$22 Billion In Gold, Diamonds, Jewels Found In Indian Temple

Incredible to think that I used to walk around this place almost every other day while I was in school.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Atleast it made my city famous :)

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

&#62;$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"<p>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.<p>[1]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reported_gold_holdings" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reporte...</a>

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?)

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.

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!

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

History of the temple <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Padmanabhaswa...</a>

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

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

Better demolish the bloody temple and errect sth meaningful there.

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

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.