In autumn the studies on a mysterious statue of a Buddhist god Vaisravana, whose history begins in the space and finishes in Nazi Germany, came to their end.

The statue comes from 11th century AD and was created to honour the god of northern direction - Vaisravana, who in Hindi circles is also known as Kuvera. The figure weighs 10 kilograms and is 24 centimetres high. It was brought to Europe by the Nazis, most probably because of the symbol that can be found there (a swastika), which before the Second World War was associated only with success and prosperity.

After the war the figure became part of a private collection owned by a collector from Munich. And then it was carefully examined by a team of German and Austrian specialists. They discovered that Vaisravana comes from a piece of Chinga meteorite, which crashed about 15 000 years ago. Its remains were found in 1911 in a gold mine in the Chinga River, which is a tributary of the Yenisei River (present day Russia, Siberia). What makes this figure exceptional is the fact that this is the only figure carved out in a meteorite which has been found so far. The material itself is worth a lot on the market, and the value of a sacral work of art made from an extraterrestrial raw material is very difficult to assess.

Photo: www.gazeta.pl