Video shows Buddhist relics flown to India's Kushinagar Airport
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 17, 2021 at 17:56
- 4 min read
- By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India
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The video was shared here on Facebook on November 5, 2021. It has been viewed over 1,500 times.
The video's caption states: "#Ayodhya. Fortune News… The rock on which Sitamata used to sit in Ashok Vatika was delivered to Ayodhya by Sri Lanka Air Lines today."
Sita is a character from the Hindu epic Ramayana. She is often called "Sitamata" or Mother Sita in Hindi.
According to the epic, Sita was kidnapped by the evil character Ravana and kept at a place named Ashok Vatika in ancient Sri Lanka.
The same video was also shared with a similar claim here and here Facebook; and here and here on Twitter.
But the claim is false.
The video has in fact circulated in reports that state it shows relics of the Buddha brought to India for the opening of a new international airport in Kushinagar -- not Ayodhya as the posts claim.
A keyword search found an identical video was shared on Facebook on October 22.
The video's Hindi-language caption translates in part as: "A relic of the Buddha was brought to Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh from Sri Lanka."
Buddhists believe Kushinagar is where the Buddha achieved nirvana and is an important pilgrimage site for the religion.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (L) and the Facebook video (R).
The Facebook video corresponds to a clip published by Indian newspaper The Times India on October 20.
The report reads: "Sri Lankan flight welcomed at Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar International Airport on Wednesday. Yogi Adityanath received the Buddha relics at the airport. A team of 123 Sri Lankan delegates accompanied the relics."
A press release issued by India's Press Information Bureau on October 19 confirms the relic is Buddhist and flown to India "on occasion of inauguration of Kushinagar International Airport".
Portions of the press release reads: "In 1898, Archaeologists from Archaeological Survey of India excavated a large mound in the estate of British landowner, William Claxton Peppe in Piprahwa, Sidharthnagar district U.P. It is 160 km from Kushinagar.
"They found a big stone box and inside this stone box there were some caskets."
"These relics are accepted as real relics (bone fragments, ashes, pieces of jewels of the Buddha).
The relics were brought back to Sri Lanka after six days, the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka said in a Twitter post on October 27.
Sacred #Kapilavastu relics of Waskaduwa returned to #SriLanka after a 6-day, multi-city exposition in #India .Received at @BIA_SriLanka on arrival by the Head of Chancery.Diverse nature of linkages in #Buddhism continue to be the cornerstone of people-to-people ties btw &. pic.twitter.com/4dQIkDBffe
— India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) October 27, 2021
A spokesperson for the Airport Authority of India also confirmed to AFP the relics were Buddhist.
"The relic was some ash of Buddha as per my knowledge and it has been sent back to Sri Lanka," the spokesperson said on November 13.
Scholars estimate the Buddha was born in 563 BC.
Hindus believe a sage named Valmiki wrote the Ramayana in 500 AD.
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