US returns Buddhapada sculpture to Pakistan

The US has returned a Buddhist stone sculpture to Pakistan, as it was stolen from the Swat Valley in that country in the 80s. The ancient Buddhist sculpture depicts Buddhapada (Buddha's footprints) in a panel sculpture comprising a pair of footprints, swastiks alternating with flowers on the sole, a bigger lotus, anchor and another flower lower down completing the footprint. A Japanese antique dealer, who took the panel sculpture from Tokyo to the US, pleaded guilty of owning the stolen property. The sale in auction that could have fetched $1 million was stopped by the New York police who returned the stolen sculpture to the Pakistan chief of mission Rizwan Saeed Sheikh on Wednesday. Sheikh said fancifully that the sculpture was `an important element of the cultural history of Pakistan.' Pakistan is undoing its Hindu past, so where is the question of its being an important element of its cultural history? The Pak mission would do service by giving it to Smithsonian, where Buddhapada will be honoured. Moreover, its cultural history is only terror, totally opposed to Buddha's principle of `Being compassionate and not killing any living being.'