Ancient Buddhist stone carving discovered in a farmyard

AN ancient stone carving depicting a scene of Buddhist gods and deities discovered in a Cheshire farmyard and used as a garden ornament, has now found its way to Warrington and could be worth thousands of pounds.

The huge carved stone panel was uncovered by warrington-worldwide’s James Balme, who has previously made archaeological discoveries, including a lost Roman settlement near Lymm which later featured on Channel 4’s Time Team with Tony Robinson.

James from Woolston, who regularly searches the area looking for old or ancient objects noticed that a large stone garden ornament was for sale at a Cheshire farm.

Having seen photographs of the stone carving James suspected it was not an ornament and was actually something far more special. The carving was covered in moss and dirt obscuring much of the details.

He decided to pay a visit to view the carving to see for himself whether or not it was what he believed to be ancient and he was not disappointed.

James said: “When I arrived I examined the object to make sure that it was actually hand carved. I was astounded to find that it was indeed a hand carved statue portraying two gods and two deities in a carriage being pulled by two horses. In the background were three servants looking on. The procession was being led by an elephant, a classic symbol of Buddhism.”

He agreed a price for the carving of a “few hundred pounds” and took it away for cleaning and restoration. He spent over three weeks gently removing the soil and moss from the carving to reveal fantastic details of the statue. Once cleaned he contacted a London based specialist in Asian art.

James added: ‘”The expert was amazed at the carving and was very happy to confirm that it was indeed an ancient Javanese stone carved panel dating between the 11th to 13th century this being a time when Buddhism was the main religion of Indonesia and in particular the Island of Java. The question now is to work out how this ancient carving made its way to Britain? “.

An expert from the BBC Antiques Roadshow recently paid a visit to see the statue for themselves. Due to the size and weight of the carving it was agreed that it was not safe or practical to transport the carving to Arley Hall for filming.

James said: “It was a great experience having a famous face from the Roadshow pay a visit to see the carving. Unfortunately as the statue is over four feet in length and weighs well over 300lbs it was just too risky to move it for the purposes of filming.

“My research will now continue and I will be consulting experts via universities and museums over the coming months to find out the true meaning of what the carving represents. It is amazing that such a rare and ancient object was being used as a garden ornament!

“The fact that it is worth a lot of money means little compared to the ancient history that it represents.”