The Buddha

New Delhi, Sept. 16: Bihar offered Buddha the stage for Enlightenment; a Bihar resident has now done his bit to redeem the sage from unspeakable ignominy in an obscure Swiss shoeshop.

A letter from Prabhat Chowdhury, a Patna-based realtor, has relieved a Buddha statue of the slight of advertising clogs in a Geneva shopfront.

Chowdhury was holidaying in Switzerland this June along with his wife and daughter when he chanced upon a sight no guidebook had prepared him for — a four-foot Buddha statue with a pair of shoes slung down his neck, garland-like.

Rankled and angry, Chowdhury returned home to shoot off a letter to the external affairs ministry recounting his sorry experience of the suffering Buddha and seeking action.

He also sent along a video of the shoe-studded statue, which his 15-year-old daughter had alertly recorded.

Nothing happened. But then, Bengal Minority Commission member Kalyan Chowdhury got to know about the matter and brought it immediately to the attention of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

Spalzes Angmo, the Buddhist member of the Commission, wrote to the ministry, seeking immediate action. “The commission had asked the MEA to convey our strong condemnation of the issue to the Switzerland government. We wanted to ensure such incidents do not occur again,” Angmo told The Telegraph.

Following the letter from the NCM, the ministry directed the Indian embassy in Switzerland to look into the matter. The embassy took up the case with the Switzerland government which, in turn, contacted the shoe shop.

The footwear shop acknowledged the incident, apologised and said that such a display would not recur.

“The MEA has told us that the shop has removed even the statue from the shop,’’ said Angmo who said it was wrong to use a Buddhist statue for decoration.

“Any Buddha statue, regardless of its size and shape, is a symbol of respect for Buddhists. It is blasphemy to use Buddha statue as a decorative piece. But many people are doing that these days,’’ said Angmo.

According to Kalyan Chowdhury of the Bengal Minority Commission, the response from the Swiss government and the shoe shop owner has send out a positive message to all communities.

“It is not just Buddhists, people of any religion will not like to see a Buddha statue in such a sacrilegious position. We all are happy that the Switzerland government understood the sensitivity of the issue,’’ said Chowdhury.

He should also be happy that his tourist namesake from Patna was peering into a shoe shop in Switzerland when many could be tempted to soak in the Alps alone.