Chinese villagers filed an international lawsuit against a Dutch collector to get a sculpture they claim contains their ancestor Master Zhang Brendan Langley Jersey , a Buddhist monk, returned to Yangchun village in Fujian Province after it was stolen over 20 years ago. After months of negotiations, the contentious case will finally begin next week.
A picture of the authentic Master Zhang statue. Photo: CFP
Every year at the beginning of November, Yangchun and Dongpu villages in Sanming, East China's Fujian Province welcome a celebration that is only comparable in the local calendar to Chinese New Year.
"Every year on October 5 of the Lunar Calendar, the birthday of Master Zhang, people from all over the county come to pay their respects," Lin Wenqing Carlos Henderson Jersey , a local villager, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
Master Zhang, or Zhanggong Zushi, is an ancestor of the village, according to Yangchun village's genealogical records. He was a well-respected Buddhist monk who achieved nirvana during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). After he passed away, his body was gilded and made into a statue. But it was stolen in 1995.
Twenty years later, a villager saw the body of Master Zhang on TV, at an international antique show Demarcus Walker Jersey , in the possession of a collector from the Netherlands. Since then, the villagers have gone on an international pursuit. The collector is due to answer their claims in court before next Wednesday.
Main: A visitor takes a picture of a replica Master Zhang statue on January 1 in Sanming, Fujian Province. Photo: CFP
Thank you for safekeeping
Lin Wenqing, 40, is the deputy director of Yangchun village's relic protection association. In his view, the Buddha sculpture is the glue that holds the village together.
When he was young, the elders in his family would often tell him to be gentle, to be kind and generous like Master Zhang. When two people started arguing Justin Simmons Jersey , if one suggested they should take the argument in front of Master Zhang and ask him to be the judge, the other would start sweating if they knew they were in the wrong.
Every year, during the first month of the Lunar Calendar, there would be a Master Zhang village tour. In this ceremony, villagers hoisted up statue onto a platform and carried it around all the villages in the county.
Lin was a 19-year-old high school student when the master's statue was stolen, on a date all villagers remember, December 15, 1995.
"It felt like we were struck by lightning at that moment Jake Butt Jersey ," Lin told the Southern Metropolis Daily. "The statue was so holy to us, who would dare to steal it?"
The day after the statue was stolen, the villagers started looking for it everywhere. They searched nearby temples, went to nearby Fuzhou and Xiamen's custom posts and kept an eye out, some people even went undercover to local relics black markets. But in 20 years, they never received an answer.
Last March, Lin Yongtuan, a villager Garett Bolles Jersey , was watching the news and noticed that a statue on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest, Hungary resembled Master Zhang. He immediately informed others, who asked their friends in Hungary to check out the statue.
From pictures sent by their scouts, villagers recognized distinctive cracks in the statue's left hand and chin, which led them to believe it was Master Zhang.
The Fujian provincial relic authorities also held investigations into this case after receiving reports from villagers. Experts compared photos of the statue on display to those provided by villagers, as well as family trees, clothing and the platform the statue was hoisted on, and declared that the statue was Master Zhang.
The Chinese national relics protection department also declared that the statue was a stolen relic from Yangchun.
The statue was removed from display in Budapest on March 24 Matt Paradis Jersey , 2015. At the time, the collector's spokesperson said the collector, Oscar van Overeem, had decided to remove the sculpture from display but didn't mention any controversy about ownership.
Later, van Overeem declared he has sufficient proof to show the statue did not come from Yangchun. One argument he made is that his statue was seen in Hong Kong at the end of 1994, while Master Zhang was stolen at the end of 1995.
Even though both sides have different arguments, Lin said villagers feel somewhat grateful to van Overeem.
"At least he kept Master Zhang safe for us for 20 years," he told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
A lingering case
In order to retrieve the Buddha Derek Wolfe Jersey , villagers used all the means at their disposal to collect evidence. At the end of March 2015, they wrote a collective letter to the Dutch prime minister when he paid a visit to China, telling the story of how the Buddha was stolen.
They also tried to negotiate with van Overeem.
According to Lin, Overeem has listed three prerequisites for returning the sculpture. The first is to put the sculpture into a bigger temple; the second is that the Chinese side must help him to do some research which is unrelated to Buddhism including appraising his collection; the third regards "reasonable" compensation.
But villagers have found these conditions hard to accept, especially the first condition.
"Villagers' hope is simple. We just want to put Master Zhang back to where he was," said Lin.
After these unfruitful negotiations, the Yangchun and Dongpu village committees empowered a group of lawyers to file a lawsuit on behalf of all the villagers.
On June 8, a court in the Netherlands formally accepted the case. During this period Chris Harris Jr. Jersey , Overeem applied twice for the case to be postponed until the middle of August so he could submit more evidence.
When the second extension was due, the Dutch collector demanded the villagers pay 25,000 euros ($26,750) as a guaranteed court fee, citing that the evidence and experts' participation c
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