According to sources in the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, like the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (Sutta 16 of the Dīgha Nikāya), after the parinirvana (the Buddha's final nirvana during his physical death), the physical body of Gautama Buddha was cremated and the bodily relics which remained afterwards, called Śarīra, were divided among his lay followers, who took them to different regions of India and built stupas for them.
Division of the relics
According to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, after his parinirvana in Kushinagar, the remains of the Buddha were cremated at that location. Originally his ashes were to go only to the Sakya clan, to which the Buddha belonged. However, six other clans and a king demanded the ashes of the Buddha. In order to resolve this dispute, a Brahmin named Drona divided the ashes of the Buddha into eight portions. These portions were distributed as follows: to Ajātasattu, king of Magadha; to the Licchavis of Vesāli; to the Sakyas of Kapilavastu; to the Bulis of Allakappa; to the Koliyas of Rāmagāma; to the Vethadipaka-Dronagramakas; to the Mallas of Pāvā; and to the Mallas of Kusinārā. In addition to these eight portions, two other important relics were distributed at that time: Drona (the Brahmin who distributed the relics) received the vessel in which the body had been cremated, and the Moriyas of Pipphalivana received the remaining ashes of the funeral pyre.
According to Buddhaghosa and Mahavamsa, Each of these ten portions was placed in a reliquary (such as the Kanishka casket or the Bimaran casket) and buried in a tumulus. These tumuli have been expanded or reconstructed over many centuries to form large stupas. King Ajasat of Magadha, according to the instructions of Maha Kassapa, took relics from Stupas of different countries and made a great treasure of relics as an underground stupa for the protection of the relics. Of these, the only one which remains intact is the Ramagrama stupa in Ramgram, Nepal. Because at that time, King Ajasat did not take the relic parts from the stupa of Ramagrama because they were to be given to Ruwanwelisaya Maha Stupa in Sri Lanka in the future by the order of Maha Kassapa Thero. There is significant evidence to support the authenticity of the stupa at Piprahwa, as well as the Relic Stupa of Vaishali and the Ramabhar Stupa at Kushinagar. Apart from these, archaeological investigations to date have not definitively identified any of the remaining stupas.
Spread of the relics by Ashoka
The Lokapannatti, a collection of stories written in the 11th or 12th century, tells the story of Ajātasattu of Magadha (c. 492 – c. 460 BCE) who gathered the Buddha's relics and hid them in an underground stupa. According to this text, the Buddha's relics were protected by spirit-powered mechanical robots until they were disarmed two centuries later by Emperor Ashoka (c. 304 – 232 BCE). According to Mahāvaṃsa and Ashokavadana, Ashoka collected seven of the eight relics of Gautama Buddha, and redistributed them across 84,000 stupas that he ordered to be constructed around the world.
When the Chinese pilgrims Faxian (337 CE – c. 422 CE) and Xuanzang (602–664 CE) visited India centuries later, they reported that most of the ancient sites were in ruin.
The Mahaparinirvana sutra says that of the Buddha's four eye teeth (canines), one was worshipped in Silumini Maha Stupa in Skra's Heaven, the second in the city of Ghandara (current location not specifically identified), the third in Kalinga (current location: Temple of the Tooth in Kandy), and the fourth one in Kingdom of Naga King Jayasena in the Naga World (current location: Wilgamwehera Somawathiya Maha Stupa in Seuwila, Sri Lanka). Their current locations are discussed below. In the past relics have had the legal right to own property, and the destruction of stupas containing relics was a capital crime viewed as murder of a living person. A southeast Asian tradition says that, after his parinirvana, the gods distributed the Buddha's 800,000 body and 900,000 head hairs throughout the universe. In Theravāda, according to the 5th century commentator Buddhaghosa, possessing relics was one of the criteria for what constituted a proper monastery. The adventures of many relics are said to have been foretold by Buddha, as they spread the dharma and gave legitimacy to rulers.
In Buddhist eschatology, it is said that all of Buddha's relics will one day gather at the Bodhi tree, where he attained enlightenment, and will then form his body, sitting cross legged and performing the twin miracle; the disappearance of the relics at this point will signal the coming of Maitreya Buddha. In the Nandimitravadana translated by Xuanzang it is said that the Buddha's relics will be brought to parinirvana by sixteen great arhats and enshrined in a great stupa. That stupa will then be worshipped until it sinks into the earth down to the golden wheel underlying the universe. The relics are not destroyed by fire in this version but placed in a final reliquary deep within the earth, perhaps to appear again.
Previous Buddhas also left relics; in the Buddhavamsa it mentions that the Sobhita, Paduma, Sumedha, Atthadassi, Phussa, Vessabhu, and Konagamana, these Buddhas have had their relics dispersed.
The relics of Buddha's noble disciples like Sariputta and Maudgalyāyana, were also preserved enshrined in stupas (as in Sanchi).
Relics in Afghanistan
Sometime in the middle of the fifth century, the Chinese pilgrim Daorong traveled to Afghanistan to visit pilgrimage sites. In Nagarahara was a piece of bone from the top of Buddha's skull four inches long. Also in the city was an enshrined staff, and a jeweled reliquary containing some teeth and hair. A shadow was said to have been projected onto a rock wall, said to have belonged to Buddha, as well as a set of footprints, and a site venerated for being where Buddha washed his robe. A temple said to have been built by Buddha is sinking into the ground here, with what is said to be his writing on the wall. A tooth of the Buddha was kept in Baktra. In Bamyan a tooth of Buddha was stored along with the tooth of a cakravartin king. An early masterpiece of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, and one of the earliest representations of the Buddha, the Bimaran casket was discovered in a stupa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Although the casket bears an inscription saying it contained some of the relics of the Buddha; no relics were discovered when the box was opened.Senior (2008), pp. 25-27.
Buddha's first disciples Trapusa and Bahalika received eight strands of hair from him which they brought to their hometown of Balkh and enshrined in a golden stupa by the gate.
Relics in Bangladesh A Buddha relic is kept in Buddha Dhatu Jadi Bangladesh beneath four Buddha statues. The Buddha's Dhatu was given to Ven. U Paññya Jota Mahathero in 1994 by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee of Myanmar.
Relics in Bhutan Ringsels from Buddha, Nagarjuna, Longchenpa, Marpa, and Milarepa visited Chubachu Bhutan from Bodhgaya Sri Lanka, in October 2013.
Relics in Cambodia A Buddha relic was enshrined at Sakyamuni Chedai in Oudong in 2002. Fifty years earlier, this relic was transported from Sri Lanka to Phnom Penh, but was transported again after King Sihanouk voiced concerns about urban decay surrounding Phnom Penh. King Sihanouk of Cambodia received a Buddha relic from the French in 1952. Relics present from the 1950s were recently stolen in Oudong mountain and remain missing.
A golden urn said to contain relics of Buddha was snatched from a mountain shrine, sparking a nationwide manhunt, and was recovered on 5 February 2014. The disappearance of the urn - believed to contain hair, teeth, and bones of Buddha and several small statues - came to light in December and prompted an outcry in the Buddhist-majority country. "Everything is still in the urn," national police spokesman Kirt Chantharith told a news agency.
Relics in China
According to legend, the first Buddha relic in China appeared in a vase in 248 C.E. brought by Kang Senghui to show a local ruler. The king of Wu Sun Quan would unsuccessfully attempt to destroy the tooth, by subjecting it to various tests. In legends Daoxuan is attributed with the transmission of the Buddha relic Daoxuan's tooth, one of the four tooth relics enshrined in the capital Chang'an during the Tang dynasty. He is said to have received the relic during a night visit from a divinity associated with Indra. The emperor Taizong tried to burn a tooth relic but was unable to do so.
According to his biography upon his return in 645 C.E. Xuanzang returned from his seventeen-year-long pilgrimage to India with, "over six hundred Mahayana and Hinayana texts, seven statues of the Buddha and more than a hundred sarira relics."
Emperor Wen and Empress Wu of the Sui dynasty both venerated Buddha relics. Daoxuan's (Collection of [the Documents Related to] the Buddho-Taoist Controversies in the Past and the Present; completed 661) recounts that shortly after being born, Emperor Wen was given to a Buddhist "divine nun" until the age of 13. After becoming emperor, Emperor Wen led three Buddha relic redistribution campaigns in 601, 602, and 604. The relics were enshrined across 107 pagodas along with pictures of the divine nun.
In 2010 remains of Gautama Buddha's skull were enshrined at Qixia Temple in Nanjing. The partial bone had been held in the Pagoda of King Ashoka, constructed in 1011 under the former Changgan Temple of Nanjing. In 1987 a chamber was unearthed below Famen temple and a finger bone said to belong to Gautama Buddha was discovered. In 2003 the finger bone was one of 64 culturally significant artifacts officially prohibited from leaving China for exhibitions. In 2009, the relic was enshrined in the world's tallest stupa recently built within the domains of Famen Temple.
Two bone fragments believed to belong to Gautama Buddha are enshrined at Yunju temple. According to Tang dynasty records, China had 19 pagodas of King Ashoka holding Sakyamuni's relics. Seven of these pagodas are believed to have been found. Currently the tooth relic is kept in Beijing while the knuckle of the middle finger is at Xi'an city Shaanxi province.
In 1072 the Japanese pilgrim Jojin visited the Buddha's tooth in Kaifeng; an imperial emissary had to open the door to the build that housed it in the hall of seven treasures.
The Beijing tooth was discovered in 1900 when it was discovered in the ruins of Zhaoxian pagoda outside of Beijing. The monks of the nearby Lingguang monastery found a box in the rubble with the inscription "The Holy Tooth Relics of Sakyamuni Buddha", written by Shan-hui in 963 C.E. They kept the molar inside their monastery until 1955 when they donated it to the Buddhist Association of China. The Burmese ambassador asked whether Burma could have the relic; to which the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had offered. However, when a delegation went to retrieve the tooth it was housed in a golden jeweled casket instead of glass, and only offered to loan it to Burma for eight months. The Beijing tooth temple was reconstructed in 1966 in front of Buddhist delegations from 10 countries.
Relics in India