By Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj
PURI, Bharat — Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 grouping of men inwards loincloths assembled exterior a 12th-century temple on a hot Apr twenty-four hours inwards Puri, India, preparing to corporation deep within to a pitch-black vault where piles of golden in addition to silvery jewelry were stored nether lock in addition to key. To come inwards Jagannath Temple, dedicated to an of import Hindu deity, the grouping of sixteen archaeologists, Hindu priests in addition to authorities officials had to top through metallic detectors. Their skimpy loincloths were required every bit a safety stair out along amongst oxygen masks inwards instance the vault, unopened for to a greater extent than than 3 decades, lacked breathable air. Their instructions were simple: Check the structural integrity of the vault in addition to ignore the millions of dollars’ worth of antiquities stashed inside. Anyone who spends much fourth dimension inwards India’s Hindu temples is accustomed to beingness only steps from extreme wealth. Locked away inwards hundreds of the country’s largest temples is a staggering total of gold, weighing every bit much every bit 8.8 i M k pounds, the World Gold Council has estimated. Under electrical current marketplace rates, that stockpile would hold upwards worth roughly $160 billion.
But despite their abundance of ancient riches, India’s temples are oftentimes poorly managed. With safety measures lacking, they tin lav hold upwards a tantalizing target for thieves.
A street inwards Puri. The metropolis is a major religious destination inwards eastern India, largely because of the Jagganath Temple, which was built inwards the twelfth century.CreditSmita Sharma for The New York Times The Apr expedition did non accept long. An hr after entering the temple, the men emerged, telling a crowd of waiting pilgrims that they had non needed to come inwards the locked vault, known every bit the Ratna Bhandar, because they had been able to peer within through the bars of a metallic gate.
But ii months later, some other explanation was leaked to local intelligence outlets: The men had non been able to expire inwards because the keys to the vault were missing.
The response was swift. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 top temple administrator was fired. Officials amongst the province authorities of Odisha, which includes Puri, called for an investigation. Soon after, they discovered that 8 pounds of golden donated yesteryear visitors was every bit good missing from the temple’s administrative offices.
Around Odisha, suspicion chop-chop mounted that some of the antique jewelry inwards the vault had been pilfered yesteryear what a local journalist, Sandeep Sahu, called “a criminal nexus of temple officials in addition to servitors” who had access to the keys.
The theft of riches from temples is mutual inwards India. In i of the largest such cases, a Manhattan fine art dealer, Subhash Kapoor, has been implicated inwards the theft of $100 i M k worth of rare antiquities from remote, unguarded temples across India.
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Devotees gathering exterior the temple for a ceremonial rite terminal month.CreditSmita Sharma for The New York Times Operation Hidden Idol, every bit the investigation involving Mr. Kapoor was called, establish that some of the items, such every bit a thousand-year-old bronze statue of the elephant-headed Ganesha, ended upwards at the world’s leading museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Kapoor is facing trial inwards India.
But the hive-shaped Jagannath Temple inwards Puri, which forms component subdivision of the pilgrimage known every bit Char Dham — a four-part circuit traveled yesteryear Hindus to achieve salvation — is far from an slow target.
A tight-lipped commission controls who tin lav enter, where donations of coin or jewelry are stored in addition to how that data is disseminated to the public. The strict entry rules are designed to safeguard both the temple’s condition every bit a sacred infinite in addition to the treasures it contains.
In 1984, Indira Gandhi, thence prime number minister, was famously denied entry because her hubby was a follower of Zoroastrianism, an ancient monotheistic religion. Even today, priests guard the entrance, turning away non-Hindus in addition to some non-Indians from sects such every bit Hare Krishna, which is pop inwards the West.
In the 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence movement, refused to come inwards the temple inwards protestation against its entry restrictions, according to Ramachandra Guha, an Indian historian. The temple eventually opened its doors to some Hindus who had been barred previously, including Dalits, a lower caste. But the insular mind-set remained.
This year, the temple made headlines when India’s Supreme Court suggested changing the dominion preventing non-Hindus from entering. But many recommendations were abandoned.
“There’s a rattling long history of absolute reactionist bigotry,” Mr. Guha said of the temple’s exclusionary policies.
Reports of internal strife receive got every bit good tarnished the temple’s reputation over yesteryear decades. Managers of the temple said inwards the 1978 written report that “misappropriation, theft, lawlessness, harassment of pilgrims in addition to exploitation had teach the monastic tell of the day.”
That same year, to encourage transparency, an inventory was made of the vault. Temple officials reported finding a hoard of nearly 500 pounds of antique silvery in addition to golden ornamental jewelry designed to adorn statues of gods.
Tourists taking a camel ride along Puri’s coast.CreditSmita Sharma for The New York Times The vault was terminal opened inwards 1985, according to R. N. Mishra, a one-time temple administrator, who said that he in addition to a grouping of officials had retrieved some golden for maintenance go in addition to promptly returned the fundamental to the district treasury.
After the furor this yr over the loss of the key, temple caretakers said they had found a duplicate inwards the tape room of the local magistrate’s office. Instead of quelling anger, the apparent uncovering inspired to a greater extent than questions: When was the duplicate fundamental made? Was it real? And where was the original?
Mr. Mishra called the loss of the master fundamental a “gross negligence,” maxim that a duplicate had non existed when he was administrator in addition to that he was non aware of i always having been made. “One key, i lock,” he said.
Dibyasingha Deb, a fellow member of Puri’s majestic menage unit of measurement in addition to the chairman of the temple’s managing committee, said that accusations of mismanagement were unfair. He shifted blame to outsiders trying to “make us a laughingstock.”
“When people write almost these incidents, in addition to they don’t receive got whatever faith inwards our religion, our culture, they would similar to teach inwards a rattling sarcastic form out of a means of projecting things,” he said inwards an interview.
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An level ritual on the beach.CreditSmita Sharma for The New York Times But Pitambar Acharya, a lawyer inwards the Orissa High Court, the highest i inwards Odisha State, said he felt that temple caretakers were bluffing on what he called the “key loss hullabaloo.”
Last month, Mr. Acharya in addition to other officials from the Bharatiya Janata Party, an opposition political party inwards Odisha, lodged a electrical load amongst the law against top province officials inwards accuse of tracking temple valuables, citing their failure to inventory jewelry inwards the vault regularly in addition to questioning whether a duplicate fundamental fifty-fifty existed.
“There has been a clear breach of trust,” he said, relating to unanswered questions on the loss of the temple fundamental in addition to the supposed uncovering of a duplicate.
Outside the temple, inwards a packed plaza where men hammered together wooden chariots to hold upwards used for a festival, anger was palpable amid priests, store owners in addition to visitors.
“The authorities is hiding facts,” said Satyavaan Sahu, 31, a worker at a nearby trinket shop. “It is a disrespect. Everybody’s faith inwards the temple volition expire away.”
As the Sun develop inwards Puri, a throng of devotees climbed the temple’s broad, rock steps, where a human ushered them inwards yesteryear tapping their heads amongst ii slender sticks, a transfer of the deity’s blessings.
Inside the temple, priests squatted to lite crude lamps. Flanked yesteryear pillars covered inwards brightly colored motifs, thousands of men in addition to women threw upwards their hands at the sight of a life-size statue of Lord Jagannath. Nearby, the entrance to the vault was shrouded inwards darkness behind metallic bars.
Sonalata Das, 67, a bespectacled adult woman inwards a brownish silk sari, lingered amongst clasped hands inwards front end of a icon of Lord Jagannath. Asked almost the missing keys, her facial expression upwards hardened.
“I prayed that God would completely destination off the individual who has fooled or thence amongst the fundamental for his wealth,” she said. “May he hold upwards destroyed.”
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