SINGAPORE – On May 9, a 400-year-old Buddha statue made its journey home on a 9am flight from Singapore to the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Dr Tommy Ong and his wife, Heidi, had decided to donate the polychrome clay statue in their private collection to its country of origin in the name of their late son, Zi Yun, who died in April 2023 when he was a month old.

Dr Ong, the chief executive of a dietary supplements company, presented the statue to Bhutan Ambassador to Singapore Kinzang Dorji during a ceremony at the Singapore Buddhist Federation (SBF) in Geylang on May 8.

A thermoluminescence test to determine the age of artefacts had dated the statue – standing 34cm tall and 27cm wide – to the 1620s. According to Dr Ong, an antique dealer had valued it at between US$2 million (S$2.7 million) and US$3 million.

Dr Ong, 44, said an intact clay statue of that age is “extremely rare”, as clay is very soft, difficult to work with and even harder to preserve over time.

As the statue is a sacred symbol of Buddhism in Bhutan, this gift holds immense significance for the kingdom, said SBF’s president, Venerable Seck Kwang Phing, who presided over the ceremony. 

“The statue’s return reunites Bhutan with an integral part of its long cultural heritage,” he added. 

Mr Dorji described the Buddha statue as “one of Bhutan’s national treasures” as it dates back to the 17th century when Bhutan was unified.

Dr Ong had chanced upon the Buddha statue when he visited Bhutan in 2016 during a pilgrimage to Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Knowing that he was an avid collector, his tour guide led him to an elderly couple living on the outskirts of the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu who were selling the statue.

“Upon seeing the Buddha statue, its unique aura and intrinsic beauty left me in awe and speechless,” said Dr Ong. 

The fact that the statue was made of clay also struck Dr Ong, given the rarity of clay sculptures. He said he did not know how old the statue was at the time, and declined to reveal how much he paid for it.

“I made my offer, promising to cherish and care for the statue as it deserved,” he said.

In December 2022, Dr Ong returned to Bhutan with his five children and his wife, who was then pregnant with their sixth child.

During a visit to the National Museum of Bhutan, Dr Ong noticed that some statues in the Chapel of the Tree of Merit, part of the museum, resembled the Buddha statue he owned. “I thought, I have something like that at home.” 

His wife gave birth to Zi Yun in March 2023, but he died the following month in a case of sudden infant death syndrome, where no cause of death is known. 

The family grieved for nearly a year but a void remained, said Dr Ong. 

During this time, he said he sought advice from Ven Kwang Phing on what to do with the statue. Thereafter, Dr Ong sent the statue to Kotalla Laboratory in Germany for dating in December 2023, and also had it valued.

He said looking at the statue made him remember his son, and at one point in 2024, “a voice whispered to me that the statue yearned to return to Bhutan, a place where our beloved son had visited in his mother’s tummy”. 

Dr Ong and his wife then contacted Mr Dorji in April 2024 to tell him he was donating the statue.

For Dr Ong and his family, the statue’s return symbolises the continuation of his son’s journey to the Pure Land – a realm of enlightenment in Buddhism – and is their way of seeking closure. 

“For my beloved son, he is my love lost, but it was his love found.” 

Asked about what will be done with the statue after it returns home, Mr Dorji said he does not know where it will end up yet, but that it will be “placed at the right place for all people to worship”.