INDIA: A Hindu temple trust in southern India, the second-richest religious body after the Vatican, is facing a crisis of plenty.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) temple complex in southern Andhra Pradesh state, India's most visited religious site, has over 8,000kg of jewel-encrusted gold ornaments donated by devotees, and they are posing a serious storage problem.
Under its charter, the trust operating the TTD cannot dispose of or melt eight tonnes of ornamental jewellery gifted by tens of thousands of Hindu devotees to the presiding deity, Lord Venkateshwara, since the late 1990s.
At a conservative estimate, the gold content of the jewellery, aside from its precious stones like diamonds, emeralds, pearls and rubies, is worth over 528 million Indian rupees (€9.54 million). The stones could easily be valued at double that amount.
With its lockers overflowing, the cash-rich trust recently approached the state government for "guidance" in dealing with its jewellery storage "crisis".
Faced with a similar problem of a surfeit of around two tonnes of jewellery in the mid-1990s, the state authorities had given the trust permission to dispose of it as a one-off option.
The local government is now reviewing the trust's proposal, but is giving due consideration to the "sentiment" attached to these offerings.
In such weighty religious matters, few in India are willing to take a decision that might end up being unpropitious, thereby earning the wrath of the Gods, a state of affairs no one desires.
The temple trust, however, regularly sends solid gold ornaments to the mint in the western port city of Bombay to be melted down into 22-carat "dollar coins" that are then sold off to Lord Venkateshwara's devotees worldwide.
The trust also has the option of keeping the solid gold offerings as Lord Venkateshwara's ornaments, rotating them frequently for the many daily darshans (visitations).
On average, the hundi, or massive container for offerings in the temple, is emptied innumerable times every day and receives around 10kg of gold ornaments each week in addition to cash donations. The trust finances numerous charities and runs schools and hospitals.