{"id":5501,"date":"2025-04-26T16:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T20:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2025-04-27T09:01:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:01:40","slug":"selling-the-buddhas-relics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2025\/04\/26\/selling-the-buddhas-relics\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling the Buddha\u2019s Relics"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>ISSN 1076-9005<br \/>\nVolume 32, 2025<\/h6>\n<h3>Selling the Buddha\u2019s Relics Today<\/h3>\n<p>Conan Cheong and Ashley Thompson<br \/>\nSOAS University of London<\/p>\n<p>On May 7, 2025, Sotheby\u2019s Hong Kong will offer for sale \u201cgem relics\u201d of the Buddha that were dug up by British colonial landowner W. C. Pepp\u00e9 out of the Piprahwa st\u016bpa in Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1898. In Buddhist contexts, they are considered <em>\u015bar\u012bra<\/em>\u2014corporeal remains imbued with the living presence of the Buddha. Centering Buddhist ontologies of relics evidenced in epigraphic and ritual traces, this article calls attention to the ethical implications of placing such sacred remains on the art market. It situates the continued division of \u201cgems\u201d from \u201cbones and ash\u201d in colonial processes of extraction, classification, and revaluation through archaeological and museographic practice.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/files\/2025\/04\/Selling-the-Buddhas-Relics-Today-final-3.pdf\"> Read article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 32, 2025 Selling the Buddha\u2019s Relics Today Conan Cheong and Ashley Thompson SOAS University of London On May 7, 2025, Sotheby\u2019s Hong Kong will offer for sale \u201cgem relics\u201d of the Buddha that were dug up by British colonial landowner W. C. Pepp\u00e9 out of the Piprahwa st\u016bpa in Uttar Pradesh, India, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/2025\/04\/26\/selling-the-buddhas-relics\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Selling the Buddha\u2019s Relics<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[333301],"tags":[2658,333293,71936,2663,333306,2807,2548],"class_list":["post-5501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-volume-32-2025","tag-buddha","tag-capitalism","tag-colonialism","tag-indian-buddhism","tag-piprahwa","tag-relics","tag-ritual"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5X8HA-1qJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/buddhistethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}