Nepal has lost hundreds of precious artefacts stolen after the country opened up to the outside world in the 1950s (Prakash MATHEMA) (Prakash MATHEMA/AFP/AFP)
Kathmandu: A centuries-old Buddha statue stolen from a Nepali temple was reinstalled in its original location on Friday, one of several artefacts returned from foreign museums and collectors in recent years.
The statue, dating to the 13th century, was carried in a palanquin back to its pagoda-style temple in the capital Kathmandu to the sound of traditional music.
"I feel so happy, we all do. Our god is coming back," temple-goer Sunkesari Shakya, 67, told AFP, recalling the day the statue was stolen, wreaking "havoc" in the community.
In a ceremony attended by a visiting US envoy, the statue returned from New York in 2022 was placed back on its original stone plinth.
The statue was taken from the temple in the 1980s and later emerged at Tibet House US, a New York cultural centre, where it was gifted by an unknown monk, according to Nepal's Department of Archeology.
Sergio Gor, Washington's special envoy to South and Central Asia, told AFP that "one of the things we are focusing on is to be able to bring back some of these incredible artefacts that decades past got into the wrong hands."
"We are trying to right a wrong from the past," said Gor, who was on a three-day visit to Nepal.
