SEOUL — A collection of 14th-century Buddhist relics was presented to the media in Seoul on Friday following their return from the United States, where they had been for 85 years. The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism hosted a ceremonial unveiling at its central Seoul museum after the artifacts' arrival on Thursday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, The sarira, or bead-shaped bodily relics from Buddha and two revered monks of the Goryeo Dynasty, Jigong and Naong, were displayed within a replica reliquary. These items, along with several relic fragments from two earlier Buddhas, had been housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, one of the top art museums in the U.S. A landmark agreement in February facilitated their return, with the museum consenting to donate the sarira to the Jogye Order and negotiate the loan of the reliquary. Ven. Hosan, a member of the returning delegation, noted the historical and spiritual significance of the relics' repatriation to their original location at Heoam Temple in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. The return marks the culmination of a 15-year effort by the South Korean government and Buddhist community to secure both the sarira and their reliquary, which were believed to have been illicitly removed from Korea during the Japanese colonial period before being sold to the museum in 1939.