By oneself indeed is evil done and
by oneself is one defiled, by oneself
is evil not done and by oneself is one
purified. Purity and impurity
depend entirely on oneself; no one
can purify another.

~ Dhammapada, Verse 165

The story of Buddha’s Piprahwa relics is as unusual as the story of the man himself—a 6th/ 5th Century BCE prince, Siddhartha Gautama from the Indo-Gangetic plain, who renounced worldly life and possessions to find a faith built on compassion and self-discovery.

Throughout his life, he was adamant he be treated only as a teacher and not God. Because there was no God. Only our karma.

When Gautama Buddha [a Sanskrit term meaning the ‘enlightened’ or ‘awakened’ one], passed away in Kushinagar, his bodily remains were divided into eight initial portions amongst North India’s kings to be interred in stupas.

The part that went to his own clan, the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, was buried in a gigantic stupa in Piprahwa, close to Lumbini, his birthplace. Two centuries later, the newly converted Mauryan Emperor Ashoka added an offering of around 1,800 intricately carved gemstones and gold objects and further enlarged the stupa. Continue reading →