Looking for church, finding Buddha

Recovery of centuries-old artefact near Fort Kochi has given clues of an erstwhile Portuguese church and possible links to a missing pre-colonial Buddha statue

- BY NIRMAL JOVIAL

IN 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of men in masks fished out centuries-old artefact from the northernmost beachside of Fort Kochi at a depth of less than one metre. These intricately carved rock pieces were recovered during dredging for the water metro project near the iconic Chinese fishing nets. The retrieval team relocated the artefact to the garden of Bastion Bungalow, a Dutch-built structure that dates back to 1667, which now serves as District Heritage Museum.

Questions arose about the origin of these architectural rock pieces and their connection to Fort Kochi's past. While the area is known for its European colonial history, beginning with the Portuguese, some speculated about a pre-colonial link. Eventually, a scientific team arrived to study the stones. Led by Ratheesh Kumar R.T. from the department of marine geology and geophysics at the School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, the researchers conducted a detailed analysis. Using architectural, typological, petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical analyses, they established that these artefact were connected to the Portuguese period. However, their findings also inadvertently showed links to a missing Buddha from Kochi's pre-colonial history.

Facts from artefact

In January 2025, the study by Kumar and his team was published in Geoheritage. They found that the artefact consisted of two different rock varieties—light-coloured granite and dark-coloured gabbro.