
$22 Billion In Gold, Diamonds, Jewels Found In Indian Temple - niyazpk
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/05/137627235/some-22-billion-in-gold-diamonds-jewels-found-in-indian-temple
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train_robber
Incredible to think that I used to walk around this place almost every other
day while I was in school.

On another note; the kings of the old Travancore (who built this temple) were
known for living a very austere life compared to the other Maharajas. They did
invest in a lot of infrastructure during their time; mostly during the last
half of the 19th century and early 20th century. There was an urban legend in
my city (according to my grandmother) that in the event of an emergency the
kings of Travancore had enough wealth to pull back the country out of it. This
probably was it. I wouldn't really blame the kings for storing this under the
vaults; it was intended to be used for famines and such; it wasn't as if they
enjoyed any of this. The complicated history of Travancore is probably the
reason why it stayed hidden for so long.

What happens to this now is the big question. There's going to be a big
argument amongst the secularists, the spiritualists, the archaeologists and
finally the government regarding this.

Atleast it made my city famous :)

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brianbreslin
Am I the only one who had flashes of being a little kid watching Indiana Jones
pop into his head after reading this?

It would be nice if they could use the gold for something beneficial to the
people of the area (improve roads or schools or something), but its naive of
me to think they can easily sell this stuff. Maybe loan the treasures to
museums for a fee?

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localhost3000
It belongs in a museum!

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vacri
They have top men working on it.

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epaulson
Who?

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zeteo
>$22 billion [...] is likely a conservative estimate [...] the panel is simple
counting and weighing the valuables. "Their value, including antique value, is
not being assessed"

A quick back of the envelope calculation indicates $22 billion corresponding
to 450 metric tons of gold. This is an immense quantity: India's current gold
reserve is about 615 tons [1], and there were recent years when it dropped
under 400. I will take this report with a grain of salt until it receives very
strong confirmation.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reporte...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reported_gold_holdings)

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brianbreslin
The find includes gems too, diamonds, etc. So those push up the value
immensely, and command a higher value per kg than gold (I'm assuming).

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zeteo
The article mentions gold coins and gold statues encrusted with gems, and that
they're estimating the value by weight only. Since the encrusted gems can't be
weighed separately, and furthermore the value of a precious stone strongly
depends on quality not just weight, the estimate can only be based on the
weight of the precious metal, IMO.

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hsmyers
Current reports (see BBC online) mention amounts in the 100s of millions, not
billions. That said the latest today was that they had to stop when they
forced a door only to find an all iron door just behind it. They are taking a
break so that the local supreme court and other authorities can talk things
over (most likely preliminary division of the spoils?)

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sateesh
A small correction, you should be telling 'local court' not 'local supreme
court'. Supreme court is the highest court of law in India and this opening of
vaults of temple is being supervised by the Supreme court.

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andrewflnr
So these vaults haven't been opened in over a century, and the only reason
they're being opened now is because someone is concerned with how a trust fund
is managing them? Excuse me, managing how? I guess that's the question, but it
still makes me laugh.

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blutonium
The Wiki article uses "security" instead of "management". If I were a judge
and someone told me $22B in treasure wasn't behind miles of lasers, I might
take some judicial liberties too.

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notlion
I really resent the way that the dollar amount is cited rather than the
historical, cultural, and spiritual value. It's totally awe inspiring
nonetheless!

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arihant
This is just from one of the two vaults unopened in like 150 years, and its
still in progress. They still do not have full permission to do inventory on
second untouched vault.

If I was the royal family, I'd buy Facebook.

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sagarun
History of the temple
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Padmanabhaswa...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple)

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mattiask
Am I the only one freaked out by this passage? Wasn't this like the opening
scene from the "The Mumy"?

"The panel managed to open the sixth vault but found an iron wall inside it,
reports the BBC. The sixth vault has a snake on the front door and quoting an
unnamed royal family source, it reports that opening it "might be a bad omen."
The Guardian reports that the sixth vault has "special locks" but experts
should be able to examine them and open it by Friday."

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Cherian
Feels adventurous to live in the vicinity of this temple :-). A bit like
watching Indiana Jones.

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tejaswiy
What do you make of the whole tug of war on who gets to control the wealth?

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fakeer
Better demolish the bloody temple and errect sth meaningful there.

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SingAlong
The last time I checked India's debt is $310+ billion. A lot of this treasure
would be ornaments, which would seem repeated if kept in museums. They might
as well auction this off to pay debt. Handing such massive wealth to people
will only result in it's disappearance :P

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hacjjjjjjjj
India had thousands of such temples for example, Somanatha etc. from which
Arabs, Mughals and the crazy British took from it. When British came to India,
india was the richest country and when they left India, India was the poorest
country. Whites people have bad culture.

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harichinnan
I'm an Indian and a hindu. I've been to that temple. It's really sad to think
that there would thousands of people around that temple who would go hungry as
we speak and this temple has wealth that will pretty much stay locked up for
the rest of humanity. It'll never get invested. No next google would come from
thiruvanandapuram because of this. People would go on their lives living in
terrible houses, driving terrible vehicles on atrocious roads. And Hindu
fanatics would organize protests at the first mention of using this for any
practical purpose.

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tejaswiy
Considering local government corruption, I'd actually be happy if it wasn't
used for 'practical' purposes if the government gets to control all this
wealth.

