After over two decades, a 1200 year old Buddha idol that had disappeared from the Devisthan Kundalpur Temple — an important Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Gaya district of Bihar, will be returning to India.
The beautifully crafted stone Boddhisatva was illicitly stolen from the temple and smuggled out of the country in early 2000. Recovered from a private Italian collector, the statue was voluntarily surrendered to the Consulate General of India in Milan on Thursday evening.
