Quote:
Dear Friends,
Your assistance with the following query, if possible, would be most welcome for my present researches.
The 'Journal of the Maha-Bodhi Society', Calcutta (May 1900, pp. 2-3)
discloses that portions of the bone relics, found at Piprahwa in 1898, were
accorded by the Siamese to representatives from Burma and Ceylon in January 1900. According to this article, it was stipulated that these relics,
supposedly those of the Buddha, were then to be interred at Kandy,
Anuradhapura, and Colombo respectively. I can now find no references to the presence of these items at any of these sites however (there is no mention of them on the Internet, for example). Since there has also been a good deal of controversy surrounding the legitimacy of this find since 1898, can you please inform me on the following points:
1. Are these 1898 Piprahwa relics still housed at these locations?
2. What is the present attitude of the Ceylonese Buddhist authorities
towards these items? Are they still considered authentic?
I shall look forward to your reply with much interest, remaining meanwhile,
Yours in the Dhamma,
(Mr) T. A. Phelps
(UK researcher)
