The Buddhist Collection

Denys Eyre Bower had very personal reasons for collecting Buddhist artefacts as he was himself a Buddhist.  Some of Denys's work colleagues recalled that he believed himself to be a reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Whether there was any real seriousness in this claim is not known, but it may also go some way towards explaining why he felt so strongly about the Jacobite cause.  Denys's way of life does not appear to have directly followed a specific form of Buddhism.  His want for possessions and obsession with his collections, even overpowering his regard for his wives, indicates a more general interest in Buddhist ideologies, rather than a specific dedication to one aspect.  He certainly did not hold to one of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths, that suffering is caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds.

Denys's collection at Chiddingstone Castle consists of about 150 pieces, about half of which are Tibetan, Sino-Tibetan (Chinese style closely influenced by Tibet) and Nepalese Tibetan.  The other half consists of items mainly from India, Nepal, Myanmar, China and Japan; however there are also a small number of objects from Thailand and Sri Lanka.  The wide variety of items in his collection, from numerous countries and streams of Buddhism, indicates that his collecting probably stemmed from a love of beautiful objects and not necessarily from a wish to collect devotional imagery from a specific type of Buddhism.

The Buddhist collection has only been on display at the Castle since May 2009 and is currently being research for redisplay in April 2010.