The Buddha’s relics, especially the putative physical remains of the historical Buddha, served as important sacred objects. Over the past several decades, reports of reliquaries with Buddha relics, discovered in the ruins of stupas or pagodas, have generated considerable religious enthusiasm among present-day Buddhists across Asia. This reflects traditional patterns of Buddhist devotion, especially the worship of relics, which goes back to the early history of Buddhism. The cult of relics was connected with veneration of the “three gems” (or treasures) of Buddhism (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha), which were primarily represented in the forms of Buddha images, canonical texts, and members of the monastic order. The veneration of the relics of the Buddha enhances the link between contemporary Buddhists and the historical Buddha. Presenting, receiving, and displaying the Buddha’s relics among Asian countries is also one of the most important political and cultural diplomatic gestures in contemporary era.

In East Asia, the veneration of the Buddha’s relics is associated with the authority and legitimation of the monastic order. For instance, introducing the Buddha’s relics as a symbolic presence of the Buddha in China helped the monastic community, which was able to present a more convincing image of the religion to a mass audience. During the sixth to seventh centuries, the Buddha’s putative relics were distributed and honored throughout the Chinese empire. At the time, when the relics were taken to local areas, it occasioned the building of stupas, the renovation of old monasteries, and the construction of new monasteries. With the distribution of relics and their enshrinement in stupas and monasteries, local monastic communities acquired the symbolic presence of the Buddha. In other words, as the relics came to function as concrete symbols of the Buddha, their presence transformed the monasteries that housed them into places where the Buddha himself wielded ultimate authority. By extension, that caused the authority of the monastic community to grow, in addition to attracting external support.

Myanmar’s Senior General Min Aung Hlaing visits Fa Men Si (Famen Temple, Shaanxi Province, China) to pay homage to the finger bone relic of the Buddha in October, 2016

The Buddha's skull bone is placed at Hong Kong Coliseum for public worship in 2012.

Veneration of Lord Buddha's relics & Luangta maha boowa's relics and robe offering ceremony 

The Lord Buddha relics of the Golden Mountain, Bangkok, Thailand 

Buddha's Relics Exhibition at Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2013 

 

Readings:

John S. Strong, Relics of the Buddha. Princeton University Press, 2004.

Kevin Trainor, Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Kevin Trainor and David Germano, eds., Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. State University of New York Press, 2004.