asokan Sites and Artefacts’ (2006) p.292.