$22 Billion In Gold, Diamonds, Jewels Found In Indian Temple
npr.org
npr.org
On another note; the kings of the old Travancore (who built this temple) were known for living a very austere life compared to the other Maharajas. They did invest in a lot of infrastructure during their time; mostly during the last half of the 19th century and early 20th century. There was an urban legend in my city (according to my grandmother) that in the event of an emergency the kings of Travancore had enough wealth to pull back the country out of it. This probably was it. I wouldn't really blame the kings for storing this under the vaults; it was intended to be used for famines and such; it wasn't as if they enjoyed any of this. The complicated history of Travancore is probably the reason why it stayed hidden for so long.
What happens to this now is the big question. There's going to be a big argument amongst the secularists, the spiritualists, the archaeologists and finally the government regarding this.
Atleast it made my city famous :)
It would be nice if they could use the gold for something beneficial to the people of the area (improve roads or schools or something), but its naive of me to think they can easily sell this stuff. Maybe loan the treasures to museums for a fee?
The article did mention that a lot of the historic pieces are probably going to end up in museums, depending on the outcome of the discussion about who should control the riches. It would not surprise me if a small amount of it is sold at auction, either to museums or private collectors. Renting them out or loaning them to museums would be a much better outcome, though - I hate to hear about works of art that are held in private collections, and not even sporadically publicly viewable.
Even if the court decides that the control of the wealth should go to the government, there is going to be huge contention since the donations were religious in nature, and has such strong connotation.
A quick back of the envelope calculation indicates $22 billion corresponding to 450 metric tons of gold. This is an immense quantity: India's current gold reserve is about 615 tons [1], and there were recent years when it dropped under 400. I will take this report with a grain of salt until it receives very strong confirmation.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reporte...
Maybe... haha, this sixth door is the key to the world ending in 2012 :P
If I was the royal family, I'd buy Facebook.
"The panel managed to open the sixth vault but found an iron wall inside it, reports the BBC. The sixth vault has a snake on the front door and quoting an unnamed royal family source, it reports that opening it "might be a bad omen." The Guardian reports that the sixth vault has "special locks" but experts should be able to examine them and open it by Friday."
While I totally disagree with the term "superior" culture (honestly, Beethoven, Bach, Da Vinci, Roman empire? No way.), I'd also urge you to look up India's art, music and general lifestyle before the British invasion, and it's not as if we were tribals living off of hunting and gathering either.
And as to your second comment about "stealing riches from its people", it's called taxing, and every kingdom levies taxes and stores them _somewhere_. In this case it happened to be a temple. If anything, it speaks to the prosperity of a kingdom that they could afford to even spend so much on art.