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'To right a past wrong': Australia to return ancient temple tundal to Nepal

Australia’s Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts will oversee the return of a centuries-old temple tundal to the Kathmandu Valley next week.

The Ratneswor Mahadev Temple in the present day, located at Sulima Tole in Patan, Kathmandu. Credit: AP Parajuli

Key Points

MP Tim Watts will be the first Australian federal minister to visit Nepali since 1985.
The assistant foreign minister says he will be honoured to witness the return of the nearly 800-year-old tundal to its original home.
There had been a long public campaign to return the tundal which has been in possession of the AGNSW since 2000.

The Federal Member for Gellibrand will make history when he lands in Kathmandu on May 16 following the Indian Ocean Commission meeting in Bangladesh.

The visit to Nepal will mark the first by an Australian federal minister since former foreign affairs minister Bill Hayden in 1985.

While there, Mr Watts will witness the handing back of an ancient wooden tundal taken from a Kathmandu Valley temple decades ago.

Speaking to SBS Nepali, Mr Watts said the item - which is believed to be around 800 years old - will be returned after more than 20 years in possession of the Art Gallery of NSW.

“As a part of this trip, [it] will be an honour for me to witness the return of the tundal, or strut, taken from the Ratneswor Temple to right a past wrong,” he said.

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tim Watts, at Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

A tundal is a carved wood block that is a traditional Nepali architectural design possessing spiritual value and commonly placed diagonally at the end of a wall beam in temples.

There had been a long public campaign to return the tundal to the Ratneswor Mahadev Temple in Kathmandu’s ancient Patan city.

The Ratneswor Mahadev Temple in Sulima Tole, Patan, in Kathmandu. Credit: AP Parajuli

It gained momentum when a stolen idol of Laxmi-Narayan was

reinstalled in its original place in late 2021

The centuries-old idol was brought back from the United States after it went missing during the 1980s.

The rare stone statue of Laxmi-Narayan believed to be 800 years old was stolen in 1984 and later spotted at the Dallas Museum of Art. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) handed over the statue to the Nepal embassy in Washington, USA, on 06 March

Devotees reinstall the stone statue of Laxmi-Narayan at a temple in Patan city, Nepal, 04 December 2021. Source: EPA

The tundal is believed to have gone missing in the 1980s, at around the same time other ancient Nepali idols and artefacts were taken to Western countries and sold.

SBS Nepali understands that the tundal was donated to the Art Gallery of NSW by a collector in 2000.

The Ratneswor Mahadev Temple and surroundings in the present day in Sulima Tole in Patan, Kathmandu. Credit: AP Parajuli

Mr Watts praised the gallery for its “noble and significant gesture” of returning the wooden artefact.

“I thought that was deserving of praise and I wanted to show my support for that by attending [the handover function]," Mr Watts said.

"For people moving between countries practising their faith is an important way to remain connected to a cultural or to a national identity, when you’re geographically [not] in your homeland.

As a modern multicultural country, home to the oldest continuing culture on Earth. Australia wants to really appreciate the rich cultural and religious tradition that Hinduism brings to Australia by supporting the return of this.
Tim Watts, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs

SBS has contacted the Art Gallery of NSW for comments about the handover.

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