PATNA, Sept. 8 -- Bihar chief minister Samrat Choudhary has written to Union culture and tourism minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, seeking the repatriation of the celebrated Sultanganj Buddha, a 2.3-metre tall copper statue depicting Gautama Buddha, dating from the Gupta-Pala transitional period (500-700 AD), currently housed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the United Kingdom.

In a letter dated August 11, seen by the Hindustan Times on Tuesday, Choudhary urged the ministry of culture to initiate procedures to bring back the sculpture, calling it one of the most remarkable surviving examples of India's early medieval Buddhist heritage.

"The statue representing Siddhartha Gautama standing and exhibiting traditional Buddhist h...