“After Mahākāśyapa had seen the Buddha’s remains the pyre self-ignited. The people there had tried to ignite the remains several times but had been unable to do so. Now, the remains naturally ignited themselves.”
“This third nirvana is called the “final nirvana of the relics.” Until that time, the relics of the Buddha are to be regarded as his living presence, infused with all of his marvellous qualities. The relics of the Buddha are, essentially, the Buddha.”
” The India-Bhutan bond is not just diplomatic, but spiritual — anchored in Buddha’s eternal message of compassion, love, peace and wisdom”
Introduction
As well as the Kālacakra empowerment and teachings, another special Buddhist activity organised by the Bhutanese and Indian governments, with the support of the Bhutanese royal family and 70th Je Khenpo, was the transporting of two of the sacred Buddha’s bone relics to be exhibited at the magnificent Tashichodzong, Thimphu, Bhutan from the National Museum in New Delhi, India.
I have seen these relics several times before in the National Museum in India, and try and visit them whenever I am in New Delhi, as I wrote about before here in Diamonds in the Dirt to the Crown Jewels of India: Background and review of the Buddha’s relics exhibited in the National Museum, New Delhi (2022). I re-publish some of that here.
I have seen different Buddha’s relics exhibited in other parts of India before, such as Bodh Gaya and Sarnath, Sri Lanka, and countries in SE Asia such as Thailand. Some of the relics from the National Museum were recovered and excavated at the site called Piprāhwā, Uttar Pradesh, India (identified as Kapilvastu, the home town of the Buddha) [1]. The relics found at Piprāhawa are said to have been buried there during the time of Dharma King, Ashoka.
Here is a short report on the background and history of these particular bone relics, their arrival in Bhutan from India and visit from Indian Prime Minister Modi, and my own personal experience (with a few photos) visiting the relics in person in Thimphu, as the sun was setting. The backdrop of the spectacular Tashichodzong at night, gave a regal, grand and spiritual energy and setting suitable for such precious relics of the supreme Nirmanakaya, Buddha Shakyamuni, root and source of the Dharma, without whom the 84 000 teachings of the Sutras and Tantras would not be present on this planet Earth today.
Music? Shakyamuni Buddha mantra sung at the Global Peace Prayer event by Bhutanese singer, Namkha Lhamo.
19th Century Discovery of the Buddha’s relics in Piprāhawa (Kapilavastu), India by British man, William Claxton Peppe
Piprāhwā is a small village in the Terai region (lowland region) that lies south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Siwālik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (District Basti of Uttar Pradesh, North-West of India).
In 1898, a British landowner, William Claxton Peppé (1852-1937) excavated a large mound on his estate in Piprāhwā, which turned out to be a Buddhist brick stūpa. These have since been authenticated as completely genuine and from 500 BCE. An official website about them can be viewed here. The images are stunningly beautiful, moving and worthy of veneration. The site has been identified with Kapilvastu, the home-town of the Buddha Sakyamuni. According to the official website on the relics:
“In the 1890s several monuments were discovered in Northern India near the Nepalese border. Notably in 1896, an Ashokan stone pillar was discovered at Lumbini, believed to identify the place of the Buddha’s birth. These findings caught the attention of William Claxton Peppé, a British colonial engineer who managed a series of estates south of the Nepalese border, including the large Birdpur estate. In his report later published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society W. C. Peppé wrote:
‘Since the discovery of the pillar in the Lumbini Garden commemorating the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, considerable curiosity has been aroused concerning the different mounds or kots as they are locally called, which occur dotted over the tract extending from Kapilavastu on the north-west and the Lumbini Garden on the north-east in Nepalese territory to a distance of several miles inside the British territory’.
In the spring of 1897, W.C Peppé began to excavate one mound that was particularly ‘more prominent than the rest’ near the village of Piprahwa on the Birdpur estate. His decision to undertake this excavation may have also been partly altruistic. Throughout 1896 & 1897 Central and North West India were affected by famine, and mortality rates due to starvation and accompanying epidemics were extremely high. The excavation at Piprahwa would have lifted morale and provided famine relief, a fact of which W.C. Peppé was acutely aware. “
Upon inspecting the partially excavated site, Smith immediately announced that it was an unusually early example of an ancient Buddhist stupa, probably dating from the era of Ashoka the Great. In early January 1898, Peppé continued the excavations and, after digging through eighteen feet of solid brickwork, discovered a huge stone slab. This revealed itself to be the cover of an enormous stone coffer, which Peppé later noted had been ‘hollowed at the cost of vast labour and expense’.
Inside the coffer were five vessels, none more than seven inches in height, containing a vast array of treasure. These precious offerings included quantities of stars in silver and gold, discs of gold leaf embossed with Buddhist symbols, and numerous pearls of many sizes, some of which had been fused in sets of two, three and four. There were also drilled beads, stars and flowers cut from red or white cornelian, amethyst, topaz, garnet, coral and crystal. Also found inside the vessels were small pieces of bone and ash. On the side of one vessel, in an ancient Pali character was an inscription that read:
“This shrine for relics of the Buddha, the August One, is that of the Sakyas, the brethren of the Distinguished One, in association with their sisters, and with their children and their wives”
This was the first time that relics of the Buddha had been found in India. In the National Geographic documentary ‘Bones of the Buddha’, historian Charles Allen talks about the find, which can be watched for free on Youtube. The film explains how the discovery happened, and that nothing had been found like it before in India, or since [2].
The film also confirms that the urn and inscription (in Brahmi not Sanskrit) were made 150 years after the Buddha passed away and yet the relics were those of the Buddha. After another archaeological dig at the site in the 1970s, an even older burial was found underneath which was from the time of the Buddha and was most likely the place where the Shakyas had originally buried the relics at the time of his passing. Researchers say that the stone coffer casket, containing the urn was most likely created by Ashoka and added into the burial site to give due honour to the relics.
The Piprahwa website states that: “After the discovery at Birdpur the Government of India, heeding the advice of Prince Prisdang who had since become The Ven Jinavaravansa, donated the fragments of bone and ashes to the King of Siam [Thailand] who subsequently shared them with Buddhist communities in other countries. The remainder of the find, e.g the stone coffer, the reliquary urns and the items referred to as ‘treasure’ were placed in the Imperial Museum in Calcutta. W. C. Peppé was allowed to retain a number of items from the excavation. The photos included in this gallery are of some of the jewels and sarira that W. C. Peppé was permitted to keep.” [2]
The Buddha’s relics in Bhutan, exhibition at Tashi Chodzong, Thimphu
The holy relic delegation from India was led by Dr. Virendra Kumar, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, and accompanied by a high-level delegation of senior Indian monks and officials. Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay, speaking during the Global Peace Prayer Event said that the King of Bhutan conceived the concept of the festival as an event for highlighting peace on earth. This historic visit, a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and Bhutan marks the second time these sacred relics have been to Bhutan. The first was in 2011 on the celebration of the wedding of the King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.
Personal attendance at the exhibit
The Buddha’s relics exhibition was originally scheduled from 15th to 18th November, but due to public demand, it has been extended to the 25th November and is still open now daily from 9am to 5pm for Bhutanese, and after 5pm until 6.30 pm for tourists.
I had never seen the Buddha’s relics in Bhutan so absolutely had to visit while there! I have been to Tashi Chodzong before, a stunning place on the outskirts of central Thimphu, where HH Je Khenpo resides.
I arrived just before it opened to tourists at 5.30pm, just as it was getting to dusk and the sun was setting, a beautiful and auspicious time to see them. Ticket fee was 500 BNT, about 5 GBP, worth paying to see them, and supporting the Buddhist heritage of Bhutan too.
The relics were exhibited in a stunning pyramid and were monitored continually by monks and security. When I saw the relics, the energy was palpable and I did three prostrations on the ground in front of them, and then went closer to look and make aspirations, dedicating the merit.
Photography was not allowed inside, so I share a photo taken outside of the exhibit hall.
A stunning location, with a huge, spectacular Buddha statue right behind them. My prior visit to TashichoDzong was to see the Tsechu dance during my visit as a guest speaker at the Bhutanese Vajrayana conference in 2022. I remembered being there as one approaches the main entrance, there is a stunning rose garden of many different coloured roses in bloom.
Other Visits/Places to Buddha’s relics
Endnotes
[1]According to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, after Buddha’s parinirvana in Kushinagar, the remains of the Buddha were cremated at that location. Those who took care of the Buddha’s remains were the Mallās of Kushinagara. They offered flowers and scent and eventually cremated his remains. The relics were then apportioned among eight different tribes or countries, and at one point it seemed like there may be a dispute about them. It is said that originally his ashes were to go only to the Shakya clan, to which the Buddha belonged. However, six other clans and a king demanded the relics of the Buddha. In order to resolve this dispute, a Brahmin named Drona divided the ashes of the Buddha into eight portions. The Bulis of Allakappa; the Koliyas of Ramagrama; the Brahmins of Vethadipa; the Mallas of Pava; the Mallas of Kushinagar; Ajatasattu, king of Magadha; the Sakyas of Kapilavastu; and the Licchavis of Vaishali,each got a vase, Those who received a vase of relics built a stupa in their own lands.
The Aśokāvadāna (Narrative of Ashoka) narrates how Ashoka redistributed Buddha’s relics across 84,000 stupas, with the distribution of the relics and construction of the stupas performed by Yakshas. Many of the remains were taken to other countries. When the Chinese pilgrims Faxian (337 – 442 A.D) and Xuanzang (7th Century) visited India centuries later, they reported most of the ancient sites were in ruin. The relics found at Piprāhawa are said to have been buried there during the time of Ashoka.
[2] Allen may be wrong about saying the jewels in the small urn were offerings though. It is highly likely they were sacred relics produced from the Buddha’s cremation and/or bones. This is a well-documented phenomena in Tibetan Buddhism, and enlightened and realised practitioners are renowned for doing this when the bodies are cremated.
[3] For more images and details about the Piprāhwā site and relics discovered there, see this website article here: JEWEL RELICS AND BONES OF SHAKYAMUNI: A DEADLY MEAL, FINAL ADVICE AND PASSING AWAY .
According to the records of the Union Ministry of Culture, several explorations were done there. An Archaeological Survey of India excavation of the stupa in 1971-77 uncovered two more steatite relic caskets containing 22 sacred bone relics. These are now housed in the National Museum, in New Delhi.