According to Mahaparinirvana Sutta, after his death, the Buddha was cremated and the ashes divided among his followers.
The division of the relics of Buddha by Drona the Brahmin, Gandhara, Zenyōmitsu-Temple Museum, Tokyo.
A Brahmin Drona divided the relics of buddha into ten portions, eight from the body relics, one from the ashes of Buddha’s cremation pyre and one from the pot used to divide the relics, which he kept for himself. After The Buddha’s Parinirvana, his relics were enshrined and worshipped in stupas by the royals of eight countries: to Ajatasattu, king of Magadha; to the Licchavis of Vaishali; to the Sakyas of Kapilavastu; to the Bulis of Allakappa; to the Koliyas of Ramagrama; to the brahmin of Vethadipa; to the Mallas of Pava; and to the Mallas of Kushinagar
Spread of the Relics of Buddha by Ashoka
The relics of buddha were later handled by Ashoka. He safely placed the relics (said to have been divided into 84,000 portions) and had stupas built over them throughout the region he ruled. Many of the remains were taken to other countries. The Ashokavadana narrates how more than a century later, King Ashoka is said to have redistributed the relics in 84,000 stupas. The stupa would become a reference point denoting the Buddha’s presence in the landscape of world.
When the Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang visited India centuries later, they reported most of ancient sites were in ruin. The Mahaparinirvana sutra says that of the Buddha’s four eye teeth (canines), one was worshipped in Indra’s Heaven, the second in the city of Ghandara, the third in Kalinga, and the fourth in Ramagrama by the king of the Nagas.
Annually in Sri Lanka and China, tooth relics of buddha would be paraded through the streets.
It is said all the 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. It is said 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.
Relics in Afghanistan
The steatite box that contained the Bimaran casket.
Sometime in the middle of the fifth century the Chinese pilgrim Daorong traveled to Afghanistan visiting pilgrimage sites. In Nagaharahara 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. 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. Buddha’s first disciples Trapusa and Bahalika received eight strands of hair from him which they brought to their home town of Balkh and enshrined in a golden stupa by the gate.
Relics in India
Buddha’s relics at the National Museum, New Delhi.
Buddha belonged to the Shakya clan, whose capital was located at Kapilavastu; The Shakyas had one eighth of his relics stored at Kapilavastu. According to the PBS series Secrets of the Dead, an urn containing these was discovered in a stupa at Piprahwa near Birdpur [historical British variant as Birdpore], a Buddhist sacred structure found in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh in India by amateur archaeologist William Claxton Peppe in 1898. Piprahwa became identified by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as Kapilavastu. In 1971 K.M. Srivastava continued excavating the site and discovered 22 bones in two soapstone urns, dating them to the 5th century BCE. The report on these findings was filed 20 years later in 1991. This conclusion is disputed by some authorities, including the Nepalese Department of Archaeology, which claims Tilaurakot as the historical location of Kapilavastu.
The Buddha Relic Stupa was built by Lichhavis in Vaishali as a mud stupa in the 5th century BCE. Noted archaeologists Anant Sadashiv Altekar and Sitaram Rai of the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute led an archaeological excavation of this stupa from 1958 to 1962. A reliquary was discovered and removed from the core of the stupa; it was dated to the 5th century BCE. It was later determined that this reliquary contained ashes of the Buddha mixed with earth, a copper punch-marked coin, and several other items. The casket was brought to the Patna Museum in 1972, where it remains to this day.
Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai.
When the first dome of the Global Vipassana Pagoda was constructed in October 2006 in Mumbai; bone relics of Gautama Buddha were enshrined in the central locking stone of the dome, making it the world’s largest structure containing relics of the Buddha. The relics were originally found in the stupa at Bhattiprolu, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, South India. They have been donated by the Mahabodhi Society of India and the prime minister of Sri Lanka to be kept at the Global Vipassana Pagoda. A casket was discovered in Lalitgiri in Orissa believed to contain bones of Buddha.
There are buddha relics spread and sacredly worshipped all over the world
Relics in China
Eight nested reliquary boxes supposed to contain a finger bone of the Buddha. The innermost container, the miniature temple, is made of solid gold. From the Famen Temple.
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.
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.
Relics in Sri Lanka
Hair Relics of Gautama Buddha on display at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo
In the Mahavamsa, Ashoka chooses not to retrieve Buddha relics in the possession of Nagas at Ramagrama. It was said that on his deathbed Buddha told a prophecy that of the eight dronas of his body relics, one would be venerated by the Koliyas of Ramagrama, then the relics would belong to the Nagas until being enshrined in Sri Lanka. Ashoka is told more prophecy by arhats, who speak of the future enshrinement of these relics by King Dutugemunu.
When the Danta and Hemamala family arrive in Sri Lanka in 362-409 CE, they deliver one of the four eye teeth relics to King Sirimeghavanna; who places it with the bowl relic. The relics remain together in Anuradhapura for 600 years until being moved to the new capital of Polonnaruva; at which point it becomes the most venerated relic in Sri Lanka. It is believed the bowl produces rainfall, a 14th-century legend says that king Upatissa put an end to a drought by filling the bowl with water, and sprinkling the ground while following a cart with a golden statue of Buddha. It is said the Buddha’s disciple Ananda had done the same when Vaisali suffered from famine and pestilence from drought and eradicate the drought.
There are Buddha’s relics spread all over the world, enshrined and worshipped.