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Peacock's Eye

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"The diamond, Lao. The deal was for the diamond."
―Indiana Jones[src]

The Peacock's Eye or Eye of the Peacock was an elusive 140 carat diamond once owned by Alexander the Great.

History[]

Origins[]

Alexander the Great had a diamond, approximately 50mm long by 25mm tall, mounted alongside a second as the eyes to a large, solid gold peacock statue.[3] Although KGB research would later assert that the peacock statue itself was without value,[2] the piece was destroyed following Alexander's death with one diamond being sold off to an Indian emperor which saw it cut apart. The other, however, was stolen and believed lost to history before it was rediscovered and clues were left to its whereabouts.[3]

Note: The following section is ambiguously canon.
It contains information that originates in a source that has not been deemed definitively canon.

It eventually became the property of a Chinese Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.[4]

Ambiguously canon information ends here.

A British colonel apparently found the Peacock's Eye in an ancient temple while serving in India during the early 19th century only to be imprisoned by the temple's monks who did not take kindly to the diamond being absconded with. While incarcerated, the colonel was able to smuggle out a map to his son.[3]

Note: The following section is cut content.
It contains information cut from the final release of an Indiana Jones medium, or otherwise unpublished. Everything said in this section and not elsewhere did not happen in the "proper" Indiana Jones continuity.

However, as the son had married into German nobility, the riches promised by the map held little interest for him. It instead captured the attention of his baroness wife's uncle who bribed their manservant from Bombay to acquire the map in exchange for a share of the discovery. The uncle died in his pursuit of the diamond and the manservant was felled after contracting influenza.[5]

Cut content information ends here.

Search for the diamond[]

Around a hundred years later, the map ended up in the possession of British Indian Army corporal Rajendra Sing. Sing had it with him during the closing moments of World War I and agreed to give the map to a German soldier, Zyke. Though Zyke shot Sing during their exchange in no man's land, he lost the map to French Intelligence officers Lieutenant Remy Baudouin and Captain Indiana Jones who were under orders to arrest Sing for passing information to the enemy.[3]

Following the end of the war, Jones and Baudouin went on a search for the diamond. After meeting anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in the South Pacific, Jones decided that his quest was a wild goose chase, and chose to return home to attend the University of Chicago in order to become an archaeologist. However, Baudouin decided to continue his quest for the diamond, so the friends parted ways.[3]

Final uncovering[]

032

The Peacock's Eye in 1935.

In 1935, Jones eventually traced the Peacock's Eye to a Chinese gangster named Lao Che[2] when he was contacted by letter offering the diamond as payment[6] in turn of the jade urn containing the ashes of Nurhachi.[7] Indy planned to turn the Eye,[6] worth $ 7,000,[8] over to a museum, probably the British Museum.[6]

Jones met with Lao in a Shanghai nightclub known as Club Obi Wan to trade the ashes for the diamond. However, Lao had the archaeologist drink poison to get him to surrender the diamond in exchange for the antidote. Jones engaged in a mad frenzy to find the antidote which saw the diamond lost to a spilled bucket of ice and it had to be abandoned as Jones escaped from Lao Che's men.[7]

Later appearances[]

René Emile Belloq also had an interest in obtaining the diamond around the same time,[9] and Jones noted in his journal that he himself had a lead on where to search for it.[2]

Decades later, in a September 15, 1957 letter to Jones, Short Round claimed to have tracked the Peacock's Eye to Hawaii. According to Short Round, the diamond had fallen into the possession of a group of natives on the island of Niihau.[2]

At some point the Peacock's Eye was found in a box labeled "Jewelry" in Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar alongside the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra and the Atlantean necklace.[10]

Behind the scenes[]

The Peacock's Eye from Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye was originally intended to be called the Monk Diamond.[11] It was re-envisioned as a piece of the Peacock Throne and tied to Alexander the Great in the teleplay,[5] before becoming part of a golden peacock statue as in the final episode.[3]

The Peacock's Eye was long speculated by fans to be the diamond that Indiana Jones is seen trading Lao Che for in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[12][13] This idea was made official with the 2008 release of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom junior novel, which reveals the information in its prologue.[6] Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide and the The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones also confirmed this connection.[14][2]

A scaled-down plastic replica of the diamond was included as the "hidden relic" with Hasbro's 3-3/4 inch Indiana Jones - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull action figure in 2008 (#40604).[15]

The Peacock's Eye also made an apperance in the non-Indiana Jones ride Jungle Cruise in Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries event. The Peacock's Eye was one of the objects left in the jungle after one of Indiana Jones' adventures.[16]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ Alexander the Great lived from 356 BC to 323 BC per Indiana Jones Artifacts
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" → Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
  4. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Sourcebook. While not contradictory with any source, the information concerning the diamond is only in The Search for Nurhachi, an RPG campaign specifically designed to be a "what if" scenario where Indiana Jones isn't hired for the recovery of Nurhachi by Lao Che, and as such, events are different.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" teleplay
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom junior novel
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  8. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (TSR)
  9. ↑ The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones
  10. ↑ Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar
  11. ↑ StarWars The Lost Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  12. ↑ http://www.indyprops.com
  13. ↑ http://raven.theraider.net
  14. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  15. ↑ Indiana Jones action figures (Pack: The Lost Wave)
  16. ↑ Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries
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