Buddha's bone fragments to be sent from India to Thailand; sacred relics to be treated as 'state guest'

New Delhi: Buddha relics — essentially the bone fragments of the Buddhist saint — will be taken to Thailand this week. The relics, four pieces of bone fragments, will travel to Thailand for the first time since 1995; they were taken to Mongolia back in 2022, in a similar gesture of cultural diplomacy.

The culture ministry said the relics will be accorded the dignity of a state guest, with an Indian Air Force aircraft and prayer ceremonies. Six monks will travel with the delegation.

Apart from the Kapilavastu relics, the relics of two of Buddha’s disciples, Arahata Sariputra and Arahata Maudgalayana, which are currently in Sanchi, will also be taken to Thailand. 

The relics will journey to Thailand on February 22, and will be returned to India on March 19.

In Thailand, the relics will go through a period of quarantine at the National Museum, Bangkok after which it will be displayed at Bangkok’s Sanam Luang Pavillion for 11 days. After that, the relics will be displayed at Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani, and finally at Krabi, with the schedule earmarking 5 days at each of the three venues.

Culture secretary Govind Mohan said that the relics will be accompanied by a delegation of 22 people, and prayer ceremonies will take place before and after the relics aboard the IAF flight. Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar as well as Governor of Bihar Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar will be part of the delegation.

“The exposition is a significant development diplomatically for us, and it will go a long way in strengthening the ties between India and Thailand. While in Thailand one can see similarities to Indian culture, the exposition will be welcomed by Buddhists in Thailand,” said the secretary.

The delegation will have monks from Kushinagar, Aurangabad, Ladakh , officials from the culture Ministry, state government of MP, curators from National Museum, artists and scholars,” said Mohan.

He added that the event is being organised with the support of Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Embassy in Thailand, International Buddhist Confederation, National Museum, and State Government of Madhya Pradesh.

The sacred relics, which account for 20 bone fragments in all, were loaned by the Archaeological Survey of India to the National Museum. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had excavated these relics during excavations between 1971 and 1977 in Uttar Pradesh’s Piprahwa under the supervision of KM Srivastava.

“The excavation team discovered two inscribed steatite stone caskets containing twelve sacred relics from the bigger casket and ten sacred relics from the smaller casket,” Mohan said.

Most of the relics now remain with the National Museum in New Delhi, with two of them being maintained by the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

Portions of this collection of sacred relics have been taken to Sri Lanka in 1976 and 2012, to Mongolia in 1993 and 2022, to Singapore in 1994 and 2007, South Korea in 1995 and Thailand in December 1995.