Sotheby’s is honoured to present the Piprahwa gems, appearing for the first time in Hong Kong. The 1898 discovery of these gems by William Claxton Peppé at Piprahwa in northern India — where they were found buried together in reliquaries with the corporeal relics of the Historical Buddha — ranks among the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of all time.

The corporeal remains and most of the gem relics discovered at Piprahwa have since been distributed and enshrined at the Wat Saket in Bangkok, the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon, and across Sri Lanka and have hence powered some of the most sacred Buddhist structures across Southeast and South Asia for more than a century.

The “duplicate items” that William Peppé was allowed to retain, which include gemstones, pearls, pattern-impressed gold and silver sheets, have been treasured within the family and have been on loan to various exhibitions, such as Tree & Serpent at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2023.

蘇富比榮幸呈獻首度亮相香港的比普羅瓦佛寶聖物。1898年，威廉・克拉斯頓・佩沛在印度北部比普羅瓦發現這批佛教珍寶，並連同藏有釋迦牟尼遺骨舍利的壇罐一併出土，成為歷史上一次驚人的重要考古發現。

此後，比普羅瓦出土的佛教珍寶就供奉於曼谷金山寺、仰光雪德宮大金塔，以及斯里蘭卡各地，並在過去逾一個世紀中，成為信徒在東南亞和南亞廣建佛教寺院的推動力。

當年威廉．佩沛獲准保留的佛寶重複件，包括半寶、珍珠、錘花金銀葉片等，一直於家族中傳承，借展世界各地，包括2023年在紐約大都會藝術博物館舉行的《樹與蛇：印度早期佛教藝術》。

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The Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha

The Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha

The Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha