The 'Iron Man' Buddha statue
A statue carved from a meteorite, and a scientific argument.
In 2012, German scientists reported that a 10 kg statue of a Buddhist figure, brought from Tibet in the 1930s, was carved from a meteorite. Its metal matched the Chinga meteorite, a rare nickel-rich ataxite found near the border of Mongolia and Russia.
The team suggested the statue dated from the 11th century and belonged to the pre-Buddhist Bon culture. Other experts soon disagreed, arguing from its style that it was probably made in the 20th century.
The meteoritic metal itself is not in doubt. The age and origin of the carving are still debated, which makes 'Iron Man' one of the strangest meteorite stories of recent years.
In the catalogue
- Chinga Iron, ungrouped, Russia, 1913 · 209.4 kg