News Desk
A relic showing Gautama Buddha meditating under the tree of awakening was among the 45 antiquities that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office returned to the people of Pakistan this week. The repatriated items include a Gandharan frieze featuring seven figures of Buddha beside a Bodhisattva Maitreya (a friendly Buddha), a Gandharan box of religious relics and a gray schist relief of Panchika and his consort Hariti Panchika. The relics also include a Hariti Stele, a gray schist head of Buddha below a bodhi, the tree of awakening, and a Gandharan head of Buddha under the bodhi tree — all dating back to the 2nd Century CE.