This year, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua is turning 72. Following the sexagenary cycle, the Thai government organised a month-long royal procession of the Buddha's relics from Feb 24 to this coming Monday including tours of four major Thai cities -- Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani and Krabi.
The exhibited relics, four pieces in total, are referred to as the "Kapilvastu Relics" as they were discovered at the suspected ruins of ancient Kapilvastu (the Buddha's hometown) in 1898.
These bone fragments have been long kept in the National Museum of India as national treasures. Unlike many historical objects at museums, they are not regularly lent for foreign exhibitions except for some extraordinary occasions, like this diplomatic mission in Thailand.
In Bangkok alone, the nine-day procession attracted a million worshippers. The relics have proven equally popular among Buddhist worshippers in Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani and Krabi, where they are being displayed until Monday.
Culture Minister Sermsak Pongpanit stated that, for such an auspicious and special event, Buddhists from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar would come to Thailand to worship the relics.
The event was also widely covered by Indian news outlets and brewed much national pride. Some Indian officials affirmed it was a "diplomatic achievement for New Delhi".
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's minister of external affairs, remarked that the millions of Thai Buddhist devotees deeply moved him. He called Buddhism a shared culture and heritage between the two nations.
The irony is Buddhism has been disappearing from modern India since before the mid-20th century Dalit Buddhist movement led by B R Ambedkar (1891-1956). Unlike its persistent and vibrant development in mainland Southeast Asia, Buddhism is more a heritage than a living culture in India.
My point is that even though Buddhism has been commonly regarded as some sort of personal and apolitical spirituality, the tradition itself has always been an active player in Asian politics and diplomacy. The most apparent evidence is none other than the veneration for and procession of the Buddha's relics.
Since the dawn of Buddhism, the relics of the Buddha (in Sanskrit, Sarīra, or Dhatu) are the centre of Buddhist devotion as well as politics. In public discourse, a Buddha relic refers to the physical remains of the Buddha after he attained nirvana -- such as the bone fragments retrieved from the Buddha's cremated ashes, a strand of hair, or remnants of the Buddha's footprints.
Since the third century BCE, the spread of Buddhism has followed the movement of the Buddha's relics. One Buddhist scripture mentions that the Buddha's bone ashes were divided into eight parts and shared by seven clans plus one royal house.
The legend of King Asoka further states that after conquering more than half of the Indian subcontinent, Asoka collected seven of the eight portions and gave pieces to the missionaries for a better promulgation of the Buddha Dharma.
If the locals convert, the relics signify the sacredness of the Buddha and would be enshrined in a particular architecture which we typically call a pagoda or stupa. Yes, all pagodas are intended to house the Buddha's relics and to remind us about his noble teachings.
Historical evidence in Thailand suggests the importance of the Buddha's relics within Thai territory. In the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription -- commonly seen as the first example of Thai writing -- King Ram Khamhaeng of Sukhothai allegedly discovered some holy relics of the Buddha in his reign and built a stupa to house them in 1285.
In the 14th century, stories of Tai monks in Sri Lanka and the legends about the Buddha's relics started spreading in the Lanna Kingdom (northern Thailand).
In Saraburi, Wat Phra Phutthabat was built in 1624 because locals found a chunk of stone that resembles the footprint of the Buddha and thus has been regarded as a genuine relic left by the Buddha.
Foreign travellers might discover that almost every major Thai city has a temple named "Wat Mahathat". The prefix "maha" means big and great, and "that" is transliterated from the Pali term "dhatu" which refers to natural elements and bodily relics. The coined term "Mahathat" refers exclusively to the holy relics of the Buddha.
All these Mahathat temples were believed to contain some material remains of the Buddha. In this sense, the Buddha's bodily relics are the irrefutable material witness of the Buddha's power, compassion, and noble teachings.
The veneration of the Buddha's relics is far from a unique Thai or Southeast Asian phenomenon.
Irrespective of time, space, and denomination, Buddhists have always been fanatic about these bodily remains. In Tang Dynasty China (819AD), a relic believed to have come from the Buddha's little finger was invited to the palace in Chang'an for a three-day royal procession.
Han Yu (768-824AD), a famous Chinese literati, complained that people had been "burning the scalp, singeing the fingers, selling clothes and properties, queuing up from dawn to dusk, and abandoning their jobs" to witness the relic procession.
Han Yu submitted this complaint letter to the Chinese emperor. The emperor, out of anger, threatened to execute him for his anti-Buddhist speech. After rounds of entreaties from his fellow courtiers, Han Yu was only banished to the southmost town, Teochew -- where coincidentally (or fatefully) most of the Chinese-Thai people originally immigrated from.
The chaotic scene stirred up by the Buddha's little finger in medieval China seems to have little difference from what is happening in contemporary Thailand.
The procession of the Buddha's relics symbolises an unparalleled level of religious orthodoxy and centrality -- the Buddha went to nirvana, but his relics remained. The veneration of the relics is one of the most virtuous acts -- a direct homage to the Buddha. Nonetheless, the point is not how Buddhists express their devotion but how politicians use Buddhist objects to exercise diplomatic and political power.
The Chinese Communist Party -- famous (or infamous) for its Marxist "religion as the opium of the people" policy -- has also taken great advantage of the Buddha's relics for diplomatic purposes.
In 1900, the British invasion of Beijing led to the destruction of Lingguang Temple. From the stupa ruins, a monk accidentally discovered an inscribed casket with a part read as "the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Sakyamuni Buddha". Later, this tooth relic was widely acknowledged as being genuine, and a new stupa was built to preserve it.
On Oct 15, 1955, this piece of tooth was sent on a chartered flight from Beijing to Yangon. This was the relic's first of four trips to Myanmar. At the airport, the relic, as well as the Chinese delegation, were warmly received by Myanmar's president and prime minister.
During its eight-month stay in Myanmar, the relic attracted a million people. Long story short, the second 45-day procession happened in 1994 and was worshipped by more than 4 million people. In 1996 and 2011, the Chinese and Myanmar governments jointly organised the procession another two times.
Whenever Beijing needs to showcase its religious freedom and the Myanmar junta attempts to boost its Buddhist nationalism, the two countries collaborate on a procession of relics.
Moreover, these activities strengthen bilateral ties, indicate the everlasting friendship between the Chinese and Myanmar people, and fulfil the sincere wish of the Myanmar Buddhists.
Ironically, China has erased and denied much of its own Buddhist culture and heritage, and Myanmar is still enforcing its Burmese chauvinism with appalling discrimination and oppression of ethnic minority groups.
From a Buddhist insider perspective, places with venerated relics can be considered the regional centres of Buddhism -- where the Buddha chose to stay and preach the Dharma.
However, the Buddha's relics can provide much cultural capital for politics and diplomacy.
For the international exhibitions of Buddha's relics, the lender upholds a sense of religious orthodoxy and cultural superiority, whereas the receiving side can only be grateful for the opportunity.
It happened in the legend of King Asoka when he ordered the monks to bring relics to convert locals and build a stupa. It happened during the Cold War when Communist China generously helped the Myanmar junta. And it is happening in Thailand now.
The "not-for-lend" Buddha relics from the National Museum of India, in fact, have taken trips to many nations, including Sri Lanka (1976 and 2012), Mongolia (1993 and 2022), South Korea (1995), Thailand (1995), and Singapore (1994 and 2007).
In Thailand, India is being portrayed as "Buddha-land". It is where the Buddha was born, enlightened, preached, and died.
At Sanam Luang, the relics procession was buoyed by a minor exhibition promoted by the Indian Ministry of Tourism. About a dozen tourist companies were selling the "Indian pilgrimage tour package" to worshippers.
Unfortunately, most Buddhists may never notice how they are being manipulated by these not-so-Buddhist politicians.
Guanxiong Qi is a Thai Studies PhD student at Chulalongkorn University specialising in Thai Buddhism.
