Embodying the Dharma

Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia

Edited by David Germano and Kevin Trainor
EMBODYING THE DHARMA
Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia
Edited by
DAVID GERMANO
and
KEVIN TRAINOR
S tat e Uni vers i t y of New York Pres s
EMBODYING
THE DHARMA
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
ALBANY
2004 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
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State University of New York Press
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Production, Laurie Searl
Marketing, Susan Petrie
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Embodying the Dharma : Buddhist relic veneration in Asia / edited by David Germano and
Kevin Trainor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6217-X
1. Gautama BuddhaRelics. I. Germano, David. II. Trainor, Kevin.
BQ924.E43 2004
294.3'421dc22
2003068661
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for Sonam
Anna
and Lhamokyi
D. G.
for Anne
and Andrew
K. T.
Acknowledgments ix
ONE Introduction: Beyond Superstition 1
Kevin Trainor
TWO Buddhist Relics in Comparative Perspective:
Beyond the Parallels 27
John S. Strong
THREE Living Relics of the Buddha(s) in Tibet 51
David Germano
FOUR Buddhist Relics and Japanese Regalia 93
Bernard Faure
FIVE The Field of the Buddhas Presence 117
Jacob N. Kinnard
SIX Signs of the Buddha in
Northern Thai Chronicles 145
Donald K. Swearer
SEVEN On the Allure of Buddhist Relics 163
Robert H. Sharf
Contributors 193
Index 195
CONTENTS
We would like to thank the American Academy of Religion for support-
ing the Buddhist Relic Veneration Seminar, 19941997. Thanks are due,
as well, to all the seminar participants, including Yael Bentor, Robert
Campany, Steven Collins, Bernard Faure, Charles Hallisey, Jacob Kin-
nard, Susanne Mrozik, Brian Ruppert, Juliane Schober, Gregory
Schopen, Robert Sharf, John Strong, Donald Swearer, and Stanley Tam-
biah. We would also like to thank Nancy Ellegate, Laurie Searl, and the
State University of New York Press for their assistance and the two
anonymous reviewers who provided several helpful suggestions for
improving the volume.
We are also grateful to the University of Vermont Asian Studies Pro-
gram for their support, and to the University of Virginia and the Tibetan
and Himalyan Digital Library for hosting the Buddhist Relic Traditions
Web site developed in conjunction with this volume (URL:http://iris.
lib.virginia.edu/tibet/collections/religion/relics/index.html).
Robert Sharfs essay, On the Allure of Buddhist Relics, was pub-
lished under the same title in Representations 66 (Spring 1999): 7599, and
is 1999 by the Regents of the University of California. It is reprinted by
permission of University of California Press.
An earlier version of Donald Swearers essay, Signs of the Buddha in
the Northern Thai Chronicles, was published in Wannakam Phutasa\ sana\
Nai La\ nna\ (Buddhist literature in northern Thailand), ed. Phanphen
Khru\ ngthai (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996). It appears here by per-
mission of Silk Worm Press.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The treasuring of relics as memorials or souvenirs of the dead is a natural
exhibition of emotion to which no objection can be taken, but, when the
relics are believed to possess intrinsic magical properties, the veneration
of them passes into rank superstition, open to every kind of abuse and
fraud. The transition from the sentimental to the superstitious veneration
of relics invariably takes place in all countries, so that the innocent senti-
ment is forgotten while the superstition develops a vast mythology.
3
Both MacCulloch and Smith found it appropriate to evaluate norma-
tively beliefs and practices centered on relics, and both concluded that
relics, on the whole, tend to do much more harm than good. It is also sig-
nificant that both scholars, in disparaging relic veneration, employed
superstition, a word that contemporary scholars of religion tend to
eschew, at least in their published reflections. The connotations of the cat-
egory superstition, and the shift in interpretive perspectives that has led
to its abandonment as a legitimate analytical term, merit further consider-
ation here, since they reveal a good deal about the circumstances that gave
rise to this book on Buddhist relic veneration and the shift in scholarly ori-
entation to which it contributes.
The etymology of superstitio, the Latin word from which the English
superstition derives, is a matter of some debate, and scholarly attention
has recently focused on uses of the word by both pagan and Christian writ-
ers in the centuries before and after the rise of the Christian movement.
Michele Salzman provides an overview of the etymological discussion,
noting that scholars have identified a range of early meanings of the term,
including a state of religious exaltation, the posture of one standing over
a defeated opponent, and the condition of one who has survived an event
and become a witness, all of which can be derived from the basic sense of
standing over.
4
By the first century BCE, the word had developed strong negative
connotations and was employed to criticize excessive fear or awe of the
gods or an unreasonable religious belief.
5
The term eventually gained
juridical force, and Christianity was persecuted as a superstitio. While
scholars disagree about the precise reasons for Christian persecution, L.
F. Janssen notes that Christianity was seen as an affront to the Roman
social order in several respects. By seeking an individual salvation that
superceded familial and social bonds, and by refusing to venerate the
gods that ensured the integrity and longevity of Roman society, Chris-
tians marked themselves as a community apart, one easily seen as sub-
versive.
6
During the fourth-century Christianization of the Roman
Empire, superstitio, while consistently used to critique the beliefs and
KEVIN TRAINOR 2
practices of those beyond the pale of orthodoxy and orthopraxy, was
interpreted differently by pagans and Christians. As Salzman observes,
pagans used and defined superstitio with its traditional meaningirra-
tional or excessive religious awe, credulity, divination, magicbut their
Christian contemporaries used superstitio to mean the morally incorrect
beliefs of pagans.
7
When the authority of the Christian church was more
securely established at the end of the fourth and early fifth centuries,
superstitio was used in the Theodosian Code to legislate against pagans,
Jews, and Christian heretics.
8
As this brief overview suggests, superstition meant different things
to different people in antiquity. What remained constant was the use of the
word to mark and defend communal boundaries. Those deemed supersti-
tious were liable to exclusion, either because of disordered affections or
cognitive error. Thus a person or group could be branded superstitious
both because of an excess of emotion and for attaching a laudable emotion
to the wrong object. In early English-language usage, the term was fre-
quently employed by Protestant reformers to characterize Catholic clerics
and the rituals over which they officiated. For example, in Thomas Nor-
tons 1561 translation of Calvins Institutes, the great reformer asks:
Shall we denie that it is a superstitious worshippying, when men do
throwe themselues downe before bread, to worship Christe therein?
9
In
this instance, Catholics are criticized for misdirecting their commendable
devotional sentiments. Instead of attaching them to Christ, their appropri-
ate object, they direct them to the eucharistic bread, falsely believing that
Christ is somehow directly and materially present in the consecrated host.
Here the problem is cognitive: for Calvin there are neither biblical nor
epistemological grounds for worshipping the communion bread.
In the context of Reformation polemics such as this, superstition is
employed to distinguish between false and true religion, thus defining
membership in the community of the faithful. In the eighteenth century,
those espousing Enlightenment ideals used the term to criticize religious
belief and practice more broadly. In this latter context, strong emotion
could be seen as intrinsically harmful to the exercise of human reason,
with the disciplines of science and philosophy providing the most effec-
tive remedy. Thus Adam Smith, commenting on the importance of public
education in a well-ordered state, observes in his Wealth of Nations: Sci-
ence is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition; and
where all the superior ranks of people were secured from it, the inferior
ranks could not be much exposed to it.
10
David Hume likewise warns of
the dangers of enthusiasm and superstition, both of which he attributes to
INTRODUCTION 3
human emotions and ignorance, but he also identifies a key difference
between the two. Superstition, in contrast to enthusiasm, is much more
favorable to the rise of priestly power. He notes: As superstition is a
considerable ingredient in almost all religions, even the most fanatical;
there being nothing but philosophy able entirely to conquer these unac-
countable terrors; hence it proceeds, that in almost every sect of religion
there are priests to be found: But the stronger the mixture there is of
superstition, the higher the authority of the priesthood.
11
In these
Enlightenment critiques of superstition, we see the emergence of another
community, one critical of religious belief, emotion, and practice in gen-
eral and in search of rational explanations for superstitious religious
behavior. Once again, superstition serves to mark those outside the
community. In this case the criterion of membership is not some particu-
lar form of religion but instead is a commitment to a rational and empir-
ical mode of inquiry.
The modern community of scholars standing within this tradition of
Enlightenment thought forms the immediate context for understanding
why Buddhist relic veneration has until the last fifteen years or so received
scant attention from scholars of religion. Nineteenth-century scholarship
on Buddhism tended to minimize the important role that relic veneration
played in the history of Buddhist traditions throughout Asia or, when it
was noted, to represent it as evidence of the popularization and decline of
the Buddhas original teachings. This narrative of popularization and
decline finds vivid expression in the writing of T. W. Rhys Davids, an
early scholar of Buddhism whose work was very influential, among both
academics and the broader public.
12
Writing a century ago in the North
American Review, Rhys Davids draws upon the image of the Hindu festi-
val of Jagannatha in Puri to illustrate the decline of the Buddhas teaching
under the force of popular superstition. Noting the forgotten heritage of
Buddhist teaching in the region, he contrasts the philosophical and ethical
purity of early Buddhist teaching with what he regards as the devotional
excesses of Hinduism. Where Buddhist teaching counsels self-restraint
and nonviolence, the cult of Jagannatha whips up a frenzy of devotional
fervor that sometimes results in the death of pious devotees who throw
themselves beneath the wheels of the gigantic processional chariots in the
hopes of liberation. He writes:
When we call to mind how the frenzied multitudes, drunk with the lus-
cious poison of delusions, from which the reformation they had rejected
might have saved them, dragged on that sacred car, heavy and hideous
KEVIN TRAINOR 4
with carvings of obscenity and crueltydragged it on in the very name
of Jagan-natha, the forgotten teacher of self-control, of enlightenment
and of universal love, while it creaked and crushed over the bodies of
miserable suicides, the victims of once exploded superstitionsit will
help us to realize how heavy is the hand of the immeasurable past; how
much more powerful than the voice of the prophets is the influence of
congenial fancies, and of inherited beliefs.
13
Here, the linkage between emotional excess and superstition comes to
the fore, as Rhys Davids mourns the decline in rationality that, in his view,
attended the adoption of Buddhism by the great emperor Aoka in the
third century BCE under whose patronage Buddhism expanded and gained
broader popular influence, a time he characterizes as the beginning of the
end. Drawing a parallel between the broad historical trajectories of
Christianity and Buddhism after they were adapted to the needs of empire
and their membership expanded exponentially, he depicts the decline as
inevitable. Like many other nineteenth-century scholars of Buddhism, he
also compares Buddhism with Hinduism. Where Buddhism is for him, at
least in its original form, characterized by rational analysis and emotional
restraint, Hinduism is marked by ritual and displays of emotion. Such
comparisons contributed to the tendency to downplay the role of devotion
and ritual in early, authentic Buddhism.
Rhys Davids concludes his survey of Buddhism on a more positive
note, however, pointing to signs of a Buddhist revival in Asia, particularly
in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), a revival connected to the recovery of
the authentic Buddhist textual tradition. This revival was in part a
response to attacks on Buddhism disseminated through an active cam-
paign of Christian missionary propaganda. Segments of both the lay and
monastic communities in Ceylon took up the challenge and, beginning in
the 1860s, began to publish their own literature to rebut Christian attacks
on Buddhist teachings.
14
The conflict also gave rise to a series of widely
publicized debates between Buddhist monks and missionaries, one of
which drew the attention of Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, one of the
founders of the Theosophical Society. Olcott played a formative role in
efforts to establish a system of Buddhist education, and the curriculum in
these schools was deeply influenced by European and American represen-
tations of Buddhism dependent upon textually based reconstructions of
the Buddhas original teachings. Rhys Davids writes:
Books in manuscript, on the time-honored palm leaves, had been
deemed enough when their position was not attacked. Now they are
INTRODUCTION 5
printing and circulating their books, as the Christians do; they are found-
ing schools for both sexes; they are establishing boards of education, even
high schools and colleges; and their sacred books, no longer left only in
the hands of student recluses, are printed and circulated at large. . . .
On the other hand, the labors of European and American scholars are
making accessible, also on this side, the ancient texts, and are even
beginning to translate them in to European languages, and to analyze
and summarize their contents. Though the Buddhists do not in the least
agree with us, whose aim is not controversial at all, but only historical,
they are beginning not only to make such use as suits them of our results,
but to imitate our methods.
15
We can see an analogous disparagement of Buddhist ritual in contrast
to supposedly more authentic forms of Buddhism in the work of Paul Carus,
who, like Rhys Davids, had a powerful influence on popular views of Bud-
dhism in Europe and North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Carus interest in Buddhism was greatly stimulated by the 1893
Worlds Parliament of Religions in Chicago, a forum in which representa-
tives of Buddhism, including the charismatic Sri Lankan Buddhist reformer
Anagarika Dharmapala and the Japanese Rinzai Zen master Soyen Shaku,
addressed overflowing audiences who knew little of the complexity and
diversity of Buddhist traditions. Carus, who held a doctorate in classical
philology from the University of Tbingen, never held a university position;
he was, however, a prolific author whose writings, especially his Gospel of
Buddhism, exercised a great influence in the United States and abroad.
16
While Carus never formally converted to Buddhism, he found its teachings
in large part consonant with the evolving science of religion that he advo-
cated. In addition to popularizing Buddhist teachings through his own writ-
ings, he published the work of many Buddhists under the auspices of the
Open Court Publishing Company and in The Open Court, the journal he
edited, which aimed at conciliating Religion with Science.
17
He also main-
tained an extensive correspondence with Buddhists in Asia and materially
supported their missionizing in the United States.
18
Carus correspondence with the Sri Lankan monk and Sanskritist, the
Venerable Alutgama Seelakkhandha, illuminates the distinctive character
of his personal enthusiasm for Buddhism, as well as its limits. After Ven.
Seelakkhandha offered to send Carus some relics of the Buddha, Carus
communicated his ambivalence toward the Buddhist practice of venerat-
ing the Buddhas material remains. He notes in his letter that he would
welcome a relic because it would show me the reverence in which the
KEVIN TRAINOR 6
Ceylonese hold their master and his saints but asks that the monk provide
specific information about the relic, including where it was discovered; he
also promises to provide a more detailed statement of his views on relic
veneration. He writes again the next day with a lengthy clarification of his
position, expressing his concern that the gift will deprive Ven. See-
lakkhanda of a treasured devotional object for the sake of one who would
value these relics for historical reasons only. He continues:
According to my conception of Buddhism the most sacred relics we
have of the Buddha and his saints are the words which they left,the
su\tras and all those ideas which we verify in our own experience as valu-
able truths. Words, thoughts, and ideas are not material things, they are
ideal possessions, they are spiritual. It is true that they are transferred by
material means in books and MSS. and by the vibrations of sounds, but
it is not the book or the MS. or the sound waves that are sacred, but the
ideas which are conveyed by them. Thus, all the treasures which I regard
as holy are of a spiritual kind, and not of a material kind. The worship
of relics, be they bones, hair, teeth, or any other material of the body of
a saint, is a mistake. They do not possess any other value than the
remains of ordinary mortals. The soul of Buddha is not in his bones, but
in his words, and I regard relic-worship as an incomplete stage of reli-
gious worship in which devotees have not as yet attained to fulll [sic]
philosophical clearness. Now certainly it is of interest to me to have evi-
dences of the religious zeal of Buddhists. The keeping of sacred relics is
a symptom of their devotion, but that is all I see in the use of relics.
19
Ven. Seelakkhandha remained undeterred; he sent not only relics but
also a detailed response to Carus views on relic veneration. Carus pub-
lished a revised version of that response in The Open Court under the title,
A Buddhist Priests View of Relics. In this article, Ven. Seelakkhandha
provides an overview of Sri Lankan Buddhist views of relic veneration.
Regarding the relic that he sent to Carus, he writes:
The relic I am sending you is one thus obtained from the ruins of a
Dageba at A[nuradha]pura and has been kept with me with great vener-
ation,offering flowers, incense, etc., morn and eve. I believe this to be
a genuine relic of the Buddha. We reverence Buddhas relics as a mark
of gratitude to Him who showed us the way to salvation and as a token
of remembrance of the many personal virtues (bhagavat, arhat samyak-
sambuddha) which His life illustrated; and those of His disciples (i.e.,
Rahats) for similar reasons, and also to keep us reminded of their noble
exemplary lives as results of Lord Buddhas invaluable doctrine.
20
INTRODUCTION 7
This exchange effectively illustrates the complex intercultural negoti-
ation of authority and meaning that characterized the attempts of nine-
teenth- and early twentieth-century European and American scholars to
understand and represent Buddhism. Western scholars depended heavily
on the assistance of Buddhist monks to gain access to Buddhist texts and
to master the languages in which they were written. At the same time,
these scholars worked within a cultural milieu imbued with a profound
confidence in the power of reason and scientific inquiry to uncover the
truth, a milieu deeply shaped by the history of the conflict between reli-
gion and reason, and they saw themselves as heirs to a tradition of critical
inquiry that put them in a privileged position to uncover the Buddhas
original teachings on the basis of philological and historical analysis.
Moreover, the picture of early Buddhism that was emerging from their
studies of Buddhist scriptures seemed to reveal a philosophical orientation
and a mode of emotionally detached analysis that resonated sympatheti-
cally with the moral and intellectual discipline of Western academic cul-
ture. Buddhist relic veneration therefore elicited a kind of cognitive dis-
sonance. The role of relics in fostering an emotional attachment to the
person of the Buddha and the ritualism to which they gave rise, to say
nothing of the miraculous powers attributed to them, seemed out of char-
acter with what these scholars regarded as the most profound and
admirable ideals of the Buddhas original teaching. Such practices could
easily be regarded as, in Rhys Davids case, evidence of the historical cor-
ruption of the tradition under the influence of popular weakness and prej-
udice, or as, in the case of Paul Carus, examples of an incomplete stage
of religious worship. In other words, they were superstitious. They were
judged inauthentic, either on the grounds that they were not part of the
Buddhas original teaching or because they appeared incompatible with
the norms of an evolving science of religion.
In effect, both Rhys Davids and Carus sought to explain relic venera-
tion away rather than elucidate its role in the history of Buddhism and in
the Buddhist communities of their day. This perceived incompatibility
between the reconstructed origins of the Buddhist tradition and ritualized
devotion to the Buddhas bodily remains has defined, until the last fifteen
years or so, the basic discourse within which relic veneration has been
interpreted and has, in many cases, led scholars to simply ignore the prac-
tice altogether in their accounts of Buddhism. At the same time, it must be
noted that there is some evidence of ambivalence toward relic veneration
within early Buddhist tradition itself. In the Maha\parinibba\na-sutta, a
locus classicus for discussions of Buddhist relic veneration, one finds pas-
KEVIN TRAINOR 8
sages nestled together that seem to provide contradictory perspectives on
the value of relic veneration and who should engage in it.
Consider, for example, the scene in which the Buddha has just settled
himself between the twin sa\ la trees at Kusina\ ra\ where he will attain his ulti-
mate passing away from the cycle of rebirth. The sa\ la trees are in blossom
out of season, showering down sa\ la flowers upon the Buddha, along with
manda\ ra blossoms, sandalwood powder and heavenly music. The text
describes these as a form of offering (tatha\ gatassa pu\ ja\ ya). In response the
Buddha informs A| nanda that these sorts of offerings fall short of the high-
est form of honor and veneration, defined as the monk or nun or male or
female lay-disciple who lives following the Dhamma in its fullness, fol-
lowing the proper way of life, walking according to the Dhamma.
21
The commentary elucidates this statement with a quotation from the
Buddha, who says that he did not make the resolution to become a Bud-
dha at the feet of Dipankara Buddha for the sake of garlands, scents,
music, and song. The commentary observes that if the Buddha had not
objected to this sort of offering, characterized as worship with material
things (a\ misa-pu\ja\), his followers would not have perfected moral virtue,
concentration and insight, but instead would have occupied themselves
with worshipping. It notes that not even a thousand monasteries equal to
the Maha\viha\ra, nor a thousand cetiyas equal to the Maha\cetiya,
22
would
be adequate support for the well-being of the sa\sana (Buddhist teachings
and institutions). It thus concludes: Now right practice is proper worship
for the Tatha\gata, and surely it is laid down by him and is able to support
the sa\sana.
23
A little later in the Maha\parinibba\na-sutta, we find a discussion of
what should be done with the Buddhas body after he has passed away,
and the Buddha states explicitly that his remains should be cremated in a
manner befitting a great universal monarch (cakkavattin). This includes
elaborate rites for preparing the body, cremation, and the erection of relic
monuments (thu\pas) in public places to enshrine the remaining relics. He
concludes: Those who there offer a garland, or scent, or paint, or make a
salutation, or feel serene joy in their heart, that will be to their benefit and
well-being for a long time.
24
Yet even as this passage seems to recom-
mend the value of relic veneration, it appears to enforce a clear separation
between the roles of sangha members and the laity in funeral preparations.
For the Buddha also addresses the following words to his faithful atten-
dant A|nanda: Do not trouble yourselves, A|nanda, with sarra-pu\ja\ of the
Tatha\gata; rouse yourselves, A|nanda, strive for the highest goal, attend to
the highest goal, live heedful, zealous, resolute on the highest goal. There
INTRODUCTION 9
are wise nobles, wise brahmans and wise householders who are devoted
to the Tatha\gata; they will perform sarra-pu\ja\ of the Tatha\gata.
25
This passage has typically been interpreted as evidence that members
of the earliest Theravada sangha were initially prohibited from participat-
ing in relic veneration. The evidence for this is in part negative: the Ther-
avada Vinaya (monastic code), in contrast to the Vinayas of some other
Buddhist fraternities, says nothing about relic veneration.
26
The problem,
again, is the presence of contradictory evidence, for the Maha\ parinibba\ na-
sutta also provides a detailed account of the role of the great elder
Maha\ kassapa in the cremation ceremony. When the Mallas attempt to light
the funeral pyre, they are obstructed by the devas in attendance until
Maha\ kassapa and his entourage of five hundred monks arrive on the scene.
Maha\ kassapa venerates the Buddhas body by placing his head on the
Buddhas feet, which, according to the commentary, miraculously emerge
from their coverings. The funeral pyre then spontaneously ignites. Appar-
ently, in this instance, Maha\ kassapas devotion to the Buddhas body is
deemed appropriate, even though he is both a monk and an arahant.
27
Once again, the text seems to juxtapose contradictory perspectives on
the appropriateness of relic veneration for members of the sangha. Taken
together, these passages can be read as evidence that authoritative Ther-
avada tradition both affirmed the value of relic veneration and at the same
time cautioned that it should not be the primary preoccupation of members
of the sangha. This is hardly a rejection of the practice altogether, how-
ever, and the hypothesis that members of the sangha were prohibited from
participating in relic veneration goes well beyond the evidence. In some
respects, we can see a parallel between the theory that sangha members
were explicitly prohibited from participation in the relic cult and the
widely accepted hypothesis that there was for centuries a prohibition
against representing the body of the Buddha in paintings and images, what
is generally called the aniconic period in early Buddhism. Here again
part of the evidence is negative: no images survive from the first several
centuries of the Buddhist movement. This, coupled with early representa-
tions that depict the Buddhas physical presence through symbols such as
a royal umbrella or his throne of enlightenment, led to the widely accepted
assertion that early Buddhists were prohibited from representing his bod-
ily form out of respect for his nirvanic status. As with the dubious asser-
tion that early Buddhist monks and nuns were initially prohibited from
participating in relic veneration, however, the theory of an aniconic period
is driven more by presumed doctrinal ideals than by compelling material
evidence.
28
Indeed, when the centrality of the practice of relic veneration
KEVIN TRAINOR 10
during this period is taken into account, the existence of a prohibition
against representing his physical body seems even less likely.
The reexamination of both the role of relic veneration and of the so-
called aniconic period in early Buddhism can be seen as aspects of a wider
reorientation taking place in Buddhist studies, a reorientation that is
reshaping the study of religion more generally. As the art historian David
Morgan has noted, scholars of religion are increasingly turning their atten-
tion to visual culture.
29
This interest in the visual diverges from the long-
standing attention devoted to art and architecture by earlier generations of
scholars in that it attempts to integrate material objects more fully into
their social and cultural contexts at the local level. This integrative
approach includes increased attention to how these objects and their atten-
dant rituals orchestrate cognitive and affective dimensions of experience
and to their role in articulating a wide range of power relationships,
including social class, gender, and dynamics of colonial interaction. Con-
sider, for example, how different a Buddhist reliquary appears when
viewed in a museum display case and when seen upon the head of a lay
donor carrying it in an enshrinement procession to the empty relic cham-
ber of a new stupa where it will soon be permanently enclosed (see figure
1.1). In contrast to appproaches that have highlighted the particular fea-
tures of isolated artifacts in relation to idealized aesthetic norms or as
examples of historically and culturally delimited styles, the study of visual
culture helps to illuminate the role that particular objects play in shaping
the dynamics of local power relations. Such an approach turns our atten-
tion to the fact that both the display case and the stupa take their respec-
tive places within and through a set of ritualized cultural practices. Each
culturally privileged location lends itself, as well, to distinctive forms of
knowledge and meaning.
What might be called the rematerializing of religion through
increased attention to the bodies of religious practitioners and their ritual-
ized interactions with material objects has taken place alongside a move-
ment of theoretical deconstruction that has rendered increasingly suspect
the categories of religion and the religions. If the discipline of reli-
gious studies could once be seen as clearly defined by the privileging of a
unique experience (e.g., the numinous) or a distinctive interpretive cat-
egory (e.g., the sacred), this is no longer the case, and there is consider-
able disagreement within the field about what, if anything, sets scholars of
religion apart from those who study religion from within the disciplines of
history, sociology, or anthropology. In addition, the religions (e.g., Bud-
dhism, Islam, Christianity), once commonly defined by abstract belief
INTRODUCTION 11
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systems derived from canonical scriptures, are now increasingly frag-
mented along the fault lines of regional and local cultures.
Relic veneration as a focus of study provides an advantageous position
from which to view the shifting boundaries of the discipline of Buddhist
studies. On the one hand, it lends itself to broad comparative analyses,
since many religious traditions include some variation on the practice of
venerating the bodily remains of the special dead.
30
On the other hand,
attention to specific relics, that is, the actual objects that are the focus of
veneration, invites careful attention to local histories and to the interplay of
social and cultural forces within a relatively circumscribed field.
For example, Buddhist relic veneration can be investigated as a dis-
tinctive form within a broader set of religious practices organized around
the material remains (corporeal relics) and material representations
(images) of authoritative religious figures. Following this line of inquiry,
one could, for example, compare Buddhist and Christian relic practices
with an eye toward illuminating important differences between the two
traditions (an approach developed by John Strong in this volume). Or one
could examine the category of relic itself as a means of highlighting cul-
tural differences between Euro-American scholars and the Asian traditions
that they study (see the chapter by Robert Sharf).
One can also frame a comparative analysis in a manner that high-
lights points of similarity between different traditions. For example, it is
precisely the materiality of relics that makes them such useful and effec-
tive signifiers of authoritative presence, for both practitioners and schol-
ars. As material objects they lend themselves to particular strategies of
consolidation, dissemination, and controlled access and thus have fre-
quently been employed by ruling elites, both lay and monastic, to further
their respective interests (see figure 1.1). At the same time, relics and the
structures that enshrine them provide the archeologist and historian with
empirical data, and scholars are increasingly following the relic trail in
their attempts to chart the ebb and flow of power relations in Buddhist
societies (see the chapters by David Germano and Bernard Faure in this
volume). Relics have also served to articulate a distinctive Buddhist
geography punctuated with cultic centers and tied together by pilgrimage
routes and have played a key role in the spread of Buddhism throughout
Asia (see Donald Swearers chapter) and, more recently, into Europe and
North America.
If relics have furthered the construction of a meaningful and coherent
Buddhist landscape, they have also defined particular kinds of relation-
ships to the past and future. It was a common trope of nineteenth-century
INTRODUCTION 13
scholarship on the East to contrast the Western sense of history with
its absence in South Asia. It is interesting to note how Buddhist relic tra-
ditions relate to this discourse of historical consciousness. There are, for
example, aspects of Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition that suggest a prefer-
ence for the repetition of timeless patterns in the biographies of various
Buddhas and the histories of their relics. Even the Theravada tradition, so
often contrasted with the Mahayana because of its attachment to the his-
torical Buddha Gotama, identifies him as only the most recent in a long
line of previous Buddhas and highlights the common features in the lives
of all Buddhas, past and future. Likewise, the Great Chronicle of Sri
Lanka (the Maha\vamsa) records that Gotamas relics were enshrined at
precisely the location where the relics of three previous Buddhas were
preserved.
31
In contrast to these ways in which relics appear to emphasize
repetition of static patterns, Buddha relics have also served as signifiers of
the transient and corruptible nature of the bodies of individual Buddhas
whose corporeal remains arise and disappear. In Theravada tradition, the
disappearance of a particular Buddhas relics, along with the memory of
his teachings, provides the necessary conditions for the arising of the next
Buddha. In the case of Gotama, it has become an accepted tradition that
his teachings and relics will last five thousand years after his final passing
away. At the end of this period, his relics are expected to depart from their
places of enshrinement throughout the world and congregate at Bodh-
gaya, the place of his enlightenment. There the relics will assemble in the
shape of Gotamas body, rise up in the air, and spontaneously combust,
disappearing once and for all from the samsaric realm. Even if this event
is itself a particular instance of a broader pattern of how Buddhas arise and
disintegrate, the material remains themselves are unique and perishable
(see figure 1.2). And, until their climactic reassembly and disappearance,
they are tangible points of connection to the person of Gotama Buddha.
As such, these relics are regarded as effectively equivalent to the liv-
ing presence of the Buddha for the purposes of devotion and gaining
merit. As Jacob Kinnard observes in his chapter, relics enable a particular
kind of relationship to the past teacher. Their tangible presence in cultic
sites, sites which are themselves part of a broad cultural network of polit-
ical and economic forces, brings the present-day Buddhist devotee into the
past time of the Buddha. It is precisely through these memory-sites
32
that
Buddhists are reminded of what the Buddha did for them and are able to
express through their ritual performances an appropriate sense of their
dependence upon and gratitude toward him. These acts, in turn, are under-
stood to create a future set of possibilities. The meritorious deeds (karma)
KEVIN TRAINOR 14
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and their accompanying moods and motivations are expected to shape the
devotees future in such a way that he or she in a future rebirth will
encounter the living presence of the next Buddha. These relic enshrine-
ments are, in addition, memory-sites of a different sort for archeologists
and historians who make use of them as evidence for reconstructing the
history of Buddhism.
Many of the issues related to relic veneration that are highlighted in
this volume are also relevant to sculptures and paintings of the Buddha.
Jacob Kinnards essay, in particular, examines the relationship between
physical objects connected with the bodies of Buddhas (body parts and
things with which they came into physical contact) and physical represen-
tations of Buddhas. There are clearly a number of salient differences
between these two basic ways of representing Buddhas. For example,
relics are typically hidden away in relic monuments or reliquaries and
images are usually open to view. Moreover, the means through which
relics and images are produced and gain authority are quite different. It is
the physical continuity of a bodily relic or relic of use with the body of a
Buddha that defines its venerability. While in practice bodily relics might
seem to proliferate almost without limit, they are in principle numerically
finite and thus subject to a kind of inherent material scarcity. Images are
subject to no such material constraints; they can be manufactured end-
lessly as long as they bear the appropriate iconographical features, and
consequently they lend themselves to different strategies of production
and control. And, as Robert Sharf notes in his chapter, relics and images
have quite different aesthetic qualities.
Despite these important differences, however, relics and images share
a number of striking similarities. First of all, both relics and images are
among the primary material means through which Buddhas continue to be
embodied after their passing away, and thus they fit our general theme
of embodying the Dharma. This fact is reflected in the classic Ther-
avada taxonomy of venerable memorials (cetiyas in Pa\li, caityas in San-
skrit), which differentiates three distinct categories: those containing bod-
ily relics, those defined by relics of use, and those that are
commemorative (a category identified with images); this classification
first appears in the fifth-century CE Pa\li commentaries.
33
Second, some
images contain bodily relics and could thus be classified under more than
one category of material mediation. Even when images do not actually
incorporate bodily relics, they are commonly located within temple com-
plexes alongside relic monuments, and both are typically the focus of
devotional rituals. In this respect, images, like bodily relics and relics of
KEVIN TRAINOR 16
use, lend themselves to defining particular spaces that are associated with
the presence of Buddhas, spaces that evoke and orchestrate devotional
attitudes and behaviors. The study of images alongside relics thus high-
lights some of the distinctive ways in which both Buddhist studies and the
study of religion are increasingly shaped by efforts to rematerialize their
subject matter through a focus on embodiment.
It was in response to some of these interpretive shifts within the dis-
ciplines of religion and Buddhist studies that David Germano and I orga-
nized a multiyear seminar on Buddhist relic veneration under the auspices
of the American Academy of Religion. The seminar met four successive
years during annual AAR conferences beginning in 1994, with fifteen
scholars contributing papers. The present volume is comprised of seven of
those essays in revised form. This volume is, to date, the only extended
analysis of Buddhist relic veneration bringing together contributions from
scholars exploring a broad diversity of Buddhist cultural traditions,
including India (Kinnard), Thailand (Swearer), Tibet (Germano), Japan
(Faure), as well as essays framed primarily in comparative and theoretical
terms (this introduction, Sharf, Strong). The chapters in this text also span
a wide range of historical periods and reflect a variety of theoretical
approaches. While there are many ways these pieces could be thematized
and compared, for instance, on the basis of regional focus, sectarian affil-
iation, or historical period, I will discuss them under the following rubrics:
taxonomies, royal appropriations, performative presences, textualizations,
and comparisons.
TAXONOMIES
The central concern of David Germanos chapter, Living Relics of the
Buddha(s) in Tibet, is the classification of material objects and their rela-
tionship to fundamental Buddhist doctrines on the intrinsic Buddha-nature
of all beings in the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism. Toward this end, Germano examines texts from the eleventh-
century Seminal Heart (snying thig) tantric literature, as well as the writ-
ings of Longchenpa (kLong chen pa), who systematized the tradition in
the fourteenth century. Germano identifies a general heightening of what
he terms funerary Buddhism as one moves from the early Great Perfec-
tion literature, where funerary practices are aestheticized by rendering
them less corporeal, into later strata of the textual tradition where one
finds elaborate correlations between meditational attainments and a wide
range of embodied physical signs and corporeal remains.
INTRODUCTION 17
These manifestations are ultimately grounded in Seminal Heart teach-
ings about the presence of the Buddha-nature in all things. Germano
details how this Buddha-nature manifests itself within the consciousness
of religious adepts and imprints itself on their bodies, giving rise after
their deaths to small spheres that continue to multiply. These bodily signs
are not merely the continuing presence of departed saints; they are, as
well, manifestations of the ongoing process of religious realization within
the bodies of those striving for enlightenment. Such ideas and practices
should not be regarded as merely the remnants of an ancient textual tradi-
tion; Germano provides anecdotal evidence of their continued relevance to
Tibetan practitioners today. His essay demonstrates the remarkable diver-
sity and centrality of relics in Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the integra-
tion of relic practices with aspects of Buddhist tradition from which they
have often been divorced by Western scholars, including abstract doctri-
nal reflection and meditation.
ROYAL APPROPRIATIONS
Bernard Faures chapter, Buddhist Relics and Japanese Regalia, exam-
ines the role that Buddhist relics played in struggles for political
supremacy in Japan during the fourteenth century. Faures chapter
adopts a broad interpretive framework, exploring the multiple dis-
courses that were centered on Buddhist relics and their attendant rituals
in Japan. He traces, as well, the diverse forms in which relics were phys-
ically manifested, including wish-granting jewels, imperial regalia, and
vital essence.
Faure also provides historical background on the Buddhist relic cult
in China, noting the important role of supernaturals, especially na\gas
(superhuman beings usually depicted as serpents in India and dragons
in East Asia) and their subterranean kingdoms into which relics sub-
merge themselves and later resurface. As the title of his piece suggests,
one important dimension of a relics potency is linked to its oscillation
between invisibility and visibility, isolation and access. Faure also iden-
tifies a number of important dynamics in the Japanese appropriation
and transformation of relics, including their association with fertility,
rain making, and apotropaic powers that could be used to sap the
potency of ones enemies. As he notes, relics in the Japanese context
functioned as floating signifiers whose fluid yet potent associations
could be used strategically for a diversity of political ends according to
the changing circumstances in which Japanese rulers found themselves.
KEVIN TRAINOR 18
His analysis thus illuminates the need to carefully contextualize the sig-
nificance and function of Buddhist relics in terms of local contestations
of power and authority.
PERFORMATIVE PRESENCES
Jacob Kinnards chapter, The Field of the Buddhas Presence, con-
tributes to an understanding of the notion of the Buddhas presence in
images and relics by drawing out the cognitive, affective, and behavioral
force that they exerted on Buddhists living in India during the period of
Pa\la rule (eighth through the eleventh centuries). Drawing upon Pierre
Bourdieus work, he maintains that our efforts to comprehend the presence
of a Buddha image require us to reconstruct, as much as possible, the
material circumstances and the implicit behavioral norms that shaped how
Buddhists identified and interacted with that image. Thus the meaning of
an image is not simply inherent in its aesthetic form, but instead emerges
relationally as a given worshipper interacts with it in a ritualized setting.
Kinnard turns to a number of textual sources, starting with the Pa\ li
canon, in order to reconstruct the layered system of inherited beliefs and
practices that provided the context for recognizing and interacting with
relics and images. These sources point to the religious significance of see-
ing the Buddha during his lifetime and highlight the importance of ritual-
ized remembrance and visualization techniques. He suggests that Buddha
images served not so much to make the Buddha present as to make the
viewer past, that is, to project the viewer back into a time when the Bud-
dha was alive and performing powerful deeds on behalf of those with
whom he interacted. Noting that the field in which devotees interacted with
Buddha images could embody contradictions and tensions, he demon-
strates how an image such as the Asamaha\ pra\ tiha\ rya, depicting the eight
great events in the life of the Buddha, could simultaneously serve as a
memento by means of which a pilgrim called to mind a powerful religious
journey, as a token venerated in lieu of such a journey, and as a physical
embodiment of the Buddhas entire life and collection of teachings.
TEXTUALIZATIONS
Donald Swearers chapter, Signs of the Buddha in Northern Thai Chron-
icles, draws our attention to chronicle texts that have not received ade-
quate scholarly attention in the West. Beginning with an overview of some
of the types of historical sources produced in Thailand, Swearer turns his
INTRODUCTION 19
attention to a particular northern Thai chronicle called The Chronicle of
the Water Basin, which describes the Buddhas travels through that
region, emphasizing in particular a mountain north of Chiang Mai known
today as Doi Chiang Dao, the Mountain of the Abode of the Stars. While
the chronicle itself appears to bring together three distinct kinds of stories,
all three share a common physical referent: the sacred mountain hallowed
by the Buddhas visit in the past, present repository of his material signs,
and future site of the coming righteous world ruler.
The chronicle records that when the Buddha visited the mountain, his
presence there gave rise to a broad range of material signs, including cor-
poreal relics, a footprint, and various images (corresponding to the three
basic categories of devotional memorials recognized in Theravada tradi-
tion). Most striking among the corporeal relics produced during his visit
were relics comprised of substances ordinarily considered highly pollut-
ing. At one point the site where the Buddha urinated became the Holy
Footprint Bathroom Resting Place. In another place, mucous dripping
from the Buddhas nose floated up into a nearby tree and the mucous-cov-
ered leaves were gathered as relics. While the character of the first relic is
somewhat ambiguous, since it could be classed as either a corporeal relic
or a relic of use, the second case suggests that even the Buddhas nasal
effluvia are worthy of veneration.
Swearer concludes his essay by distinguishing three distinctive levels
on which this text constructs the Buddha and his material signs. The first
of these he characterizes as magical or instrumentalist, the second as cos-
mological, and the third as ontological. On the first level direct contact
with the Buddha during his lifetime or later through his material signs
brings worldly blessings and increases ones store of merit. On a second
level the Buddhas presence organizes a cosmic order centered on the
sacred mountain. On a third level the material signs of the Buddha tran-
scend the limits of historical time and serve as the Buddhas living pres-
ence. On this third level, Swearer notes, the Buddha is read from his
material signs and emerges as a living reality.
COMPARISONS
John Strongs chapter, Buddhist Relics in Comparative Perspective:
Beyond the Parallels, examines Buddhist and Christian relic veneration,
identifying a number of differences in how relics function in the two tra-
ditions. His analysis is organized around seven basic themes: approaching
and touching; seeing and experiencing; dioramas and biography; rou-
KEVIN TRAINOR 20
tinization and mass production; collecting and counting; patterns of distri-
bution; and eschatologies.
Illustrating each of these activities with narrative accounts from dis-
parate cultures and historical periods, he develops several working
hypotheses as the basis for further comparative exploration. His tentative
conclusions are as follows: (1) Christian relics are commonly venerated in
very physical terms (e.g., a kiss), while Buddhist relics tend to be mirage-
like (evoking the presence of the Buddhas absence); (2) visions of Chris-
tian relics are granted, while Buddha relics are visualized through the
devotees own efforts; (3) Christian relics evoke Christs incarnation, a
movement from absence to presence, while Buddhist relics represent the
Buddhas whole life story and embody a transition from his presence to
his absence (i.e., his parinirvana); (4) Christian relics tend to proliferate on
the analogy of eucharistic transubstantiation, while Buddhist relics tend to
multiply through a process of textualization; (5) Christian relics are col-
lected as a means of reducing time in purgatory, while Buddhist relics
mutliply in direct proportion to ones accumulated merit; (6) Christian
relics accumulate centripetally at the center, which controls their dissem-
ination (Rome), while Buddhist relics exhibit a tendency toward system-
atic distribution (centrifugality); (7) in the end time, Christian relics
become eternal bodies, while Buddhist relics disappear, embodying
impermanence.
Robert Sharfs chapter, which concludes this volume, adopts a self-
reflexive stance, seeking to illuminate what it is that draws Western schol-
ars to the study of Buddhist relics. He begins his inquiry by reflecting on
Lvy-Bruhls work on primitive mentality, noting that some of the basic
interpretive issues raised by his work are still very much with us. Stated
simply, should the study of diverse cultures proceed on the basis of an
assumed commonality, in particular a shared human rationality, or should
it advance by highlighting the incommensurability of distinct cultures?
As this pertains to the study of Buddhism and, in particular, the study
of relics, Sharf suggests why we may be so enamored of our new view of
Buddhists routinely engaged in relic veneration. Such a representation
goes far to diminish a popular romanticized view of Buddhism as a pure,
rational philosophy and restores to the tradition a quality of otherness as
we envision Buddhists engaged in the sanctification of something utterly
profane and loathesome: the bodies of the dead.
He asserts, moreover, that this fascination with the bones of the Bud-
dha evidenced in the work of some contemporary scholars of Buddhism
extends beyond a concern to improve our understanding of Buddhism and
INTRODUCTION 21
has to do, as well, with some profound existential questions grounded in
our own cultural milieu. While acknowledging that both Buddha images
and bodily relics can be usefully regarded as kindred forms of representa-
tion with many functional similarities, he cautions against a tendency to
treat them as simply equivalent to each other. In contrast to images, which
tend to be aesthetically appealing, relics, as human remains, elicit a
response that can best be described as visceral. At base, Sharf argues,
relics pose fundamental questions about the nature of physical embodi-
ment and the problem of human identity in the face of death. While he
cautions that we must be hesitant to assume that our questions are neces-
sarily those that lie behind the concern for relics manifested by disparate
communities of Buddhists over more than two millennia, we do well to
explore the complex of cultural and personal motivations that give rise to
and inform our study of the subject.

Where then do these chapters leave us? It would be surprising if a collec-

tion with such a broad cultural, historical, and theoretical focus gave rise
to a few simple generalizations. But I think we can conclude by returning
to the theme with which I began this introduction: we clearly have moved
well beyond a time when relics can simply be relegated to the category of
superstition, a characterization that has served to foreclose rather than
enable scholarly investigation. The pieces in this volume present a com-
pelling case for using relics as a thematic focus for the investigation of
aspects of Buddhist tradition that have remained inadequately explored. If
these chapters, with their diverse voices and at times discordant themes,
do not provide us with a harmonious chorus, they nonetheless forcefully
testify to the multiple ways in which the study of relics enables us to move
beyond static, spiritualized representations of Buddhism to those with
more flesh on their bones.
This volume remains very much a work in progress, in part because we
have only begun to examine the great diversity of Buddhist relic practices,
but also because this volume itself is part of a broader Internet-based col-
laborative project dedicated to collecting and disseminating resources for
the study of Buddhist relic traditions. The Buddhist Relic Traditions Web
site, which is hosted by the Tibetan and Himalyan Digital Library
(www.thdl.org) and the University of Virginia, is presently collecting
visual media, translations of relic-related texts, and bibliographical infor-
mation on relic practices, including a full set of bibliographic references for
KEVIN TRAINOR 22
the chapters in this volume. This site is intended to serve as a clearing
house for relic-related research, and those who are interested in participat-
ing in the project are encouraged to consult the Web site for further infor-
mation about how to contribute materials from their own research (URL:
http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/collections/religion/relics/index.html).
NOTES
1. Gregory Schopen, Relic, in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed.
Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 25668.
2. J. A. MacCulloch, Relics (Primitive and Western), in Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribners Sons,
1919), 658.
3. Vincent A. Smith, Relics (Eastern), in Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1919), 659.
4. Michele R. Salzman, Superstitio in the Codex Theodosianus and the Per-
secution of Pagans, Vigiliae Christianae 41 (1987): 173.
5. Ibid., 174.
6. L. F. Janssen, Superstitio and the Persecution of the Christians, Vigiliae
Christianae 33 (1979): 158.
7. Salzman, Superstitio in the Codex Theodosianus and the Persecution of
Pagans, 176.
8. Ibid., 182.
9. John Calvin, The Institution of Christian Religion, trans. Thomas Norton
(London: R. Wolfe and R. Harrison, 1561) quoted in the Oxford English Dictio-
nary, 2nd ed., s.v. superstitious; for a modern translation, see John Calvin, Insti-
tutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian
Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 1412.
10. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (Edinburgh, 1776), bk. 5, ch. 1, pt. 3, art. 3, Adam Smith Institute, 23 Feb-
ruary 2002, http://www.adamsmith.org.uk/smith/won-index.htm.
11. David Hume, Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, ed. T. H. Green and
T. H. Grose, 2 vols. (London: Longman, Green, 1882), 1:147f.
12. As the founder of the Pali Text Society in 1881 and an indefatigable editor
and translator of Pa\li Buddhist canonical texts, Rhys Davids made a formative
contribution to Buddhist studies in the West. He taught Pa\li and Buddhist litera-
ture at University College, London, from 1882 and was instrumental in the estab-
lishment of the School of Oriental Studies there. He later became the first to hold
the chair in comparative religion at the University of Manchester (19041915).
INTRODUCTION 23
His perspectives on Buddhism reached a broader public through his books and his
contributions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and popular journals.
13. T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, North American Review 171 (1900): 522.
In this article, Rhys Davids refers to making a statement similar to this nearly
twenty years ago (no citation given).
14. For an authoritative treatment of Sri Lankan Buddhist responses to Christ-
ian missions, see Kitsiri Malalgoda, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 17501900:
A Study of Religious Revival and Change (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1976).
15. Davids, Buddhism, 52324.
16. According to Carus biographer, Harold Henderson, under Carus direction
Open Court Publishing Company published thirty-eight books on Buddhism
between 1893 and 1915, fifteen of them authored by Carus; see Harold Hender-
son, Catalyst for Controversy: Paul Carus of Open Court (Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1993), 89.
17. Ibid., 44.
18. The most famous and influential of his protgs was D. T. Suzuki, a stu-
dent of Soyen Shaku who worked for Carus for eleven years as an assistant editor
and translator after his arrival in the United States in 1897. While still a student of
Soyen Shaku, Suzuki translated Carus Gospel of Buddhism into Japanese, and he
was immediately put to work helping Carus translate the Dao De Jing into Eng-
lish; see Henderson, 10203.
19. Ananda, W. P. Guruge, From the Living Fountains of Buddhism: Sri Lankan
Support to Pioneering Western Orientalists (Colombo: [Government of Sri
Lanka] Ministry of Cultural Affairs, 1984), 382. The italicized marks of emphasis
are from Guruges text.
20. Paul Carus, A Buddhist Priests View of Relics, Open Court 11 (1897):
12324.
21. T. W. Rhys Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter, eds., Dgha-Nika\ya, 3 vols.
(London: Pali Text Society, 18891910), 2:138. Yo kho A|nanda bhikkhu va\
bhikkhun va\ upa\sako va\ upa\sika\ va\ dhamma\nudhamma-paipanno viharati
samci-paipanno anudhamma-ca\r, so Tatha\gatam sakkaroti garukaroti ma\neti
pu\jeti parama\ya pu\ja\ya. Curiously, the commentarial gloss on this passage
includes scent and garland worship among the activities that constitute following
the dhamma in its fullness for the laity; see the fuller discussion in Kevin Trainor,
Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan
Theravada Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 5152.
22. The Maha\viha\ra was the central monastery of the community that came to
be identified with orthodox Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka; the Maha\cetiya is
presumably the great cetiya in Anura\dhapura built by Duhaga\man , which is said
to enshrine one-eighth of all of the Buddhas relics.
KEVIN TRAINOR 24
23. Buddhaghosa, Sumangala-vila\sin, ed. T. W. Rhys Davids, J. Estlin Car-
penter, and W. Stede, 3 vols. (London: Pali Text Society, 18861932), 2:578.
Samma\paipatti pana Tatha\gatassa anucchavika\ pu\ja\, sa\ hi tena pahita\ ceva
sakkoti sa\sanam ca sandha\retum.
24. Davids and Carpenter, eds., Dgha-Nika\ya 2:142. Tattha ye ma\lam va\
gandham va\ vannakam (variant: cunnakam) va\ a\ropessanti abhiva\dessanti va\, cit-
tam va\ pasa\dessanti, tesam tam bhavissati dgharattam hita\ya sukha\ya.
25. Ibid., 2:141. Avya\vaa\ tumhe A|nanda hotha Tatha\gatassa sarra-puja\ya,
ingha tumhe A|nanda sadatthe ghaatha, sadattham anuyujatha, sadatthe appa-
matta\ a\ta\pino pahitatta\ viharatha. Sant A|nanda khattiya-pandita\ pi bra\hmana-
pandita\\ pi gahapati-pandita\ pi Tatha\gate abhippasanna\, te Tatha\gatassa sarra-
pu\jam karissantti. Sarra-pu\ja\ is ambiguous; it can be rendered either
corpse-veneration or relic-veneration. Gregory Schopen argues convincingly
that it should be taken in the former sense; see Gregory Schopen, Monks and the
Relic Cult in the Maha\parinibba\nasutta: An Old Misunderstanding in Regard to
Monastic Buddhism, in From Benares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chi-
nese Religion in Honour of Prof. Jan Yn-hua, ed. Kiochi Shinohara and Gregory
Schopen (Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1991).
26. I argue against this interpretation in Trainor, Relics, Ritual, and Represen-
tation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition, 56.
27. For an overview of Theravada biographical tradition about Maha\kassapa,
see G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (1937; reprinted, Delhi:
Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1983), 2:47683. He is also profiled in Thera
Nyanaponika and Hellmuth Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha (Boston: Wis-
dom Publications, 1997), 10736. Maha\kassapa is also counted as the first in the
succession of Indian Zen patriarchs.
28. For a survey of the aniconic controversy in Buddhist studies, see Klemens
Karlsson, Face to Face with the Absent Buddha: The Formation of Buddhist Ani-
conic Art (Uppsala: Uppsala University Library, 1999).
29. David Morgan, Visual Religion, Religion 30 (2000): 4153.
30. This term is Peter Browns, whose work on Christian relic veneration has
had a considerable influence on some scholars of Buddhism. See, for example, his
Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1981).
31. For example, the Maha\vamsa records that the relics of three previous Bud-
dhas were enshrined at the site of the Maha\thu\pa in Anura\dhapura; see
Maha\vamsa 15.56. A parallel tradition is associated with the nearby Thu\pa\ra\ma
thu\pa, which is traditionally regarded as the first thu\pa built by King Deva\na\piy-
atissa after Buddhism was established in Sri Lanka in the third century BCE. The
Dpavamsa, which predates the Maha\vamsa, favors the latter site, as does Bud-
dhaghosas introduction to his commentary on the Vinaya; see Dpavamsa
15.2564 and The Inception of Discipline (The Vinaya Nida\na), 76 f., 199 f. The
INTRODUCTION 25
tradition recorded in the Maha\vamsa may reflect an attempt to enhance the pres-
tige of King Duhaga\mani who is credited with the construction of the
Maha\thu\pa.
32. I have appropriated this term from an unpublished paper presented by
Charles Hallisey to the AAR Relic Seminar.
33. This appears in the commentary to the Ka\linga-bodhi Ja\taka, which iden-
tifies three types of memorials (cetiya\ni): sa\rrika (bodily), pa\ribhogika (through
use), and uddesika (commemorative); see the Ja\taka, together with its Commen-
tary, ed. V. Fausbll (London: Pali Text Society, 18771897), 4:22829. A simi-
lar classification can be found in the commentary on the Khuddaka-Pa\ ha; see
Khuddakapa\ ha, together with its Commentary, Paramatthajotika\ I, ed. Helmer
Smith (London: Pali Text Society, 1915), 22122. It is widely accepted that com-
memorative relics (images) were the last to be added, as is suggested by the occur-
rence of a twofold classification without images in the Milindapaha; see Milin-
dapaha, ed. V. Trenckner (London: Pali Text Society, 1880), 341. See Walpola
Rahulas discussion of the history of image veneration in Sri Lanka in his History
of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anura\dhapura Period, 3rd Century BC10th Century
AC, 2nd ed. (Colombo: M. D. Gunasena, 1966), 12128.
KEVIN TRAINOR 26
PERSONAL PRETEXTS
OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE HAD THE CHANCE TO VISIT THREE DIFFERENT
Buddhist temples claiming to house various tooth relics of the Buddha.
The first was the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, Sri Lanka, which I first went
to in 1969. As I filed past the open doors of the inner sanctum, along with
other pilgrims, I caught a brief glimpse of the outermost of the famous
relics reliquaries. But I did not see the Buddhas tooth itself; it was con-
cealed from view, set, we are told, in the innermost of seven nesting con-
tainers, which encase and protect it. For my notions of what the Kandyan
tooth actually looked like, I could only rely on the disparate descriptions
of more privileged persons.
1
Second, in the summer of 1972, in the Western Hills outside of Bei-
jing, I visited the new Buddhas Tooth Relic Pagoda, built in the 1960s just
prior to the Cultural Revolution. Together with our hosts from the Chinese
Buddhist Association, my wife and I climbed a spiral staircase and
emerged in a chamber specially constructed to house the relic. The tooth,
said to have been that which long ago was brought from Khotan to
Changan, had been found in the ruins of the old pagoda, destroyed dur-
ing the Boxer rebellion. But did we see it ? Alas, though we were able to
come up quite close to the altar, the tooth itself was effectively concealed
in its reliquary, behind a glass window that was frustratingly opaque.
2
For several years, I thought little about my failures to see the Bud-
dhas tooth on these occasions. Not seeing a relic seemed normal to me or,
at any rate, perfectly acceptable, for I viewed the Buddha in nirvana in the
27
CHAPTER TWO
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE
PERSPECTIVE: BEYOND THE PARALLELS
John S. Strong
words of the Heart Sutra as gone, gone, gone beyond. Then, in 1993, my
wife and I had a chance to visit another tooth of the Buddha, at the Sen-
nyu\-ji temple in Kyoto. We wrote and asked for permission to enter the
usually locked reliquary hall (shariden), and, on the appointed day, we
were kindly ushered into the building. But again, we did not see the tooth.
Though its magnificent reliquary was open for close-up inspection, the
relic itself was kept elsewhere. For security reasons, it had been removed
permanently to a storehouse.
3
This time, however, the failure to lay eyes on the actual relic did occa-
sion some reflection, for, about a month earlier, I had been in Rome, vis-
iting the ancient basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and there I real-
ized that not all relics are routinely unseen. All alone, in the Chapel of
the Holy Cross, I was able to go right up to the relic cases, and inches
away, I could gaze to my hearts content upon three slivers of the wood on
which Jesus was crucified, upon one of the spikes that had nailed him to
the cross, upon two thorns from his crown of thorns, upon the titulusthe
inscription platethat Pontius Pilate had set up above his head, declaring,
in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, that this was Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. There too was the finger bone of Doubting Thomasthe very fin-
ger that that apostle had stuck into the wounds in Jesus flesh after the res-
urrection; and there, on a side wall, was the whole beam from the cross of
the good thief Dysmas who had been crucified by Jesus side. All of this
and more was on display, open to view, in reliquaries designed to expose
rather than enclose, and labeled in six different languages. Moreover,
close-up photographs were available in the basilica shop along with
amulet replicas of each of the relics.
4
It has been customary, in the comparative study of relics, to empha-
size or imply similarities between Christian and Buddhist traditions.
5
Sometimes, the pursuit of these similarities has been very fruitful. Many
years ago, for example, Leonardo Olschki creatively elucidated certain
parallels between the tale of the Buddhas begging bowl (seen by Faxian
in Peshawar) and a Uigur story about the stone crib of the baby Jesus (a
corner of which he broke off so as to have something to give the three
Magi in exchange for their offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh).
6
More recently, Gregory Schopen has made brilliant use of the work of
Philippe Aris on Christian patterns of burial to help us understand better
the cult of Indian Buddhist relics and their stupas.
7
At a more general level,
Robert Sharf has pointed out that, lately among scholars, Buddhism . . .
has come to bear an uncanny resemblance to medieval Christianity . . .
[with] its saints, relics, and miraculous images.
8
JOHN S. STRONG 28
In this chapter, I wish to try to go beyond parallelisms between Chris-
tian and Buddhist relic traditions, in order to isolate some of their distin-
guishing characteristics. I do so in part as a result of my own studies and
personal experiences these past few years of both Buddhist and Christian
relics, and in part out of a conviction that, in comparative religion, the elu-
cidation of differences is as fruitful an exercise as (and perhaps an easier
task than) the explanation of similarities.
I approach the task, however, with some trepidation. The fields both of
Christian and of Buddhist relics are so vast and varied that it is clear that
counter-examples to any claim I wish to make are almost always possible.
For instance, I have just implied, through the above account of my personal
experiences, that Buddhist relics (at least Buddhist tooth relics) are generally
not to be seen by worshippers, while Christian relics are. But what about the
good pilgrim Ennin who tells us that in 841, he not only saw one of the four
tooth relics of the Buddha then enshrined in Changan but also physically
handled it?
9
And what about those occasions, in modern Southeast Asia,
when relics are viewed uncovered?
10
Conversely, on the Christian side, what
about the ruling of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 that relics of Christ-
ian saints were on no account to be removed from their reliquaries or publi-
cally exhibited?
11
And what about the passage in Canon Law that prescribes
that relics be enclosed and sealed in containers and fastened with a silk cord,
which, if broken, may result in suspension of the worship of the relic?
12
In what follows, therefore, I want to try to be wary of generalizations.
I shall proceed anecdotally, offering a series of contrasting stories about
Buddhist and Christian relics, admitting that many of these texts are only
partially representative of an overall tradition whose full complexity is
such that, were I to take it into account, I would probably quickly be led
into qualifications, mitigations, and contradictions. Nonetheless, it is my
hope that, as Wendy Doniger once put it, stories reveal things that are not
easily gleaned from the harder disciplines, especially if we can remember
that stories are not designed as arguments, nor should they be taken as
arguments.
13
My conclusions about these stories, therefore, take the form
of sometimes fairly narrow hypotheses, still rooted in the concrete, rather
than abstract principles, universally applicable to all cases everywhere.
STORIES
APPROACHING AND TOUCHING
A. I shall start with the tale of the Roman Christian noblewoman Paula,
whose pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late fourth century is described
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 29
in detail in an obituary letter written by St. Jerome. His narrative is inter-
esting not so much for the topographical and geographical information it
contains but for its account of Paulas reaction to and worship of various
relics she visited. As he puts it, in Jerusalem, she . . . started to go round
visiting all the places with such burning enthusiasm that there was no tak-
ing her away from one unless she was hurrying on to another. She fell
down and worshipped before the Cross as if she could see the Lord hang-
ing on it. On entering the Tomb of the Resurrection, she kissed the stone
which the angel [had] removed from the sepulchre door; then like a thirsty
man who has waited long and at last comes to water, she [embraced and]
faithfully kissed the very shelf on which the Lords body had lain. Her
tears and lamentations there are known to all Jerusalemor rather to the
Lord himself to whom she was praying.
14
Paulas passionher desire to embrace, to kiss, to cling to the relics
she visited (all in one fashion or another connected with death)is extra-
ordinary when seen in the context of Jewish and Roman views on impu-
rity,
15
but in Christian circles, it was by no means anomalous. As John
Wilkinson points out, physical contacttouchwas, in her world,
thought to unite a person with what he or she touches, and the classic ges-
ture of contact [was] the kiss: the Hebrew verb nashaq means both touch
and kiss, in Greek and Latin the words for kiss and venerate are often
identical, and the frequently-used phrase, to venerate the holy places
therefore carries within it the connotation of contact.
16
The kiss, of course, was not the only way that this desire for closeness
with a relic expressed itself. St. John Chrysostom, a contemporary of
Paula who would have approved of her actions, counseled his flock to
retire to the tombs of martyrs and shed there torrents of tears; break open
your heart, embrace the sarcophagus, affix yourselves to the reliquary. . . .
Take the holy oil and anoint your whole body with it, your tongue, your
lips, your neck, your eyes.
17
In this vein, it comes as no surprise to read
of a noble woman from Carthage who banged her head in adoration so
hard against the reliquary containing part of the body of St. Stephen that
she broke it open: rather than recoil in horror at what she had done, she
thrust her head inside and laid her cheek on the bones, bathing them with
her ecstatic tears.
18
B. At about the same time as Paula was in Jerusalem, the Chinese pilgrim
Faxian was visiting the so-called Cave of the Buddhas Shadow, in what
is today Afghanistan. The story of the relic in this cave at Nagaraha\ra is
intimately connected to the apocryphal tale of the Buddhas conversion of
JOHN S. STRONG 30
the na\ga Gopa\la there. Worried that he might lose his faith once the Bud-
dha who had just tamed him left the area, Gopa\la asked the Blessed One
to leave some token of himself right there in his na\gas cave, as a safe-
guard against backsliding. There are several versions of what the Buddha
did next, but the net result was that he left an image of himself, more a
luminous reflection than a shadow, on the rock wall of the cave, where it
came to be venerated by generations of subsequent pilgrims.
19
Interestingly, this shadow relic seems to have had a sort of miragelike
quality. Looking at it from a distance of more than ten paces, declares
Faxian, you seem to see [the] Buddhas real form, with his complexion
of gold, and his characteristic marks in their nicety clearly and brightly
displayed, [but] the nearer you approach [it] the fainter it becomes, as if it
were only in your fancy.
20
Much the same story is told a half-century later
by Daorong who claims to have seen the shadow from a distance of fif-
teen feet, but as he drew nearer, it gradually disappeared, and, when he
touched the spot with his hand, there was nothing there but the rock wall.
21
It could be argued, of course, that we should not make too much of
these examples, that we are dealing here with some natural phenomenon,
in this cave at Nagaraha\ra, some reflective surface on the rock wall that
caught the light from certain angles and caused a glow in the depths of the
grotto. Nonetheless, the miragelike quality of this shadow relic struck a
chord in the Buddhist devotional world. It was, in fact, the shadows very
ephemerality that artists attempting to make copies of it sought to repro-
duce. Although Faxian declares that artists commissioned to copy the
shadow were unable to do so successfully, soon after his time, in the 450s,
a Sri Lankan monk on his way to China claimed to have been able to
reproduce it in a painting. It had, we are told, the same qualities as the
original: from a distance of ten paces, it shone like fire, but the closer one
got to it, the more its brightness faded.
22
The contrast between these accounts and the touchable-kissable
Christian relics in Jerusalem is, of course, striking. For Paula and the
other pilgrims, the mode of devotionalism seems to have been the closer
the better. For Faxian and his compatriots, physical contact is not what
is put at a premium; indeed, the closer one gets to the relic, the more it
fades away.
Discussions of Buddhist relics and images have been much preoccu-
pied with questions of presence and absence.
23
The state of the Buddha or
any other saint after death is an issue that the tradition either declined to
discuss or that it left bristling with contradictory negations.
24
As
Na\ga\rjuna put it, in Stephan Beyers memorable translation, the Buddha
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 31
in nirvana isnt is, isnt isnt, isnt is & isnt, isnt isnt is & isnt.
25
Nonethe-
less, as Gregory Schopen has made very clear, the relic and the Buddha
do not appear to have been thought of as separate things.
26
Thus, the very
first relics of the Buddhathe hairs given by him to the merchants
Tapassu and Bhallikawere meant to make possible the veneration of the
Buddha in his absence, even during his own lifetime;
27
and after his death
and parinirvana, relics continued to serve much the same function.
28
As Paul Mus liked to put it, the Buddha in nirvana was treated as a
new kind of absence,
29
and Mus went on to speak eloquently and at length
of the various ways in which that absence could be overcome. Yet for
him, overcoming the absence of the Buddha was never achieved ontolog-
ically; rather it was a periodically renewed ritual and magical process
based on the model of Brahmanical sacrifice.
30
This saw relics, images,
stupas, and other mesocosms as constantly involved in an experiential
dialectic movement between presence and absence. In this context, a dis-
appearing relic such as the shadow image could appear to be paradig-
matic of its class since it itself makes a move from presence (visibility) to
absence (invisibility).
31
I shall attempt to elucidate this movement further. For now, suffice it
to point out that the dynamic is rather different in the case of our Christ-
ian examples. Jesus, at the end of his earthly career, did not pass into
parinirvana, but ascended to heaven. Thus the focus in his case is not on a
new kind of absence (here on earth) so much as a new kind of pres-
ence, there in heaven. As Thomas Head has put it, at least for medieval
Christianity, the question is not whether or not Christ is present, but
where he is present. The most striking thing about physical relics (includ-
ing those of or associated with Christ) . . . is that they provide a definite,
explicit, touchable, physical contact between this world and the kingdom
of heaven. The relics of the saint in the shrine are the saint: the saint is at
the same time just as really present in Gods court: that is why the relics
are so important.
32
Thus, the closer one can get to the relics as embodi-
ments of a supermundane body, the tighter one can make that link to the
other world.
Hypothesis 1: Christian relics : a kiss :: Buddhist relics : a mirage.
SEEING AND EXPERIENCING
A. Saint Radegund [518587], exqueen of France and abbess of a convent
in Poitiers, was an avid collector of relics, and over the years, her love of
the holy remains of saints mounted. As one of her biographers put it: She
called [her] relics diamonds of heaven . . . and spared neither prayer nor
JOHN S. STRONG 32
presents in amassing them. She was in the habit of meditating in the com-
pany of the saints whose bones she possessed, and it seemed to her that
they joined her in singing the psalms and hymns of the divine office.
33
The relics of the saints, however, did not satiate her pious longings for the
presence of her Lord and Savior. Thus, she used her royal connections to
acquire from Constantinople a relic of Christa piece of the true cross,
which was duly translated to her convent in Poitiers.
34
There, not long
before her death in 587, as she was meditating in the midst of her relics,
her cell was suddenly bathed in light, and she saw before her a young man
of ethereal beauty whom she realized was none other than Jesus himself.
Why do you supplicate me so and torture yourself for me who am always
with you? he asked her. Please know that you are a precious pearl, and
one of the most beautiful diamonds in my crown.
35
Then he disappeared,
and in departing, he left an imprint of his right foot in the stone where he
had stood. This stone, bearing his footprint, came to be known as the Pas
de Dieu and became itself an important relic, which may still be seen in
the Church of Sainte Radegonde.
36
There is, then, a progression here, in
Radegunds story, from relics of saints to secondary relics of Christ (the
piece of the true cross), to the presence of Christ himself in glory, marked
forever by his footprint.
B. Not too long after the time of Radegund, the Chinese pilgrim Xuan-
zang (trip to India: 629645) also visited the Cave of the Buddhas
Shadow. There he had an interesting experience. According to his biog-
rapher, when Xuanzang arrived at the cave, he was most distressed that
he could see nothing. His guide, however, obviously familiar with local
traditions, told him to back away fifty paces from the far wall and look
east. He did so, but still he saw nothing. He then prostrated himself a
hundred times, but once again there was nothing. Then sobbing and
reproaching himself for his bad karma, he began reciting stanzas in
praise of the Buddha from the S:rima\la\devsimhana\da and other sutras,
prostrating himself repeatedly. After some time, a light the size of an
almsbowl appeared on the eastern wall, but it immediately vanished
again. Encouraged, he resumed his prostrations and his recitations, and
he soon was able to see a light the size of a dish, but this too quickly dis-
appeared. He then resolved that he would not leave that place until he
had seen the Buddhas shadow. Finally, after about two hundred more
prostrations, the whole cave was filled with light, as the image of the
Buddhas body appeared distinctly on the wall, just like the peak of a
golden mountain when the fog is dispersed. He could see the Buddhas
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 33
body and his reddish robe quite clearly, and, to either side, the shad-
ows of many bodhisattvas and arhats. Xuanzang then asked the men
who were outside the cave to bring in fire so that he could burn some
incense and offer flowers in worship of the image, but as soon as they
brought in the torches, the shadow immediately disappeared. They put
the fire out, he resumed his praise of the Buddha, and again it was visi-
ble for a long time until it gradually faded away.
37
Both Xuanzang and Radegund, in their respective settings, get to see
the figure who is the object of their devotions, and the presence and con-
text of relics are intimately connected to this. Yet there are a number of
important differences between their two experiences. Radegunds comes
to her after a lifetime of longing for the closeness of Christ, but it is essen-
tially a vision that is given to her, a visitation that she is not expecting.
Xuanzangs longing is perhaps equally intense, and his experience also
comes only after a great deal of effortdevotional exercises, prostrations,
and recollections of the Buddha (buddha\nusmrti). But it is more an
accomplishment than a gift, more a visualization than a vision. The Relic
of the Shadow makes it possible for the Buddha to emerge out of empti-
ness, out of the past, out of the Xuanzangs mind, and to return to it. For
Radegund, Christ descends to manifest himself, also temporarily, in the
midsts of her relics and leaves one of his own behind permanently. With
this in mind we can posit a second hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: Christian relics : vision :: Buddhist relics : visualization.
DIORAMAS AND BIOGRAPHY
A. It is sometimes remarked that while the Christian era is measured from
the birth of Christ, the Buddhist era is counted from the death and parinir-
vana of the Buddha. With this in mind, let us return to Palestine and to
Paula who, after she left Jerusalem, went on to Bethlehem. There, of
course, she visited the site of Christs nativity. As Jerome, again, describes
it: She entered the cave of the Saviour, and saw the holy Inn of the Vir-
gin, and the Stable, where the ox knew his master, and the ass his Lords
manger. There she was granted a vision: with the eye of faith . . . she
saw a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, weeping in the Lords manger,
the Magi worshipping, the star shining above, the Virgin Mother, the
attentive fosterfather, and the shepherds coming by night to see this Word
which had come to pass, . . . the Word [that] was made flesh. . . . Then, her
joy mixed with tears, she began to say: Blessed Bethlehem, House of
Bread, birthplace of the Bread that came down from heaven. . . . Here I
will stay, for my Saviour chose it.
38
JOHN S. STRONG 34
B. Not long after this, Maha\na\ma (fifth century) was writing the great
chronicle of Sri Lanka, the Maha\vamsa. In it, several chapters are dedi-
cated to an account of the Buddha relics enshrined in the great stupa in
Anura\dhapura. The magnificence of this monument cannot be gone into
here, but it is worth considering the decoration of its inner relic chamber.
There, we are told, King Duhaga\mani, using both statues and paintings,
ordered the depiction of the entire life of the Buddha, from his past exis-
tences (ja\takas) to his birth as Gotama, from his wandering forth to his
enlightenment, from his career as a preacher to his working of miracles
and death and parinirvana. The centerpiece of all this was a bodhi tree
made of jewels, splendid in every way. It had a stem eighteen cubits high
and five branches; the root, made of coral, rested on sapphire. The stem
made of perfectly pure silver was adorned with leaves made of gems, had
withered leaves and fruits of gold and young shoots made of coral. . . . On
a throne . . . erected to the east of the bodhi tree, [was] placed a shining
golden Buddha image [whose] body and members . . . were duly made of
jewels of different colours, beautifully shining.
39
What King
Duhaga\mani is doing here, of course, is re-presenting, in the relic cham-
ber, the whole life story of the Buddha. The relic chamber is thus trans-
formed into a kind of permanent biographical diorama, or biorama if I
may be allowed a neologism, and it is into this environment that the relics
are then enshrined.
In this context, it may be useful to argue that what is made present
in the Buddhist relic is not so much the Buddha (conceived as transcen-
dent or imminent or absent) but the whole course of the Buddhas life.
In other words, what relics ideally embody is the whole of the Buddhas
biographical process that leads from his birth (or former births) through
his enlightenment to his parinirvana, that is, from his appearance to his
disappearance without remainder. Relics, then, can help devotees re-real-
ize first the biographical advent (or presence) of the bodhisattva in this
world and his attainment of the status of being a Buddha, followed then
by his biographical departure (absence) from it.
40
The same message would seem to be reinforced in the conclusion to
the Maha\vamsas account of the enshrinement of the Buddhas relics into
this biorama. Once the relic chamber has been made ready, and the
relics to be enshrined in it have been obtained, the casket containing them
opens of itself and the relics come alive; they rise up into the air and
take on the form of the Buddha together with all the bodily signs of the
Great Man (maha\purusa), and perform various miracles. They recapture,
in other words, the living presence of the Enlightened One. But then,
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 35
abandoning the form of the Buddha, they fall back down to earth, and
Duhaga\mani takes them and places them on a couch in the midst of the
relic chamber, asking them to take on the form of the Master as he lay
upon his deathbed and to thus abide undisturbed forever. This the relics
do of their own accord, and the relic chamber is then sealed and closed
off.
41
Thus, in this legendary account, the relics themselves also appear to
recapitulate the Buddhas biographical process from life to death, from
presence to parinirvana.
The case of Paulas vision in Bethlehem is rather different in this
regard. Although it does not deal with the whole of Christs life, it does
feature one biographical episode from that lifehis birth. The relics she
sees in the Church of the Nativity enable her to reconstruct in her minds
eye a whole creche scene. This too is a biorama of sorts, but what Paula
stresses in her joy at this vision is Christs taking on of a body, his becom-
ing present here on earth, in that particular place, his coming down from
heaven. Her experience in Bethlehem is thus more related to Christs
incarnation than to his biography as a whole. It could be argued, of
course, that other Christian bioramas in other settingsfor example, one
featuring Christs passion and crucifixion at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchrewould be different, except that they too tend to feature the
theme of incarnation, even in the moment of death. Thus the experiential
movement in Paulas case is consistently from absence to presence in the
relics, in contrast to the vectorial forces in Buddhist relics, which follow
his biography in moving from presence to absence. We thus can come
to a third hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Christian relics : incarnation :: Buddhist relics : pass-
ing into parinirvana.
ROUTINIZATION AND MASS-PRODUCTION:
ALTERNATIVES TO BODILY RELICS
A. Toward the end of the twelfth century, Hugh of Lincoln, on a visit to
Fcamp to venerate the remains of Saint Mary Magdalene, bit off a cou-
ple of pieces of bone from her arm, intending to appropriate them for
himself. The abbot and monks, seeing him do this, were understandably
dismayed. What terrible profanity! they cried. We thought that the
bishop had asked to see this holy and venerable relic for reasons of
devotion, and he has stuck his teeth into it and gnawed it as if he were a
dog. But Saint Hugh replied: If, a little while ago [at communion] I
handled the most sacred body of the Lord of all the saints with my fin-
gers, in spite of my unworthiness, and when I partook of it, touched it
JOHN S. STRONG 36
with my lips and teeth, why should I not venture to treat in the same way
the bones of the saints . . . and by this commemoration of them increase
my reverence for them?
42
Hughs action, of course, fits into a long tradition of persons attempt-
ing to steal Christian relics by biting into them while venerating them with
a kiss,
43
but it is more immediately significant for a number of other rea-
sons. First of all, it reflects the close ideological linkage that was main-
tained in his day between relics and the elements of the Eucharist. I do not
wish, at this point, to enter into the debate over the nature of transubstan-
tiation, consubstantiation, impanation, and so on.
44
Suffice it to say that,
though not actual remnants of Christs body, the ritual bread and wine
were nonetheless his body and blood and were made intimately close to
the devotee by consumption. As another way of making Christ pre-
sentincarnatethe Eucharist was thus akin to a relic, and Gode-
fridus Snoek has recently devoted an entire book to a study of parallel
ways in which they were conceived of and functioned in medieval times.
45
But Hughs action also reflects something else: a situation in which
there was an intense desire for the possession of relics, in which relic
demand had outstripped routine relic supply. This was one of the causal
factors, perhaps, for the well known phenomenon of relic thefts and traf-
ficking,
46
as well as for the proliferation of false relics.
47
But it is also pos-
sible, in this context, to view the growth of devotion to the Eucharist as an
alternate way of dealing with the demand for more relics, a way of ritu-
ally, that is, routinely, supplying a virtually unlimited quantity of relic-like
substances by mass-production.
48
B. When Xuanzang was in Ra\jagrha, he heard about a pious layman
named Jayasena who spent all of his time making miniature stupas out of
clay and incense paste. In the course of thirty years, it is said, he managed
to manufacture over seven hundred thousand of these, periodically
enshrining them in larger mahastupas built expressly to contain them.
Inside each miniature stupa was placed a written verse from a sutra, so that
the name that was given to them was dharma-arra (fa sheli), a term I
am tempted to translate as textual body.
49
In this story, we would seem to have an Indian model for an activity
that became common in East Asia and Tibet. By the eighth century in
Japan, for example, various politically powerful laypersons would period-
ically take it upon themselves to produce one million stupas (hyaku-
manto\). These were miniature wooden pagodas, made on a lathe, about
fourteen centimeters high and about ten centimeters across the base. A
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 37
small hole was drilled into the top of each of them into which was inserted
the printed text of one of several dha\ran .
50
Similarly, in a Chinese canon-
ical work, translated by Diva\kara in 680, a method is described for the
manufacturing of many small stupas (each about the size of a mango), by
simply inserting into a lump of clay the dharma verse par excellence: ye
dharma\ hetuprabhava\s tesam hetum Tatha\gata uva\ca/ tesam ca yo
nirodha evam va\d Maha\ramanah (the Tatha\gata has explained the
cause of those elements of reality that arise from a cause, and he, the Sub-
dued One, has also spoken of their cessation). This line is, in this context,
called the dharmaka\ya (doctrinal corpus) of the Buddha and is said to
be just as effective in the making of a stupa as the insertion of a bodily
relic of the Buddha such as a tooth, a hair, or a nail.
51
It should be noted
that this verse spells out in a nutshell the same movement from presence
(the cause that makes dharmas arise) to absence (their cessation) that
we have seen in the context of the Buddhas corporeal relics.
In a different light, however, it can also be said that, in these manu-
factured dharma relics, we may have a Buddhist way of responding to the
problems of relic supply and demand, and a ritual routine means of mak-
ingby the simple insertion of a dharma verse into a lump of claya vir-
tually unlimited supply of relics.
Stanley Tambiah, in his book on Buddhist saints in Thailand, has spo-
ken of a process by which charisma is concretized and sedimented into
objects, something, he claims, Max Weber was not really attuned to. This
objectification of charisma may be seen, he says, in a host of different
fetishistic articles, among which he would include amulets and relics. Of
course, once the charisma (or power) of a departed saint or master
becomes objectified or sedimented in a relic, the process of routinization
of that charisma does not stop.
52
One way in which it continues is through
the development of a means of ritual mass reproduction and distribution
of that power. Amulets, medallions, and a host of other secondary or ter-
tiary relics, all blessed by contact with saints, may serve this purpose in
both Christianity and Buddhism. But the examples we have looked at here
are of a slightly different nature; through transubstantiation, the eucharis-
tic bread and wine are the body of Christ and so are more akin to pri-
mary bodily relics in both their function and their conception. And like-
wise the dharma-arra are the body of the Buddha, his dharmaka\ya,
and this through a process that might be called textualization. With this
in mind, the following hypothesis may perhaps be suggested:
Hypothesis 4: Christian relics : Eucharist : transubstantiation :::
Buddhist relics : Dharma : textualization.
JOHN S. STRONG 38
COLLECTING AND COUNTING
A. We have already seen how Saint Radegund felt it important to amass
a large number of relics for her convent in Poitiers. Another great collec-
tor of relics, albeit for somewhat different reasons, was Frederick the
Wise who lived almost a thousand years after Radegund. Toward the
beginning of his career, and well before Martin Luther became connected
with him, Frederick had collected 5,005 bits of saints and articles of their
clothing, worship of which, he figured, was worth indulgences calculated
to reduce time in purgatory by 1,443 years. But Frederick did not stop
there. By 1520, he owned 19,013 relics, worth 1,962,202 years and 270
days in purgatory.
53
B. Approximately a millenium earlier, in 581, the future emperor of
China, Sui Wendi, was visited by a mysterious Indian monk who gave him
a bag of relics saying, Since you . . . have good intentions towards Bud-
dhism, I leave these relics for you to worship.
54
After the monk had left,
the emperor, together with his trusted confidant, the chief monk Tanqian,
counted these relics many times by putting them on the palms of their
hands, [but] each time they arrived at a different number and could not
determine the true quantity.
55
A similar phenomenon was experienced in
Heian Japan, where, roughly every twenty years, the relics in the treasury
of the To\ji temple were inventoried. Strangely, the number of grains of
relics in each reliquary was found to fluctuate, sometimes dramatically
over the years, without anyone having had access to them. For instance in
the year 1014, 4,801 grains of Buddha relics were countedan increase
of 390 grains (c. 9 percent) since the last inventory.
56
Tanqian tells Wendi that such discrepancies are due to the fact that the
Buddhas greatness is beyond measuring, but there is another reason for
this incalculability of Buddhist relics. Simply put, Buddhist relics were
thought in some sense to be alive, so they were able to multiply them-
selves, to reproduce, to grow. The larger and more numerous the relics, the
greater the merit of the place or person, and the greater the ability to make
merit. Thus Emperor Wendi, after he had distributed most of his relics to
various pagodas erected throughout the country (in emulation of the
Emperor Aoka who did the same in Ancient India), found that his supply
was miraculously replenished in time for the next relic distribution cam-
paign.
57
The number of relics in reserve would mysteriously increase, or
he and his empress often found relics in their food.
58
It should be explained that these relics are not bones or body parts but
brilliant jewel-like beads of various colors and sizes, which, for convenience
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 39
sake I shall call by their Chinese name, sheli (Japanese shari, from the
Sanskrit arra). According to Buddhaghosas commentary on the
Maha\ parinibba\ na sutta the sheli (Pa\ li sarra) found in the remains of the
Buddhas cremation fire were of three typeslike jasmine buds, like
washed pearls, and like [nuggets] of goldand came in three sizesas big
as mustard seeds, as broken grains of rice, and as split green peas.
59
Today,
sheli are still looked for in the cremation ashes of great monks, where their
presence, size, and number testify to the sanctity of the deceased.
60
They can
also appear, however, during a persons lifetime, by emanation, from their
hands, or hair, or clothes, or on altars, offering plates, or images, or by the
side of stupas. For instance, in 1970 (to give a modern example) the
Swayambhunath stupa in Kathmandu began to produce thousands of sheli
[=Tibetan ring bsrel] out of its Eastern side, and all the monastery, includ-
ing the highest lama who almost never left his room, were outside picking
them up.
61
Alternatively, the relics themselves can reproduce by a sort of
mitosis: One of them gets bigger and bumps appear on the side and then
the bumps become small [relics].
62
The presence and growth of such relics is a reflection of the merit and
faith of devotees. Indeed, Emperor Wendis distribution of relics in pago-
das throughout China was intended not only to testify to his and the Bud-
dhas greatness but also to give the people an ongoing ever-growing
opportunity to make merit.
63
Conversely, lack of faith may be marked by
an absence of relics. Thus, there is a Tibetan belief that if an enlightened
monk dies but has no devoted disciples, there will be no relics for him.
64
Similarly, in contemporary Sri Lanka, it is thought that relics will disap-
pear if they are not accorded proper veneration.
65
Relics, then, are a direct
reflection of merit made and shared, and they represent also an opportu-
nity to make and share more merit, here on earth.
This is rather different from the case of Frederick the Wise, whose
precise count of his hoard of relics earns him a set amount of personal
merit (indulgences) not in this world but in the other, that is, in purgatory.
Hypothesis 5: Christian relics : growth by addition :: Buddhist relics :
growth by multiplication.
PATTERNS OF DISTRIBUTION
A. Some years ago, David Sox, an authority on the Shroud of Turin, vis-
ited the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. There he
was shown a large room which was lined from floor to ceiling with cab-
inets and shelves loaded with containers of every conceivable size
JOHN S. STRONG 40
encasing bone, ashes, clothing and whatnot. They were the relics
required in the altars of new churches waiting to be shipped out. Over-
seeing the transfer and authentication of these relics occupies much of
the time of the popes Vicar-General at the Vatican, Archbishop Peter
van Lierde, who, with the Vicariate of Rome, still provides relics not
only for churches but also for personal devotional use as well.
66
Of course, things were not always so centralized. Peter Brown,
Patrick Geary, Anatole Frolow, and others have described the evolution of
rather different and often more chaotic patterns by which relics came to be
distributed geographically.
67
Nonetheless, the control that Rome main-
tained and maintains here over the distribution and authentification of
relics is noteworthy. Even charlatans laid claim to this Roman Catholic
pedigree. Thus the pardoner, in Chaucers Canterbury Tales, declares:
Ive got relics and pardons in my bag
as good as anybodys in England,
all given to me by the Popes own hand.
68
In fact, various methods arose in Christianity for determining or assert-
ing the authenticity of dubious relics. The most spectacular of these, per-
haps, was the test by fire. The questioned relic was put on a bed of coals; if
it did not burn, it was genuine, if it did burn, nothing had been lost.
69
Much
the same method may be found in Buddhism. Generally speaking, however,
the authentification of a relic was (and still is) done with documents, and it
became common for the owners of individual relics to possess elaborate
records of their relics pedigrees, the equivalent, perhaps, in Buddhism, of
the various vam sa (chronicles) that focus on specific Buddhist relics.
70
Canon Law is quite specific on the importance of such authentifying
documents though it waffles somewhat on their necessity. Nonetheless,
newly found relics should not be approved for public veneration without
them, and they must pass through approved channels of church hierar-
chy.
71
The distribution of Christian relics out from Rome, then, was gen-
erally centripetal in nature, a pattern in which ties to the center were main-
tained and still felt.
B. In the Buddhist world, perhaps the greatest collector and distributor of
relics was King Aoka. As the legend has it, he went around and gathered
the Buddhas relics from the ancient drona stupas in which they had
been enshrined just after the parinirvana. Aoka, however, did not keep all
of these relics collected in his capital city for later farming out to individ-
ual sanctuaries. Instead, he divided and redistributed them in what was
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 41
perhaps his most famous legendary acthis construction of eighty-four
thousand stupas throughout his empire.
72
The nature of his distribution
ideology is perhaps most tellingly revealed in an incident recounted in the
Aoka\ vada\ na. Aoka, we are told, had ordered the eighty-four thousand
portions of relics to be sent throughout his empire to wherever there was a
population center of a koi of people. When it came time to send relics to
the kingdom of Taks aila\ , however, the Taks ailans declared that their pop-
ulation numbered thirty-six kois and that therefore they merited thirty-six
shares of relics. Aoka realized that if he were to agree to this demand, it
would be impossible for him to distribute the relics far and wide. He
therefore resorted to more authoritarian measures (called upa\ ya [skillful
means] in the text): he announced that thirty-five kois of people in
Taks aila\ would have to be summarily executed, and in that way the region
would get only its one due share of relics. The Taks ailans quickly with-
drew their demand for the extra shares, and Aoka remanded his order.
73
The principle of distribution here thus seems to be one of division and
equal dissemination, and it might well be termed mandalaic. The relics
need to be distributed in a balanced pattern throughout the kingdom. Other
examples of this sort could be cited: the emperor Wendi, as we have seen,
similarly distributed equal shares of relics to pagodas throughout China;
likewise, the founder of a Mon kingdom in Myanmar took thirty-three
tooth relics of the Buddha and had them enshrined in his capital and in the
thirty-two provinces of his kingdom,
74
while the Sri Lankans spelled out
ways in which stupas and bodhi trees were systematically established at
every league throughout the island.
75
In all of these cases, the relationship
with the center is rather different than that in the case of Christian relics
and the Vatican, a difference that perhaps can be expressed as follows:
Hypothesis 6: Christian relics : centralized distribution on demand ::
Buddhist relics : mandalization.
CONCLUSIONS: ESCHATOLOGIES
Given the tentative and somewhat idiosyncratic nature of the six hypothe-
ses that have been set forth so far, any definitive conclusion at this point
would be rather suspect. Perhaps it would be better, therefore, to end with
yet another set of stories, this one concerning the end of relics, for one
can often learn about the nature of things or persons by seeing what is to
happen to them in the final days of the eschaton.
A. In Christianity, as is well known, at the end of time, there occurs the phe-
nomenon of bodily resurrection. Without getting into debates on the subject,
JOHN S. STRONG 42
I will mention only one such scenario, the description of the valley of dry
bones in Ezekiel 37: there was a rattling; and the bones came together,
bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had
come upon them, and skin had covered them. Though it is unlikely that this
passage was originally intended as a description of events in the final days
(it was rather a metaphor for the restoration of the Jewish state), it rapidly
came to be linked to the theme of bodily resurrection and became in the pop-
ular mind an important eschatological image.
76
Its importance in terms of
relicsthe bones of the saintslies in its showing what Christian relics
finally are in the long run: bodies. But the metaphors used to describe these
bodies and the manner in which they become resurrected were mind bog-
gling in their variety. As Caroline Bynum points out, the resurrection body
was variously seen as angel, reassembled bones, bride, city, crystal, egg,
foetus, fire, flowering plant, garment, glowworm, ivory, jewel, mended pot,
mercury, mosaic, overflow of the soul, Pauline seed, phoenix, rebuilt tem-
ple, reforged statue, ship, sphere, tent, waterskin, and so on.
77
B. In Buddhism, too, there is an eschaton, at least for the Buddhas body:
the so-called parinirvana of the relics. According to this belief, prior to the
advent of Maitreya, all the relics of the Buddhaincluding those in the
na\ ga world and those in the realms of the godswill come together at
Bodhgaya. None, not even those that are but the size of a mustard seed, will
be lost en route. At Bodhgaya, they will reassemble and take on the form
of the Buddhas body, complete with its thirty-two major and eighty minor
marks, and in midair, they will perform once again the twin miracle like
the one the Buddha performed during his lifetime, at S: ra\ vast. Thus far, we
would seem to have a nice parallel to Ezekiel. But then, the text specifies,
the gods will lament: Today, the Dasabala [Buddha] will be parinirva-
nized; from now on, there will be darkness. And then a great fire, ema-
nating from the relic body (dha\ tusarra) itself, will completely consume all
of the relics, and the body of the Buddha will be seen no more. That is the
disappearance of the relics.
78
The contrast with the Christian scenario of
resurrection and bodily reconstitution could hardly be more clear.
Final Hypothesis: In the end, Christian relics : eternal bodies :: Bud-
dhist relics : impermanent bodies.
NOTES
1. See, for example, the sketch in C.F. Gordon Cumming, Two Happy Years
in Ceylon (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1892), 292 ff.; and the compara-
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 43
tive set of drawings in J. Gerson Da Cunha, Memoir on the History of the Tooth-
relic of Ceylon, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 11
(1875): 141.
2. On the Beijing tooth relic, see The Buddhas Tooth Relic Pagoda (Beijing:
Buddhist Association of China, 1966); and Holmes Welch, Buddhism under Mao
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), 18084. On this visit in 1972, see
John Strong and Sarah Strong, A Post-Cultural Revolution Look at Buddhism,
China Quarterly 54 (1973): 325.
3. See John Strong and Sarah Strong, ATooth Relic of the Buddha in Japan:
An Essay on the Sennyu\-ji Tradition and a Translation of Zeamis No\ Play
Shari, Japanese Religions 20 (1995): 133.
4. See D. Balduino Bedini, Le Reliquie della Passione del Signore (Rome:
Basilica S. Croce, 1987); and P. Heinrich Drenkelfort, The Basilica of the Holy
Cross in Jerusalem (Rome: Basilica S. Croce, n.d.).
5. I will, in this chapter, be dealing only with Christian and Buddhist relics,
not with those of other traditions (Islam, etc.). For a more general survey, see John
Strong, Relics, Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York:
Macmillan, 1987), 12:27582.
6. Leonardo Olschki, The Crib of Christ and the Bowl of Buddha, Journal
of the American Oriental Society 70 (1950): 16164.
7. Gregory Schopen, Burial Ad Sanctos and the Physical Presence of the
Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism, Religion 17 (1987): 193225.
8. Robert H. Sharf, On the Allure of Buddhist Relics, Representations 66
(1999): 79.
9. E. O. Reischauer, Ennins Diary (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), 301.
10. Donald K. Swearer, personal communication. See also Jean Barthes, Les
reliques sacres Phnom-Penh (511 octobre 1952), France-Asie 8, no. 78
(1952): 95155.
11. See Nicole Hermann-Mascard, Les reliques des saints: Formation coutu-
mire dun droit (Paris: Editions Klinksieck, 1975), 214. It has been argued that
this decree was only meant to be against the sale of relics and not their naked
exposition, but see Hubert Silvestre, Commerce et vol de reliques au Moyen
age, Revue Belge de philologie et dhistoire 30 (1952): 726.
12. See Eugene A. Dooley, Church Law on Sacred Relics (Washington: The
Catholic University of America, 1931), 10204.
13. Wendy Doniger [OFlaherty], Other Peoples Myths (New York: Macmil-
lan, 1988), 2.
14. John Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (Warminster:
Aris and Phillips, 1977), 49.
JOHN S. STRONG 44
15. On this see James Bentley, Restless Bones: The Story of Relics (London:
Constable, 1985), 35, and Hermann-Mascard, 27 ff. On the defiling nature of any
contact with tombs or corpses, see Numbers 19:1116 and Leviticus 21:14.
16. Wilkinson, Jerusalem, 40.
17. Patrice Boussel, Des reliques et de leur bon usage (Paris: Balland, 1971),
1718.
18. Bentley, Restless Bones, 35.
19. For different versions of the tale, see John Strong, The Legend and Cult of
Upagupta (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 2832.
20. James Legge, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1886), 39 (text in T. 2085, 51:859a).
21. Wang Yi-tung, A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-Yang by Yang
Hsan-chih (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 244 (text in T. 2092,
51:1021c22a).
22. See James Ware, Weishou on Buddhism, Toung pao 30 (1933): 156. See
also Alexander Soper, Aspects of Light Symbolism in Gandha\ran Sculpture, Part
1, Artibus Asiae 12 (194950): 282; and Erik Zrcher, The Buddhist Conquest of
China (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1959), 22425.
23. A full bibliography cannot be given here but, for a variety of positions on
this issue, see other chapters in this volume (e.g., those by David Germano and
Jacob Kinnard) and see also Malcolm David Eckel, The Power of the Buddhas
Absence: On the Foundations of Maha\ya\na Buddhist Ritual, Journal of Ritual
Studies 4 (1990): 6195; Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 125 ff., 154, 258 ff.; Donald K.
Swearer, Hypostasizing the Buddha: Buddha Image Consecration in Northern
Thailand, History of Religions 34 (1995): 26364; and Kevin Trainor, Relics, Rit-
ual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lanka Therava\da
Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 96 ff.
24. Paul Mus, La mythologie primitive et la pense de lInde, Bulletin de la
Socit Franaise de Philosophie 37 (1937): 91. See also the passages from the
Pa\li canon collected under the title Questions Which Tend Not to Edification in
Henry Clarke Warren, Buddhism in Translations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1896), 11728.
25. Stephan Beyer, The Buddhist Experience (Encino: Dickenson, 1974), 214
(text in J. W. de Jong, Na\ga\rjuna, Mu\lamadhyamakaka\rika\h [Madras: Adyar
Library, 1977], 39).
26. Gregory Schopen, On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of a
Relic in the Inscriptions of Na\ga\rjunikonda, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 108 (1988): 530.
27. Manorathapu\ran : Buddhaghosas Commentary on the Anguttara Nika\ya,
ed. M. Walleser and H. Kopf (London: Pa\li Text Society, 1924), 1:38284 (Eng.
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 45
trans., John Strong, The Experience of Buddhism [Belmont: Wadsworth, 1995],
4647).
28. See The Maha\vamsa, ed. Wilhelm Geiger (London: Pali Text Society,
1908), 133 (Eng. trans., Wilhelm Geiger, The Maha\vamsa or the Great Chronicle
of Ceylon. [London: Pali Text Society, 1912], 116).
29. Paul Mus, Barabudur: Les origines du stu\pa et la transmigration, essai
darchologie religieuse compare (Hanoi: Imprimerie dExtrme-Orient, 1935),
1:74, 190.
30. Mus, Barabudur, 1:8990.
31. On this dynamic, see Strong, Upagupta, 109116.
32. Thomas Head, personal communication, 1995. I would like to thank
Thomas Head for this and other comments on the draft of this paper originally pre-
sented to the American Academy of Religion Seminar on Buddhist Relics,
November 19, 1994.
33. Emile Briand, Histoire de Sainte Radegonde, reine de France, et des sanc-
tuaires et plerinages en son honneur (Paris and Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1898), 157.
Some of the wording here is based on the biography of Radegund by her contem-
porary, Sister Baudovonia.
34. On her reception of the true cross in Poitiers, which was the occasion of the
composition by Fortunatus of the hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt, see Ren
Aigrain, Sainte Radegonde (Poitiers: Editions des Cordeliers, 1917), 10428; and
Edmond-Ren Labaude, Histoire de labbaye de Sainte-Croix de Poitiers
(Poitiers: Socit des Antiquaires de lOuest, 1986), 3841. See also Peter Brown,
Relics and Social Status in the Age of Gregory of Tours (University of Reading:
The Stenton Lecture, 1977), 1415; and Raymond Van Dam, Saints and Their
Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993),
3041. On the recent history of the relic and its present location outside of
Poitiers, see Roger Gazeau, LAbbaye Sainte-Croix de Poitiers la Cossonire
(Ligug: Imprimerie Aubin, 1968).
35. Aigrain, Radegonde, 191.
36. Boussel, Des reliques, 2829.
37. Li Ronxi, A Biography of the Tripiaka Master of the Great Cien
Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty (Berkeley, Numata Center, 1995), 5657
(text in T. 2053, 50:229c-30a).
38. Wilkinson, Jerusalem, 4950.
39. Maha\vamsa, 24142 (Eng. trans., Geiger, Maha\vamsa, 20304).
40. On this theme, see John Strong, Relics of the Buddha (forthcoming), intro-
duction.
41. Maha\vamsa, 255 (Eng. trans., Geiger, Maha\vamsa, 217).
JOHN S. STRONG 46
42. Decima L. Douie and David H. Farmer, Magna Vita Sancti HugonisThe
Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 2:170.
43. For example, according to Saint Silvia (fourth century), special security
measures had to be taken at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to pre-
vent pilgrims come to venerate the true cross there from biting off pieces of it. See
sources listed in Anatole Frolow, La relique de la vraie croix: Recherches sur le
dveloppement dun culte (Paris: Institut dEtudes Byzantines, 1961), 162.
44. For a recent linguistically informed discussion of the Eucharist, see Louis
Marin, Food for Thought, trans. Mette Hjort (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press,
1989), ch. 1.
45. G. J. C. Snoek, Medieval Piety from Relics to the Eucharist (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1995). See also Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central
Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 3435.
46. See Geary, Furta Sacra; and Silvestre, Le vol.
47. See Boussel, Des reliques, 5766.
48. This, of course, in no way sums up the reasons for the gradual growth in
the West in reverence for (as opposed to simple ritual use of) the eucharistic ele-
ments, on which, see Snoek, Medieval Piety, 38182. The Eucharist, however,
was especially important given the dearth of corporeal relics of Christ.
49. See Mitomo Ryo\jun, An Aspect of Dharma-arra, Journal of Indian and
Buddhist Studies / Indogaku bukkyo\ gaku kenkyu\ 32 (1984): 1117; and Li, Great
Tang Record, 266 (text in T. 2087, 51:920a). Much the same tradition is men-
tioned by Yijing (see Junjiro Takakusu, A Record of Buddhistic Religion as Prac-
ticed in India and the Malay Archipelago [London: Clarendon Press, 1896], 150).
50. See Brian Hickman, A Note on the Hyakumanto\ Dha\ran, Monumenta
Nipponica 30 (1975): 8793; and J. Edward Kidder, Busshari and Fukuzo\: Bud-
dhist Relics and Hidden Repositories of Ho\ryu\-ji, Japanese Journal of Religious
Studies 19 (1992): 222.
51. Daniel Boucher, The Prattyasamutpa\daga\tha\ and Its Role in the
Medieval Cult of the Relics, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies 14 (1991): 810 (text in T. 699, 16:800c801b). See also Mitomo,
Dharma-arra, 1118. The verse was instrumental in the conversion of S:a\riputra
and Maha\maudgalya\yana. For a still useful discussion of it, see Eugne Burnouf,
Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1852), 522 ff.
52. Stanley J. Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of
Amulets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 335 ff.
53. Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand (Nerw York: Mentor Books, 1950), 53.
54. Jinhua Chen, Monks and Monarchs, Kinship and Kingship: Tanqian in Sui
Buddhism and Politics (Kyoto: Scuola di Studi sullAsia Orientale), 181 (text in
T. 2103, 52:213b).
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 47
55. Chen, Monks and Monarchs, 181.
56. Brian Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early
Medieval Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 136.
57. On Wendis relic campaigns, see Chen, Monks and Monarchs, ch. 2; and
Arthur Wright, The Formation of Sui Ideology, in Chinese Thought and Institu-
tions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957),
71104.
58. Chen, Monks and Monarchs, 51, n.12. These were tested to insure their
authenticity: struck with a hammer, they remained unsmashed.
59. The Sumangala-Vila\sin, Buddhaghosas Commentary on the Dgha
Nika\ya, ed. William Stede (London: Pali Text Society, 1931), 2:60304.
60. For a discussion of sheli in East Asia, see Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of
Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991), 13743; for Southeast Asia, see Tambiah, Saints of the
Forest, 109; for Tibet, see Dan Martin, Pearls from Bones: Relics, Chortens, Ter-
tons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet, Numen 41 (1994): 273324.
61. Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1984), 20304.
62. Allione, Women, 203. See also Martin, Pearls from Bones, 283.
63. Chen, Monks and Monarchs, 18990.
64. Allione, Women, 203.
65. Kevin Trainor, When Is a Theft Not a Theft? Relic Theft and the Cult of
the Buddhas Relics in Sri Lanka, Numen 39 (1992): 15.
66. David Sox, Relics and Shrines (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1985),
7.
67. Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1981); Geary, Furta Sacra; Frolow, Vraie croix.
68. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, trans. David Wright (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985), 409.
69. For examples, see Snoek, Medieval Piety, 32932; for discussion, see
Thomas Head, Bodies of Truth: The Genesis and Abandonment of the Ritual
Proof of Relics by Fire, paper delivered to Davis Seminar, Princeton University,
1993; for the ritual, see Dooley, Church Law, 27.
70. For examples of this genre, all dealing with relics of the true cross, see
Anonymous, Expos historique de lhonneur et du culte quon rend au bois de la
Vraie Croix dans lglise paroissiale de Notre Dame de la Chapelle Bruxelles
(Brussels: Antoine dOurs, 1790); G. Svrac, Notice sur la Vraie Croix de St.
Guilhem-du-Dsert (Lodve: n.p., 1861); and J. B. Barrau, Notice historique sur
la Vraie Croix de Baug (Angers: Briand et Herv, 1874). For a discussion of the
legitimizing role of vamsas, see Trainor, Relics, 164 ff.
JOHN S. STRONG 48
71. Dooley, Church Law, 7274.
72. See John S. Strong, The Legend of King Aoka (Princeton: Princeton Uni-
versity Press 1983), 110 ff.
73. The Aoka\vada\na, ed. Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya (New Delhi: Sahitya
Akademi, 1963), 54 (Eng. trans., Strong, Legend, 220).
74. H. L. Shorto, The 32 Myos in the Medieval Mon Kingdom, Bulletin of
the School of Oriental and African Studies 26 (1963): 57291.
75. Kiriwaththuduwe Pragnasara, Bodhi Literature in Sri Lanka, Maha
Bodhi Tree in Anuradhapura, ed. H. S. S. Nissanka (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing
House, 1994), 18081.
76. See Helmer Ringgren, Resurrection, Encyclopedia of Religion, ed.
Mircea Eliade (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 12:346. Even more graphic, per-
haps, was the Jewish Talmudic tradition that featured bones rolling through under-
ground tunnels so that they could be reassembled in Jerusalem at the sound of the
last trumpet (see Caroline Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western
Christianity, 2001336 [New York: Columbia University Press 1995], 54).
77. Bynum, Resurrection of the Body, 35152.
78. Manorathapu\ran , 1:90. Much the same scenario may be found in the
Ana\gatavamsa, ed. J. Minayeff in Journal of the Pali Text Society 2 (1886): 36
(Eng. trans., Warren, Buddhism, 48485). In some versions of the story, the relics
in Sri Lanka stop first at the Maha\thu\pa in Anuradhapura, then proceed to the
Ra\ja\yatana cetiya in Na\gadpa, before going all together to Bodhgaya to join
relics from other parts of the world. See Sumangala-Vila\sin, 3:899. See also
Strong, Relics, ch. 8.
BUDDHIST RELICS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE 49
Page 50 blank.
INTRODUCTION
BUDDHISM IS THE ONE INDIGENOUS RELIGION IN ASIA WITH A LONG AND
continuous record of successful migration, an impressive two and half
millennia history from its northern Indian origins to the furthest reaches of
Asia in every direction. This process has been marked as much by trans-
formation and diversity as by continuity and unity, whether we look to its
literatures, doctrines, practices, or institutions. Yet within this diversity,
there is a persistent and even defining concern with the figure of the Bud-
dha(s), whether serene or horrific, celibate or sexual, historical or cosmic,
iconographic or doctrinal, ritual or contemplative, objects of emulation or
objects of negation. These figures proliferated in the shimmering pure
lands, dense mandalas, and alternative cosmologies of later forms of Bud-
dhism, while the simple historicity of a north Indian founder of a religion
underwent similar transformations to the point of including primordial fig-
ures whose defining identity was their lack of historicity and temporal
development, massive cosmological Buddhas who create and host entire
galaxies, and intimate interior Buddhas pervading the bodys interior. And
yet within this diversity and divinity, there has remained a consistent
humanist association stemming from the human origins of Buddhas, and
the rejection of a creator deity who sits outside of interdependence, even
when this rejection sits side by side with rhetoric that celebrates Buddha
or bodhicitta in terms that seem all but indistinguishable from such a
divine, creative force.
With this humanism, there comes an equally persistent problem of
presence and absence, of how a discrete, specific Buddha is present in this
51
CHAPTER THREE
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET
David Germano
ordinary world of samsara when his/her self-transfiguration by definition
involves extrication from that world. It is thus not surprising that wherever
we find Buddhism, we also find a concern for what could only be termed
relicsbits and pieces of the Buddha, or Buddha-like historical figures,
which have retained a material presence in the world even when the Bud-
dha has departed or is only accessible in brief glimpses of visionary expe-
rience or ritual evocation. Relics have been one of the most omnipresent
and sought after phenomena of Buddhist material culture, often presented
in recent scholarship as a way to mediate the Buddhas historical absence
following death. Relics and statues of the Buddha are in many ways con-
sidered as the living Buddha, that is, as radically active agents, rather than
a mere remainder from, or image of, a distant past. This quality of per-
sonhood or agency has been demonstrated through examination of con-
crete social practices surrounding relics and statues, including the attribu-
tion of such classic characteristics of ownership of property, the ability to
be murdered, and so forth. In Mahayana traditions, this persistent agency
of the Buddhas in material form has been further formalized in the theol-
ogy of the three Bodies of a Buddha: a Buddhas innermost recesses
become coterminous, in some sense, with reality (dharmata\), and out of
this matrix a vast array of material forms both animate and nonanimate are
emanated. We might thus speak of relics and emanations, which are uni-
fied in their divine agency and derivation, but different in being perceived
as persistent forces that are a legacy of the past in contrast to newly emer-
gent manifestations that are a direct outflow of the present. In practice,
however, these distinctions are far from clear.
Relics can be pieces of the material bodya tooth, a bone, dried up
flesh, odd crystalline derivates of the cremated body, or material items
associated with a Buddhaclothing, ritual items, or other possessions.
They can also be verbal, as encapsulated in the Buddhist scriptures,
believed to have persisted orally in the hearts and minds of disciples
before being committed to written, canonical form. Indeed it has been
argued that stupas, images, and a wide spectrum of other items believed
to derive from, emulate, represent, or incarnate a Buddhas presence
should be considered relics.
1
Relics also extend from the historical
Buddha to other Buddhas, divine figures, and historical personages in a
given traditions lineages. In the present volume, such relics are analyzed
across a variety of situational contexts and functionsintellectual, ritual,
social, literary, and politicaland across an equally diverse array of cul-
tural contextsIndia, Japan, Thailand, and China. In this chapter I will
turn to yet another cultural context, namely, Tibet, and to yet another sit-
DAVID GERMANO 52
uational context, namely, a philosophical interpretation of relics in rela-
tionship to Buddha-nature. Thus I will be concerned with the philosophy
of the production of relics rather than practical issues of their subsequent
use, thereby showing that there is not always a clear bifurcation between
high intellectual traditions and a detailed interest in the material phe-
nomenon of relics.
The Tibetan tantric tradition known as the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen) systematically relates the bodily relics of a saint to the constellation
of concepts and practices that assert a bodily presence of Buddha-nature
within all living beings. It emerged in Tibet by at least the ninth century,
though claiming almost entirely to be Indian revelations concealed in
Tibet during the eight and ninth centuries. It appears, however, that in fact
its many variant traditions and corresponding bodies of literature emerged
at different periods over many centuries as original Tibetan developments.
The earliest public Great Perfection traditions in the ninth century are
marked by the absence of presentations of detailed ritual and contempla-
tive technique and by the absence of funerary Buddhism. Then there is
a gradual incorporation of diverse ritual and contemplative techniques and
funerary elements culminating in the eleventh-century rise of the Seminal
Heart (snying thig), which was systematized in the fourteenth century by
Longchenpa (klong chen pa, 13081363). Funerary Buddhism signifies
the late Indian Buddhist tantric obsession with death on multiple fronts:
(1) the focus on charnel grounds and their corpses, (2) funerary rituals, (3)
the signs of dying and death (particularly relics), (4) intermediate
process theory (bar do, Sanskrit antara\bhava), and (5) contemplative
yogas based on death.
2
In this process of transformation, we find a concern
with relics blossoming in conjunction with an elaborate tantric synthesis
revolving around death, vision, and the body in relationship to Buddhas. I
will show how relics are closely tied with Buddha-nature theory inscribed
within an elaborate and architectonic philosophical synthesis. We thus will
see that the traditional connection of Buddha-nature with birth, womb, and
genesis is here balanced by associations with cemeteries, death, and relics,
with tombs as much as with wombs.
DISEMBODIED RELICS IN THE EARLY GREAT PERFECTION
We will begin with The All-Creating King, the chief tantra of the early
strata of the Great Perfection. These early texts are characterized by a lack
of reference to funerary Buddhism, and a general tendency toward aes-
theticization, which abstracts from discrete particulars, whether ritual and
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 53
contemplative processes or any other type of concrete detail. Thus, while
The All-Creating King devotes its seventeenth chapter to a discussion of
relics, it is an abstract and metaphorical account:
Then the All-Creating King, the enlightening mind, spoke about
holding on to his own Bodily bones (sku gdung):
O Great Heroic Being, grasp this! If you continually hold on to
these Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres (ring bsrel), you
will be equal to me, the All-Creating, the original ancestor of the
Victorious Ones.
Then the Adamantine Heroic Being made this inquiry:
O original ancestor of all the Buddhas of the three times,
teacher of teachers, the All-Creating King! As to continually hold-
ing on to the Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres, Bodily
refers to the Bodies (sku, ka\ya) of which Victorious Ones? Bones
refers to the bones of which Buddhas? How should precious (relic)
spheres be understood?
The All-Creating Kings response:
Listen, O Great Heroic Being! Bodily is the Spiritual Bodies
of my sons, the threefold Victors. Bones signifies my mind in the
Victors of the three times. If you hold on to this, Heroic Being, con-
tinually and without temporal [break], it is the receptacle of offer-
ing to all the Buddhas of the three times. This should be understood
as the referent of Bodily bones and precious (relic) spheres.
The Adamantine Heroic Being made a further inquiry:
O teacher of teachers, the All-Creating King! Even if the Bod-
ily bones and precious (relic) spheres are thus, how do you offer to
the Buddhas of the three times therein? What are the virtues to be
had in offering?
The All-Creating Kings response:
Listen, O Great Heroic Being! You worship these Bodily bones
and precious (relic) spheres of mine by continually seeing the Bud-
dhas of the three times as your own mind. Having attained indivis-
ibility with the virtues of that [act], you will become as potent as the
King who creates all phenomena.
3
Precious relic spheres (ring bsrel) are generally etymologized as
held/proliferating (bsrel) for a long time (ring), based upon the notion
DAVID GERMANO 54
that unusual crystalline spheres collected out of cremation and other con-
texts are supposed to grow in number over time if kept in careful stew-
ardship. The passage above plays off this etymology to reinterpret the
stock phrase Bodily bones and precious relic spheresusually referring
to material residue of various types from the remains of a Buddha or
saintas perpetually embodying the realization of the body and mind of
the Buddhas. The content and style of this passage is typical of the text,
with its twin rhetorical strategies in interpreting normative Buddhist cate-
gories of theory and praxis: deconstructing them via a resolute denial of
their cogency and reinterpreting them allegorically as applying to facets of
the primordial enlightened mind (byang chub sems, Sanskrit bodhicitta).
Bodhicitta is explicitly identified as the personified speaker of this tantra,
as well as creator of the cosmos. The passage translated above is an exam-
ple of the allegorical strategy, though the overall effect is still to suggest a
negation or at least devaluation of the conventional understanding of the-
ories and practices relating to relics.
4
There hardly seems any flesh to these bones, either our own or those
of the Buddhas. This is in line with the texts general tendency to devalue
the phenomenal characteristics of discrete items constituting ones ordi-
nary experience in preference for an emphasis on the in-visible reality
body of the Buddha (chos sku, Sanskrit dharmaka\ya), also referred to as
the enlightening mind, the enlightened nucleus of Buddhas (de bzhin
gshegs pai snying po, Sanskrit tatha\gatagarbha), ground (gzhi), and
the All-Creating King. At the core of this notion is realitys (chos nyid,
Sanskrit dharmata\) absence, latency (nang gsal), and indeterminacy, the
total converse of our ordinary cyclic existence (samsa\ra) with its manifest
structures (phyir gsal) of discrete things and karmic laws of cause and
effect forming a prison. While normally realitys virtual character entails
its retreat from the field of our awareness, the tantra asserts its primacy as
the source, ongoing reality, and ultimate destination (byung gnas gro) of
ordinary modes of existence.
The generalized phenomenological correlate to this emphasis on
reality in this virtual sense is a turning from focal modes of attention
(dmigs pa) on discrete manipulatable items (chos, Sanskrit dharma) to
diffusive modalities (dmigs med) expressed as a letting-go (cog bzhag),
which opens out to the all-embracing field (dbyings, Sanskrit dha\tu) con-
stituting such discrete items. In traditional Great Perfection terms, this is
characterized as the difference between karma (las) and gnosis (ye shes,
Sanskrit ja\na), the world of discrete forms in rigid hierarchies in con-
trast to emptiness interpreted positively as a fluid web of paradoxical
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 55
presences (med bzhin snang ba).
5
This simple dyad can be explored per-
ceptually in terms of meditative processes, hermeneutically in terms of
the different types of textuality, institutionally in terms of a contrast
between diffuse village-based lay movements and more formal monastic
organizations, and indeed in terms of the interpretation of any classic
Buddhist phenomena.
The text here utilizes this opposition to undercut relics as discrete
physical items from which authority almost physically emanates, whether
physical remnants of a Buddha or saint; miraculous excrescence from
such remnants; or their possessions, texts, or other traditional categories
of sacred relics suitable for worship and installation within a stupa. Such
rhetorical tactics could have undercut scholastic ventures as well as pop-
ular practices, but we know too little about the significance of relic wor-
ship or stupas during this period or indeed any socioreligious contexts in
the tenth century to determine what ideological significance such rejection
might have had. For instance, it is not clear that authors of these texts
shared the elitist approach and fundamental distrust of popular religiosity
attributed by Faure to some elements of Chan, since such rhetorical strate-
gies need not be automatically interpreted literally to signify a disregard
for the object of denial.
6
But at least textually or philosophically, the over-
whelming stress is on absence as well as rhetorical disembodiedness in the
body of the text; the relics of the Buddha are none other than ones own
mind, and their possession seems a bit intangible, to say the least. It is a
discourse of the bare bones, and perhaps we can characterize the coming
transformation of relics in the tradition as a discovery of the radical
agency of these bones: they have something to say and a fully embodied
presence with which to speak.
THE BLAZING UP OF RELICS IN THE SEMINAL HEART
The early foundational literature of the Seminal Heart is a collection of
seventeen tantras revealed in Tibet gradually from the eleventh to the
twelfth centuries, which were then systematically interpreted in the four-
teenth century by the traditions great systematizer, Longchenpa in The
Treasury of Words and Meanings and The Treasury of the Supreme Vehi-
cle.
7
The Seventeen Tantras range from lengthy texts surveying diverse
issues to succinct texts discussing single topics.
8
For instance, The Tantra
of the Sun and Moons Intimate Union
9
is devoted to the subject of inter-
mediate processes (bar do) and forms the earliest known literature outlin-
ing the characteristic doctrines and practices later shaped by Karmalingpa
DAVID GERMANO 56
(kar ma gling pa, 13271387) into The Liberation upon Hearing in the
Intermediate Process.
10
The Blazing Relics Tantra is instead devoted to
relics and issues surrounding the moment of death from the perspective of
the survivors.
11
In contrast to The All-Creating King, this tantra discusses
at length the types of relics and other odd signs emerging in the death of
a saint.
12
These are each correlated with the varying levels and nature of
realization of the person in question, indicating that this detailed account
of relics in part concerns the generation of belief, a legitimization of the
deceased and the lineage s/he incarnated. But the manifestation of such
marks is also explicitly connected to the theory of Buddha(s) located
physically within human interiority and thus embedded within the broader
architecture of the Seminal Heart.
The Blazing Relics Tantra presents relics as a subset of a discussion
of signs (rtags) marking enlightenmentliving signs manifest in a
visionarys body, speech, and mind by force of contemplation, while relics
mark enlightenment within death. Its three chapters correspond to signs
emerging in a visionarys body, speech, and mind (1) in the present due to
contemplation in past lives, (2) in the present as immediate feedback on
success in present contemplative endeavors, and (3) after death indicating
attainments in the immediate postmortem future. The tantra is thus orga-
nized around signs relating to contemplative practice in the past, present,
and future. Much of the text is focused on relatively straightforward
accounts of the phenomenology of different contemplative practices along
with descriptions of the various capacities thereby attained. Despite this,
the texts overall title of blazing relics/bones (sku gdung) points to relics
as its overarching organizational rubric, in which capacity it signifies gen-
erally the bodily markers or transfigurations that authentic contemplation
generatesliterally, the bodys bones blaze. Its centrality no doubt
derives from the importance of relics in Tibetan Buddhist practices con-
cerning death and postmortem interpretation of sanctity but also from the
traditions philosophical interpretation of the body and its indwelling
gnostic agency described in terms reserved for a Buddha(s).
Chapter 1 unfolds in response to a question from the audience asking
what the signs are like for an enlightened individual. The Teacher
responds by talking about the signs of enlightened Body, Speech, and
Mind manifesting in someone via previous training. For example, training
on the Buddhas Body results in physical marks, which tend to be of three
types: wrinkles, protrusions of skin, and light colorations in shapes resem-
bling auspicious items such as ritual implements or sacred syllables
appearing. Chapter 2 deals mainly with this life and signs that correspond
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 57
to success in various Great Perfection practices. In contrast to
Longchenpas The Treasury of Words and Meanings, the signs tend to be
more external indicators (such as flying through air, walking on water, or
remembering teachings) rather than phenomenological indicators linked
to procedures of contemplative practices. Chapter 3 unfolds in response to
a Da\kin asking what type of signs emerge when a yogi is unable to suc-
cessfully bring contemplation to its fulfillment and dies. Buddha Vajra
Holders (rdo rje chang) response surveys five topics: Body images,
bones, lights, sounds, and earthquakes. He correlates material events at
death such as odd material objects appearing at cremation, strange phe-
nomena observed in the surrounding environment, and so on to the timing
of liberation for the deceased visionarywhether at death, four days later
in the postdeath intermediate process, or otherwise.
Longchenpas The Treasury of Words and Meanings has eleven chap-
ters corresponding to the essential rubrics of the tradition and only
includes topics he understands as crucial within a practice-oriented digest
(lag len).
13
The fact that the ninth topic corresponds to the discussion of
relics in The Blazing Relics Tantra, citations of which pervade it, thus sig-
nifies that Longchenpa views relics as a vital topic within the overall sys-
tem.
14
Just like the tantra, it concerns the psychophysical and visionary
signs manifesting in the practitioners body, speech, mind, and external
environment as realization deepens in his/her contemplative path. Such
analyses are presented as an aid for the practitioner to empirically observe
his/her own progress, keeping alert for stagnation, deviation, and other
pitfalls, as well as aiding teachers in evaluation and sequential instruction
of disciples. The variety and remarkable nature of many of the signs are
also intended to serve as a curb against intellectual hubris for those who
may mistake intellectual comprehension with experiential realization, as
the former will not issue forth in the extraordinary psychic powers and
other measures marking the latter. Three sections correlated to the past,
present, and future again constitute the bulk of the chapter: (1) the signs
marking proper progress in the Great Perfections contemplations,
15
(2) the
signs naturally occurring in ones current body, speech, and mind indicat-
ing successful engagement in these practices during previous lifetimes,
16
and (3) the external environmental signs and internal signs evident in a
persons death and cremation.
17
The first section is a complement to the contemplative practices dis-
cussed in the preceding chapter, with signs ranging over the feeling of
being able to fly, an astonishingly youthful complexion, internal sensa-
tions, and psychic capacities. The discussion focuses on the specific trans-
DAVID GERMANO 58
formations occurring in the different elements of the visions in direct tran-
scendence contemplation (thod rgal). It is of note that much of the
imagery involves the spontaneous unfolding of visual images of Buddhas
and lights from within the body, strikingly similar to the postmortem
events discussed elsewhere in the text. The practice of direct transcen-
dence itself involves the use of postures, gazes, and breathing exercises to
stimulate a spontaneous flow of visions that gradually shape into visions
of Buddhas.
The second section describes the diverse signs naturally occurring in
ones current body, speech, and mind indicating successful engagement in
these practices during previous lifetimes. These range from a natural
capacity for concentration to birthmarks which are remarkably similar to
classic auspicious symbols. While the manifestation of such contempla-
tion within the practitioners speech and mind is more straightforward
(eloquence, clairvoyance, etc.), the signs manifesting within a practi-
tioners body are of particular interest. The Blazing Relics Tantra
describes these living bodily relics as follows:
(i) A conch spiraling to the right,
Or wrinkles going upwards like three tips [of a vajra, trident and
so on],
Or, likewise the letter Om
Will emerge in image or naturally protrude
On the expanse of the forehead
Of whoever tunes into the Blissful Ones.
Whoever has such signs emerge
Previously spiritually trained on the Buddhas Body;
That yogi who trains on this
Will in two lifetimes attain
The time of utter assurance
In being inseparable from the Buddhas Body.
Thus you should value highly in this very life
Diligence in meditative cultivation,
Without allowing obstructions to gain sway.
(ii) The fortunate individual
Who previously spiritually trained
On the Speech of all the Buddhas,
Has images or protruding shapes
On the right and left side of the throat:
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 59
An eight petaled lotus,
Conch spiraling to the right,
Or likewise the tip of a silk prayer flag curling upwards,
Iron hook or sword,
Or marked by the letter Ah.
The individual who has these marks
Has previously spiritually trained
On the Speech of all the Buddhas,
And thus in two lifetimes will come to attain the definitive fruit
As s/he becomes one with Enlightened Speech.
Also with this you should value the absence of obstructions
When you meditatively cultivate the Enlightened Speech without
any obstructions
It is certain beyond a shadow of a doubt it will be attained.
(iii) Whoever has previously become experientially familiar
With the Mind of the Buddhas,
Will find their body marked by the following signs:
At the location of the heart
Is an upright trident and vajra,
Or likewise a four spoked wheel,
Flesh glowing in the form of a trident,
The shape of precious jewels,
Or the mark of the letter Hu\m.
The person for whom these emerge
Is a fortunate one who has experientially familiarized himself
With the Mind of the Buddhas;
When diligent in meditative cultivation,
Without obstructions in three lives
There can be no doubt that s/he will be expansively awakened
Within the mandala of the Buddhas Mind.
18
Longchenpa explains
19
the rationale for these signs manifestation
with respect to the primordial ground of being and nonbeing.
20
The
Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind are present naturally within all liv-
ing beings as the all-pervading primordial potencies or self-emergent
dynamic qualities of the ground, and thus by previous spiritual refinement
and training they become manifest in the present. They also indicate
imminent realizationbodily signs indicate that by further training on the
DAVID GERMANO 60
Enlightened Body one will attain the adamantine Body in two lifetimes,
verbal signs indicate that adamantine Speech can be accomplished within
two births, and mental signs indicate enlightenment within three lifetimes.
However, he also stresses that the signs are not ultimate indicators and that
everything depends on ones current actions
21
hence the signs should
motivate further practice. Otherwise the positive karma that led to those
signs will become mixed with current negative karma and result in subse-
quent birth in the form realms, the god Brahmas level, and as a demi-god
respectively (corresponding to the signs of Body, Speech, and Mind).
22
Longchenpa concludes the chapter with an analysis of what we would
consider relics proper: the various external environmental signs (such as
weather, earthquakes, or strange appearances) and internal signs (such as
relics or marks on bones) evident in a given persons death and cremation.
These signs are interpreted as indicating an advanced visionarys post-
mortem spiritual realization (i.e., his/her possible enlightenment within
death or in one of the phases of postdeath experience). The manifestation
of these signs is clearly understood as the coming to the fore of the latent
Buddhas based in the body rather than something fashioned anew by dint
of diligent yogic practice.
The Treasury of Words and Meanings
23
cites The Blazing Relics Tantra
in its division of a quintet of signs marking saintly death: images on bones,
small spheres emerging from the cremated remains, lights, sounds, or
earthquakes. The signs of saintly death are described as the signs of free-
dom for those with the right karmic fortune or the signs of a practitioner
gaining the optimal measure of freedom:
When one passes beyond misery [i.e., death/nirvana],
The images of Spiritual Bodies, bones, and
Likewise lights, sounds,
And earthquakes are present.
24
While the components of this fivefold classification in general are
common aspects of Buddhist signs of saintly death, the interpretative
detail, as we shall see below, is seamlessly interwoven with the Seminal
Hearts distinctive ideology of a radically active Buddha-nature. Earlier in
the chapter, Longchenpa
25
cites The Tantra of the Adamantine Heros
Heart-Mirrors threefold classification of the signs of saintly death: (1)
ascertaining the measures and signs of freedom in this very life for those
of supreme diligence in practice; (2) the measures and signs of freedom in
the postdeath intermediate process; and (3) the measures and signs of
gaining respite in a pure land following death:
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 61
Hey friends, teach the precepts thus to those individuals who
abide within this teaching. As indicatory omens of a person passing
beyond misery in transcendence, these occur. If you stay alone your
experience is joyous; your body is as light as cotton fluff; you dont
long for companionship with people; you feel as if you could fly
through the sky; when these appearances cease there is a joyous mood;
you are unattached to body and life; your mind doesnt get wrapped up
within any appearances whatsoever; cognition is radiantly clear with-
out any depressed quality, and is naturally at ease; you are comfortable
in company; no emotional distortions whatsoever are able to rise up,
and though emotional distortions may arise, you dont cling to them
with reifications; no attachment develops to attractive forms and there
is no aversion to unattractive forms; considerations of food and drink
dont come about by virtue of the potency of your contemplation; and
when in the company of people you will act in accordance with others
mental states. These are the indicatory omens of completely tran-
scending misery.
Transcending misery (mya ngan las das pa, Sanskrit nirva\na) is
twofold: the perfect ultra-pure expansive awakening, and the perfect
manifest expansive awakening. The perfect ultra-pure expansive awak-
ening is the expansive awakening of Buddhahood devoid of any remain-
der of the psycho-physical components, while for the person of the per-
fect manifest expansive awakening, lights, sounds, bones, earthquakes
and so forth emerge.
Light is of two types: appearance in the manner of a luminous
home [circular in appearance], and appearance in the manner of a lad-
der, with light in vertical pillars or bands. The light appearing as if a
house indicates that in five days stability is attained, and the person is
perfectly and manifestly expansively awakened; the light appearing as
if a staircase indicates that in seven days s/he is perfectly and mani-
festly expansively awakened.
Sound is also of two types: if it emerges in a humming fashion, then
in seven days s/he is perfectly and manifestly expansively awakened; if
it emerges like a roaring sound then in fourteen days s/he is perfectly and
manifestly expansively awakened.
As for bones, they are fivefold: the color blue indicates being per-
fectly and manifestly expansively awakened in the pure realm of the
Illuminating One (Vairocana); the color white indicates being perfectly
and manifestly expansively awakened in the pure realm of the Adaman-
tine Hero (Vajrasattva); the color yellow indicates the pure realm of the
Precious Matrix (Ratnasambhava); the color red indicates the pure realm
of Limitless Illumination (Amita\bha); and the color green indicates the
DAVID GERMANO 62
pure realm of the Efficacious One (Amoghasiddhi). If a variety of col-
ors occurs, that individual will proceed to the site of the spontaneous ful-
fillment of these five Buddha-Bodies.
The Spiritual Body-images as well are twofold: the peaceful Bod-
ies, and the wrathful ones. If the peaceful Bodies manifest, the
deceased obtains stability the moment these appearances cease, and is
unable to emit Emanational Bodies. If the Wrathful Bodies manifest,
s/he obtains stability right there and in twenty one days can emit Ema-
national Bodies.
If those signs dont manifest, final enlightenment will be delayed by
one more birth, and then it is impossible that they wont manifest just
like that. In this way lights, sounds, bones, Spiritual Body-images, or at
least the precious (relic) spheres on upwards manifest.
26
In conversations with contemporary figures from the Great Perfection
tradition, the subject of relics has come up frequently as part of a general
category of physical proof of mysticism or the materialization of psychic
powers. These include the manifestation of precious (relic) spheres
(ring bsrel) as tiny translucent spheres from cremated corpses, a sacred
item such as a stupa, or in rare cases a living person; footprints and hand-
prints in stone, handwriting on conch shells, or odd marks resembling
sacred syllables or designs on a lamas body in the forms of wrinkles or
discolorations. These are all a matter of considerable interest in Tibetan
religious culture from lay to monastic, from the highest rinpoche to the
lowliest monk. For example, I was told by a reliable source that the
famous Khenpo Jikme Phuntshok (mkhan po jigs med phun tshogs) on a
visit in the early 1990s to Bylakuppe, India, was very interested in getting
Penor Rinpoche (pad nor rin po che) to write a mantra on a conch shell
after hearing that such handwriting produced a protruding image on the
shell. Monks within the relevant lineages often relay stories of the famous
nineteenth-twentieth-century master Khenpo Ngakchung (mkhan po ngag
chung, 18791941) having light colored designs of the symbolic hand
implements of the five Buddhas on his body and wrinkles on his nose tip
in the shape of an A syllable (which in some ritual contexts of intro-
duction for special disciples would seem to emanate light rays). The pat-
terns evident in skin from various shades of coloration are particularly a
focus of attention in religious circles, with dark discolorations considered
inauspicious, while lighter marks are auspicious. Penor Rinpoche is also
said to have many such white marks on his body, particularly white
spheres around his waist. Even precious (relic) spheres are in some
cases said to come from living persons; one such instance I have heard of
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 63
again relates to Penor Rinpoche. He gave one of his teeth to his attendant
Kunzang lama (kun bzang bla ma), who kept it in a box. Later this pro-
duced small, white, very translucent spheres, which then themselves have
continued to multiply.
I have encountered considerably more enthusiasm than skepticism on
these issues, especially when the subject of discussion pertains to the per-
sons own root teacher or recent lineage masters. Such discussions usually
tend to revolve around convincing the listener of the genuine sacredness
of the person in question and are often framed by obviously genuine
exhortations to the listener to be thus inspired to diligence in contempla-
tion.
27
The fact that such legitimization is also indirectly, yet clearly, an
authentication of the disciple, that is, the speaker, is hard to miss, even if
sincere respect is also manifest. Conversely, disparaging remarks tend not
to be about the phenomena in general, but rather directed toward others,
that is, other lineages about which the speaker may have little invested.
One conversation I remember in particular concerned a famous Tibetan
teacher who died in the United States, after which his Western disciples
gathered together relics. Some visiting lamas were invited to view the
relics subsequently but to their disappointment found that mere bones
were the object of valorization. The disparaging character of the remark
was clear (see figure 3.1).
Just as direct transcendence contemplation involves images of Bud-
dhas literally projecting from the visionarys eyes as an exteriorization of
internal Buddhas into experience, this first category of signs involves
images of Buddhas protruding from the cremated bones of the saint so as
to be visible to the naked eye. The Blazing Relics Tantra classifies them as
twofold in accordance with the peaceful and wrathful Buddhas (in life, the
former is located in the heart and the latter in the skull within the subtle
bodys internal map):
In the passage beyond misery of one of the select,
By cremating what remains of the body
(His/her contaminated material remainder),
Two types of Bodily Images show up on the bones,
Corresponding to the peaceful and wrathful Bodies.
For whoever tunes into the deity yogas
Visualizing the forms of these two types of Spiritual Bodies,
Images of both forms will manifest at death;
Should both become evident in death,
This indicates s/he will thus come to be possessed of the assurance
DAVID GERMANO 64
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Of the great originally pure essence,
Without even having to pass onto the postdeath intermediate process.
If the peaceful Bodies signs show up,
It indicates that in five days s/he will see the truth,
And dissolve into the expansive awakening of Buddhahood.
Should the wrathful Bodies sign show up,
It indicates s/he will come to be freed in five instants
Within the postdeath intermediate process of reality,
O Da\kin!
28
The corresponding section in The Supreme Vehicle discusses these
images in terms of their essence, classifications, causal impetus, location,
and fruit.
29
The opening description of the variety of images is identical to
passages laying out the initial visionary appearances of Buddhas within
direct transcendence contemplation. Longchenpa then clearly specifies
that these relics are to be understood as activated aspects of the visionarys
primordial Buddha-nature, thereby supporting the direct transcendence
imaging of truth as a body-based process of unfolding rather than a
more epistemological process of correspondence:
Their essence is the manifestation of the deities appearancea
single Body, a half body, Mother-Father consort pairs, a cluster of
deities, a full mandala, or their concordant images of stu\pas, wheels,
vajras, precious items, lotuses, crossed vajras, swords and so forth.
Manifesting from the sustained practice of the developing and perfect-
ing phases of tantric meditation are letters, hand emblems, half Bodies
and single Bodies, while from the complete perfection of these two
meditative phases there manifests the pairs in sexual union, clusters of
deities and the mandalas . . .
Their causal impetus is twofold. Their essential cause is the pri-
mordial presence of the luminously radiant Spiritual Bodies and bones
within all sentient beings, whereas in the current context a practitioners
vivid visualization in the developing and perfecting meditative phases
acts as the causal impetus of these images direct manifestation, as they
emerge out of his/her bodys vibrant energies being thus concentrated.
When merely latently present these Spiritual Bodies are unripened in
their own being, while when directly manifest the ripened Spiritual Bod-
ies and bones appear clearly . . .
In terms of location, they predominantly show up on the skull or
backbone. Although they may show up elsewhere as well, for Great Per-
fection practitioners these Bodily images emerge via experientially tun-
DAVID GERMANO 66
ing into radiant light, and thus are taught as emerging from these two
locations (where our internal radiant light is especially concentrated) . . .
In terms of corresponding meditative fruit, the manner of these
images manifestation indicates the sequencing in this practitioners
attainment of freedom. If both peaceful and wrathful images emerge,
when in dying the practitioners consciousness dissolves into the sky,
s/he becomes free right when this sky arises (original puritys natural
radiation), and thus is expansively awakened without passing through
the postdeath intermediate process of reality. Thus these practitioners are
included within the category of those who become freed within this very
life, since their freedom takes place in the latter portion of the process
during which they become separated from their current lifes physical
basis (i.e., death).
If the image of a peaceful Body emerges, as soon as this vision (i.e.,
of the sky) ceases, the self-presencing visions of radiant light will
dawn and the practitioner will become free in five contemplation-days.
Contemplation-days refers to contemplations stability, which can be
short or long depending upon the practitioner.
If the image of a wrathful Body emerges, after death the guiding
rope of the Adamantine Hero emerges from the practitioners eyes, and
as the self-presencing of sounds, lights, and rays manifests s/he will be
freed in five instants.
30
This is followed by a long discussion of how those freed within orig-
inal purity without passing through the postdeath intermediate process
cannot emit Emanational Bodies right then and there, though this ability
emerges subsequently as the grounds spontaneous dynamics reawaken
within the empty energy of enlightenment. This is opposed to those prac-
titioners who become freed within the postdeath intermediate process of
reality, who can emit emanations in the forms of the six types of living
beings following twenty-one days of contemplation, which is a direct con-
tinuation of the energy of his/her style of awakening:
The Adamantine Heros Heart-Mirror says: If the image of a
peaceful Body should manifest, after death as soon as this vision (i.e.,
of the sky) ceases, the practitioner gains stability, though s/he cannot
emit Emanational Bodies (sprul sku, Sanskrit nirma\naka\ya). If the
image of a wrathful Body should manifest, (the practitioner) gains sta-
bility right there, and is able to emit Bodies of Emanations in twenty-
one days.
The practitioner for whom a peaceful Body-image manifests
focuses on the path of radiant light, thus becoming directly free within
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 67
the site of original purity. In this way, the self-presencing emanations
dont emerge from the intermediate processsince this site of originary
purity is devoid of the emanations appearances, it is not a dimension
where the self-presencing emanations manifest from your own side.
However, since that dimension is the pure grounding potential of the
Enjoyment (longs, Sanskrit sambhoga) and Emanational Spiritual Bod-
ies which manifest to and for others (other-presencing), enlightened
activity for others welfare does eventually emerge in dependence upon
it. Even so it must be recognized that original purity in itself is devoid
of any manifest dimension of emanations.
31
When the practitioner for whom a wrathful Body-image manifests
frees him/herself through recognizing the triad of sounds, lights and rays
(of the postdeath reality intermediate process) as self-presencing, s/he
remains for a while in the manifestation of the spontaneously dynamic
ground-presencing, and thus completes twenty-one days of contempla-
tion. Subsequently the six types of living beings experiences manifest
through the impure gateway of self-presencing cyclic existence, while
through the pure gateway Emanational Bodies diffuse forth in forms cor-
responding to those requiring spiritual training, and thus efficaciously
act for others welfare. Like a magical illusion acting for illusory ends,
these self-presencing emanations efficaciously act within this self-pres-
encing world. Having emitted emanations, it is necessary that prior to
that you have already taken hold of freedom, since if you are not free
yourself there is no way any benefit to others can derive from a person
who has not perfected his/her own spiritual telos. These emanations are
explained as resembling shooting stars, and while they in fact endure
longer than that, are uncertain in duration.
Having erred as to this discussion of whether or not the freed prac-
titioner is able to emit emanations (in a self-presencing style rather than
other-presencing style), many fret over whether or not a Buddha is able
to act for others spiritual benefit following his/her expansive awaken-
ingthis is a major mistake. In the Great Vehicle (theg chen, Sanskrit
maha\ ya\ na), it is not believed that there are any Buddhas that once expan-
sively awakened dont or cant act for others benefit, and in fact that is
impossible. The significance of whether or not emanations can be emit-
ted is as follows: those who are freed directly within original purity with-
out pausing within the postdeath intermediate processs manifestation of
the gateways to spontaneous presence, lack emanations, since the impure
training fields of emanations dont manifest at this time. If, once the
gateways to spontaneous presence subsequently remanifest, the enlight-
ened ones didnt act for others welfare by means of emitting emanations
within these impure appearances, cyclic existences appearance would
DAVID GERMANO 68
not subside. Thus to perfectly complete the Buddhas activities which
were not perfected in self-presencing fashion (i.e., right out of the very
force of awakening, as opposed to subsequently emerging due to extrin-
sic considerations such as disciples needs), emanations are then dis-
patched by these newly enlightened ones. Having emptied out cyclic
existence through these emanations efficacious action, again these man-
ifest emanations proceed to the site of original purity as they dissolve
inside the eight gateways to spontaneous presence. Since this site of orig-
inal purity is beyond manifestation or non-manifestation, the individual
three Spiritual Bodies are not directly differentiated within it aside from
its being their pure source potential. Thus you should understand the way
in which once the ground-presencing dawns externally out of its dimen-
sion, the benefiting of others comes about.
32
BONES
Literally the honorific form of bone, gdung also signifies heritage or
lineage (the bone connection), or the remains of a dead person (since
bones survive the decay or burning of flesh and tissue). However, in addi-
tion to signifying bodily remains, in the present context it refers to tiny
luminous spheres filled with color found amidst the cremated remains of
a saint. The sense of heritage or descendants is present in the sense
that these derive from ones affinity with the individual Buddha families
and embody their energy. In addition they are the progeny or effect of
ones spiritual endeavors in this life, which culminates in a death that
gives birth to bones, earthquakes, and so forth, as well as the subsequent
limitless display of enlightened activity.
The term translated below as precious (relic) spheres (ring bsrel,
Sanskrit arra), often translated into English as relics, appears to have
two senses etymologically: multiplying long afterwards and to hold,
keep or revere for a long time. The former sense is connected to belief
that these spheres physically divide and multiply long after their initial
emergence, while the latter sense would appear to indicate that these are
items of enduring value. In colloquial Tibetan, the term is used to refer to
such minute spheres rather than the general bodily remains and is used
with the verb to descend or happen (babs). This distinction is the basis of
the story I cite above concerning how some Tibetan lamas were dismayed
by Western Buddhists claiming to possess precious relic spheres but in
fact having only bones.
The Blazing Relics Tantra classifies the bones, these tiny spheres
that emerge from the cremated remains of a saint, as fivefold in dependence
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 69
upon the five Buddha families (rigs). Correlating this to Longchenpas
discussion of Buddha-nature in The Treasury of Words and Meanings third
chapter with its emphasis on the five families, this again emphasizes how
these signs are simply the manifestation of indwelling forces signified as
Buddhas. The five are named with evidently Tibetan transmutations of
the standard Sanskrit term for relics, arra:
Shariram is the bones of the Blissful Ones family
And likewise Bariram
Is the bones of the adamantine family.
Churiram is the precious familys bones,
And seriram is the lotus familys.
Similarly Nyariram is the activity familys bones.
33
Longchenpa characterizes the tantras following detailed explanation
as indicating these bones individual colors, size, causal substance, and
locations. The specificity of bodily location echoes the very specific loca-
tions indicated for the mind, gnosis, Reality Body (dharmaka\ya), and
universal ground (a\laya) in the fourth chapter of The Treasury of Words
and Meanings. In addition to such detailed mapping out of the body
being a strong evocation of the physical inherence of the Buddha
within all life, it illustrates how the entire spectrum of philosophical
inquiries pursued elsewhere in abstract language is additionally thought
out through the detailed medium of the bodys interiorities and capacities.
From the same tantra:
(i) Shariram is a lucent white,
A lustrous sphere with shining color
The size of a single pea.
It ripens from the vibrant quintessence of bone
And thus condenses into a sphere,
Emerging from the head of one who has actualized the paths
meditative techniques.
(ii) Bariram is a dark blue
The size of a white mustard grain,
Or single small pea.
It is the concentration of warmths vibrant quintessence
And emerges from the space between the ribs,
O Da\kin!
DAVID GERMANO 70
(iii) Churiram is yellow in color,
The size of a mustard seed, and the vibrant quintessence of blood;
It emerges on top of the liver.
(iv) Seriram is a lucent red,
Also a mere mustard seed in size;
It is synthesized from the concentration of bodily elements,
And emerges from the kidneys of the fortunate one,
O Da\kin!
(v) Nyariram is an emerald green,
The size of a mustard seed with radiant color;
From the vibrant quintessence of cognition,
It emerges atop the lungs.
All of these are unified in a general spherical shape,
And have a depth-hue of the five colors.
34
Longchenpa characterizes these bones as indestructible and con-
trasts them to another type of minute sphere that emerges in the cremated
remains, which he labels precious (relic) spheres. These are liable to
destruction by the elements, and my own experience among contemporary
Tibetan communities is that while the former are extremely rare, these lat-
ter are a quite common phenomenon. Longchenpa interprets the latter as
a sign indicating the practitioner has found respite within a pure land of
emanations following death. He cites The Blazing Relics Tantra thus:
Similar to these bones
Are the subtle and fine precious (relic) spheres,
Which are a mere sesame seed or dust mote in size,
And are liable to destruction by the elements;
Their presence indicates the deceased practitioner has gone to the
pure land of emanations.
Bones in contrast cannot be destroyed by anyone at all,
And with this hardness impervious to all fear,
All these practitioners attain the fearless expansive awakening of
Buddhahood.
35
In prefacing the first citation in The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle,
Longchenpa again describes these as a manifestation of a primordially
present Buddha-nature inherent in all living beings. Thus these passages
on relics not only legitimize such rhetorical assertions, but also are them-
selves granted a philosophical significance:
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 71
Since in general all living beings are primordially expansively
awakened, the nature of the Buddhas five spiritual affinities is present
within them in both an individualized and non-individualized fashion.
However the affinity and sustaining life-force of their (particular) Bud-
dha-body is not ripened into the five bones and thus is only a latent pres-
ence. The attuned practitioner ripens them into direct manifestation by
training on the path of the radiant light nucleus, and by one of this quin-
tet (shariram and so on) thus emerging in your death, you will be freed
within your particular spiritual family.
36
In followup remarks
37
Longchenpa clarifies that the particular Buddha
family manifesting in a practitioners bones indicates that in the postdeath
intermediate process of reality the practitioner will see the Body corre-
sponding to his/her own spiritual family and thus become free as s/he is
enlightened within that Buddhas pure land. In this way, whether one type
of bone or all five types together manifest in a persons remains follow-
ing death, it is a sign indicating that the practitioner will become free as a
Buddha of that familial lineage in his/her vision of the five families man-
dalic cluster.
The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle indicates that the color corre-
spondences (based on these bones embodying the five Buddha families)
are for the peaceful bones, while the color correspondences for the
wrathful bones are given from The Self-Arisen Tantra as follows:
38
shariram is a lucent white, churiram is a black-blue, bariram is a burnt
yellow, nyariram is a dark purple, and panytsaram (corresponding to seri-
ram) is a dark red-green. He also cites
39
The Adamantine Heros Heart-
Mirror to the effect that the color blue corresponds to being perfectly
awakened within Illuminating Ones (Vairocana) pure realm, the color
white to that of the Adamantine Hero (Vajrasattva), the color yellow to
that of Precious Matrix (Ratnasambhava), the color red to that of Limit-
less Illumination (Amita\bha), and the color green to that of the Efficacious
One (Amoghasiddhi); multicolored bones signify proceeding to the site of
the five Spiritual Bodies spontaneous presence.
As to their respective sizes, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle
40
says that the shariram are the size of a mon pea (i.e., from the regions
south of central Tibet), which is equivalent to the size of a white pea. The
others are as big as a white mustard seed, or a small pea, and are lustrous,
condensed, and spherical. As for the causal impetuses described here,
The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle identifies these as relating to the
peaceful bones, while the wrathful bones are specified from The Self-
Arisen as deriving from the following quintessences:
41
shariram from the
DAVID GERMANO 72
gray matter of the skull, churiram from bloods vibrant quintessence, bari-
ram from the joints vibrant quintessence, nyariram from marrows
vibrant quintessence, and panytsaram from the bodys four elements
vibrant quintessence.
Finally, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle
42
says that with the
peaceful bones the deceased is free within the site of the spiritual family
ascertained to be his/her own particular manifestation, while with the
wrathful bones s/he obtains respectively the Reality Body, the Enjoyment
Body, the Emanational Body, the Body of Efficacious and Meaningful
Manifest Enlightenment, and the Body of Unchanging Adamantine Real-
ity. Thus in the latter list Longchenpa has correlated the five as given in
The Self-Arisen to the standard enumeration of five Spiritual BodiesThe
Self-Arisen specifies that with shariramyou obtain the unborn, with churi-
ram the efficacious and meaningful (also translatable as the Efficacious
One), with bariram the Enjoyment Body, with nyariram the Emanational
Body, and with panytsaram the adamantine reality itself.
The difference between the bones and precious (relic) spheres is
dealt with at length in The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle.
43
The precious
(relic) spheres are spherical and possess different combinations of the five
colors. As to their causal impetus, they emerge from the condensation of
the white and red quintessences and the vibrant quintessence of flesh,
bones, warmth, and breath, whereas the bones emerge from the utter
quintessence of these vibrant quintessences. As for the location where
they develop and emerge, it is between the bodys joints or between its
flesh and skin. As for the location of their ripening, since they exist in all
the bones, flesh, and skin, they subsequently emerge from all over. In par-
ticular there are four types: those emerging from the flesh, skin, and
bones; those emerging from the blood, lymph, and quintessence; those
emerging from warmth; and those emerging from breath. The correspond-
ing colors are white, red-yellow, red, and green-blue.
As for the fruit of the precious (relic) spheres, fortunate ones who
have meditated on the heart-essence teachings will find respite in the
pure land of natural emanations, while for others the effect is uncertain.
Some will be born in high rebirths, some will be born in miserable
rebirths, and so forth. This is because they can also manifest in ordinary
living beings, birds, dogs and other animals, evil people, and virtuous
teachers overly given to intellectual pursuits. The difference between
the precious (relic) spheres of an ordinary individual and those of a
Buddha is that the latter are extremely vibrant and clear, while the for-
mer are not, the latter possess the five lights, while the former lack
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 73
them, and the latter are the tree of enlightenment, while the former are
merely its leaf. Finally, if it is hoped that precious (relic) spheres will
be retrieved from a cremated body, then it is important not to overdo the
burningunlike bones, the precious (relic) spheres will be destroyed
by too much exposure to the heat.
LIGHTS
Light is at the heart of the Seminal Heart system. Adistinctive description
of odd shapes of light gradually forming into pure lands of Buddhas is at
the heart of its innovations in cosmogony, contemplative practices, and
postdeath theory. Thus the manifestation of various patterns of light as a
classic sign of saintly death is described in terms directly drawn from that
context. Longchenpa classifies lights into encircling walls, vertical pillars,
and horizontal beams in accordance with The Blazing Relics Tantra:
Light has three aspects:
For whomever light-walls of encircling hoops
Emerge in the wake of their cremation,
This person will attain the definitive fruit.
Within the first part of the postdeath intermediate process
Should pillars of light emerge,
Without the intermediate process manifesting, this person
Is expansively awakened into Buddhahood in an instant.
If the light manifests in horizontal beams,
At the end of the postdeath intermediate process
S/he will attain manifest enlightenment.
44
The Supreme Vehicle discusses light in terms of its essence, causal
impetus, divisions, and fruit:
Lights essence is the natural radiance of the five colors.
Its causal impetus: light is summoned forth at the time of passing
away (indicating both transcendence and death) through the conjunction
of the dyadic natural radiation deriving from the practitioners experien-
tial tuning into his/her internal vibrant elements and awareness.
As for its internal classifications, it can be seen as the triad of ver-
tical pillars, horizontal beams, and encircling hoops of light, or alterna-
tively this light is found in the manner of a staircase leading into the
sky, and in its arriving at the skys center it manifests as a luminous cir-
cular house.
DAVID GERMANO 74
As for the corresponding fruit it indicates, if the light emerges in
encircling hoops, you will be free in the first intermediate process. If it
emerges like vertical pillars leading you into the sky, you will be free
without proceeding through the intermediate process of reality by directly
passing to original purity. If it is beams of light, the practitioner will be
free during the final intermediate process. If staircases of light are found
around the deceaseds body, house, or crematoriums walls, in seven days
of contemplation s/he will become free in the four unified primordial
gnoses (a phase of the postdeath visions explained in the tenth chapter of
The Treasury of Words and Meanings). If the light emerges like a lumi-
nous house, s/he will be free in five days at the manifestation of clus-
ters of deities (also a phase in the postdeath visions). . . .
Here also when the grounds spontaneous presence manifests, the
enlightened one radiates forth emanations. In this external diffusion of
emanations from within its range for the benefit of sentient beings in the
worlds ten directions, their welfare is actualized by two forms of ema-
nation in the training environments (i.e., our impure worlds being
fields where living beings need, and may receive spiritual teach-
ings)emanations as self-presencing reflection-forms corresponding to
the six types of livings beings, and emanations as other-presencing (see
above) self-characterized concrete-forms corresponding to the six types
of living beings.
45
My translation emphasizes the architectural imagery of light in these
visions, terminology drawn straight from the traditions descriptions of a
visionary experience of light flowing from the internal divinity of the
Buddha-nature to gradually pervade the sky in the form of pure lands.
46
Longchenpas interpretation is explicit, describing the lights of a saintly
death as an exteriorization of inner divine light that echoes the explosion
of cosmogonic light as well as its manifestation in the contemplative prac-
tice of direct transcendence (see figure 3.2).
SOUNDS
The odd sounds marking a saintly death are interpreted in terms of the
Seminal Hearts distinctive and unusually strong concern for sound, evi-
dent in its core tantra, The Tantra of Unimpeded Sound, which intro-
duces motifs relating to sound not found elsewhere in esoteric Bud-
dhism.
47
Longchenpa divides these funerary sounds in accordance with
their particular direction and aural quality,
48
citing The Blazing Relics
Tantra as follows:
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 75
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If the sound is particularly resonant
In a spot near to the eastern direction
From the resting place where s/he has passed away,
This practitioner is of the adamantine family.
Likewise if in the southern direction,
The sound indicates a manifestation of the family of
preciousness,
While if in the west, it is thus the lotus family.
In the north, it is the family of action,
And similarly to the zenith (above) it is the family of the realized
(tatha\gata).
The nature of such sound is
That it can be distinguished as peaceful or wrathful
There is roaring and humming, a staccato of sharp jangling
sounds,
And a smooth flow of long mellifluous sounds respectively.
If the death is marked by such sounds,
It indicates the deceased has obtained the fruit
Of the Spiritual Body of Complete Enjoyment.
49
The Supreme Vehicle discusses sound in terms of its essence, divi-
sions, causal impetus, and fruit. In so doing it emphasizes the peaceful and
wrathful dualism so pervasive of the traditions iconography, in addition
to the fivefold Buddha family emphasized in the preceding. These also
directly echo the description of sound in direct transcendence and post-
mortem visions of internal Buddhas emerging out of the body:
Sounds essence is resonance in the auditory faculty. Though sound
can be classified into melodious, discordant, and neutral types, in this
context there is said to be two: the drum roll of the peaceful deities, a
long and smooth flowing sound, and the thunder clap of the wrathful
deities, fierce and short, which can also be expressed as humming and
roaring sounds respectively. As to its impetus, in general sounds cau-
sation is said to stem from the condition of two things striking against
each other in spaces openness, while here it emerges via the causal
impetus of obtaining meditative stability.
As for the fruit it indicates, the practitioner attains the Spiritual Body
of Enjoyment, and the diffusion of Emanational Bodies from within it.
Furthermore, by the long, smooth flowing humming the practitioner
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 77
attains stability regarding the peaceful Bodies in seven days of contem-
plation, while by the short and fierce staccato of roaring s/he is freed in
terms of the wrathful Bodies in fourteen days. The five spiritual families
apply to both of these (peaceful and wrathful), and the examination of the
characteristics indicating which of the five spiritual families the practi-
tioner becomes free in is as follows. If the sound resonates to the east of
the deceased practitioners residence or the place where his/her corpse
has been carried and cremated, s/he accomplishes expansive awakening
in the adamantine family; the south indicates the preciousness family; the
west indicates the lotus family; in the north the action family, and sound
emerging from above indicates the realized ones family.
50
EARTHQUAKES
The final sign of saintly death is the ancient motif of earthquakes (sa g.yo).
Since the term for earth is the same used in describing stages (sa, San-
skrit bhu\mi) of realization, it enables a word play: the earth quaking (g.yo)
marks the visionarys impelling (g.yo) him/herself to a new spiritual level.
Longchenpa thus interprets earthquakes in terms of very specific stages of
realization attained by the deceased. In The Treasury of Words and Mean-
ings, he simply cites The Blazing Relics Tantra:
The individual for whom earthquakes emerge
Obtains the spiritual level of a Listener
At the same time of his/her being divested of breath.
Likewise if in three days after death
The earthquake comes to pass,
S/he attains the level of a Self-Awakened One.
If it emerges in six days,
S/he enters the level of an Awakening Hero/ine (Sanskrit
bodhisattva).
O Da\kin!
Should the earthquake come to pass
In nine days,
S/he will be able to enjoy at his/her own pleasure
The status of the spiritually aware (rig dzin, Sanskrit
vidya\dhara).
For the one with the fortune of earthquakes appearing,
The fruit of expansive awakening will not manifest,
DAVID GERMANO 78
But rather s/he will continue for a long time to train in and remain
within
The spiritual levels and paths.
51
The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle discusses these earthquakes in
terms of their essence, causal impetus, internal classifications, and corre-
sponding fruit:
Its essence revolves around the lower foundation of the physical
environment, which supports and sustains living beings. Its causal impe-
tus is that the deceased individuals potency incites winds, which thus
cause the earth to quake. As to its internal classifications, there is the
quartet of an earthquake, an intense earthquake, an even greater earth-
quake, and a widespread major earthquake.
As to its corresponding fruits, earthquakes are a sign marking com-
mon people who belong to the family of Spiritual Heroes and so forth
52
and
die while training in the preliminaries (for direct transcendence contempla-
tion) though they havent seen the gateway of this (probably referring to
direct transcendence visions), or the life-transference (i.e., death) of those
involved in practices for the intellect wrapped up in objective references,
53
or even those ordinary individuals who wear liberation upon wearing
amulets with aspiration and diligence towards the spiritual paths.
54
Furthermore, if the earthquake occurs in the center of that area as
soon as the deceased is without breath, that practitioner attains the vision
of a Listeners white exalted level, and then continues to train in its
seven subsequent stageswith the stages of spiritual affinity, the
eighth, vision, diminishment, realizing completion, listener,
and self-awakened. These are the eight levels of the inferior path.
55
If the earthquake takes place from the eastern direction three days
after death, the practitioner has attained the level of a Self-Awakened
One, with its four successive stages of neophyte, once-returner, non-
returner, and vanquisher.
If the earthquake is in the south within six days, the practitioner has
gained the level of a Spiritual Hero. Herein are the ten causal spiritual
stages of Intense Joy, the Stainless, the Illuminating, the Radiant, the
Difficult to Refine, Coming to the Fore, Dispersion Far Away, the Unwa-
vering, Superior Wisdom, and Clouds of Spirituality, as well as the
eleventh fruitional stage of Universal Light.
If the earth should quake nine days after death from the zenith
together with a little sound, the practitioner has attained the stage of the
Spiritually Aware, which has the four stages of maturation, mastery of
life span, the great seal, and spontaneous presence.
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 79
Furthermore, since these individuals will not quickly attain their
respective definitive spiritual fruits, it is said that from this attainment of
the first in their particular succession of meditative stages up until they
successfully master those stages total perfection, these practitioners
remain a long time in the intervening period.
56
RELICS AND BUDDHA-NATURE
These accounts of relics must thus be understood within the traditions
own broader discursive architecture. Following The Seventeen Tantras,
Longchenpas Treasury of Words and Meanings uses a structure of eleven
adamantine topics to present the Seminal Hearts system. (1) A cos-
mogonic ground is presented as a primordial pure potentiality, which is
an absence brimming with possibility. It ceaselessly gives rise from its
interior self-contained potentiality to exteriorized actuality in the ground-
presencing, which is described in terms of traditional Buddhist represen-
tations of pure lands. Two paths open up in this process, the first of which
is the liberation of a primordial Buddha Samantabhadra upon self-recog-
nizing this process, involving dissolution of all structures. (2) The second
path is the process of straying and pollution as the distorted worlds of suf-
fering and alienation materialize out of that formless primordiality via a
lack of such self-recognition. This process is characterized by the fabrica-
tion of rigid laws and structures. (3) The grounds primordial purity and
virtual potentiality continue to pervade all living beings with its fivefold
dynamics as an enlightened nucleus or Buddha-nature.
(4) Longchenpa next turns to the location of primordial gnosis within
ones body/mind and its relationships to ones ordinary distorted psychic
activity. This consists of differentiating between two linked pairsthe
Buddhas Reality Body (chos sku, Sanskrit dharmaka\ya) and primordial
gnosis (ye shes, Sanskrit ja\na), in contrast to ordinary beings universal
ground (kun gzhi, Sanskrit a\laya) and mind (sems, Sanskrit citta). The
focus is on an ongoing fluid intelligence that constitutes, yet remains dis-
tinct from, ordinary existence. We thus have a psychological version of the
source-derivative opposed pair first presented cosmologically in the first
two topics. (5) The fifth topic is subtle body theory, that is, tantric physi-
ology presenting the pathways via which gnosis operates within ones own
body. This functions to internalize the pseudo-cosmogonic account of
topic one within ordinary experience and the human body.
(6) Four gnostic lamps are the operators enabling this inner gnosis to
manifest through the gateways of the practitioners eyes into the external
DAVID GERMANO 80
space surrounding him/her, where s/he can contemplatively tune into its
inner significance. The forms gnosis takes externally are pure lands. (7) This
concerns the objective sphere or expanse (dbyings, Sanskrit dha\ tu) in
which this gnostic energy exteriorizes itself and the key points of contem-
plation with regard to this expanse as well as the awareness or intelligence
(rig pa) that is an inherent quality of the expanse. (8) The eighth topic pre-
sents the specific contemplative techniques and systems that will ultimately
enable one to reexperience the primordial grounds and thus eradicate cor-
poreality and neurosis. These practices culminate in the spontaneous vision
of pure lands known as direct transcendence contemplation.
(9) This describes the various external and internal psycho-physical
and visionary signs that should be used as indicators informing ones
progress in deepening contemplative realization that stays on track toward
the goal of ultimate enlightenment, as well as a discussion of relics stem-
ming from the death of a saint. (10) This is an analysis of the phases in
dying and postdeath intermediate processes with an eye toward the spe-
cial opportunities they afford for spiritual enlightenment. (11) Finally,
Longchenpa discusses the nature of the activities and gnosis issuing
directly from the ground (i.e., a Buddha) as the ultimate climax of the
entire process.
While by just looking at its discussion in The Blazing Relics we could
doubt the centrality of this expanded notion of relics within the overall tra-
dition, its placement here dispels any such doubts. In fact contemporary
Nyingma lamas frequently stress that particularly striking examples of
relics or bodily based marks can only stem from the practice of direct tran-
scendence, a practice unique and central to the Seminal Heart. Following
the lengthy eighth chapter devoted to Seminal Heart contemplation,
Longchenpa turns to a discussion of the types of experiences and psycho-
physical effects or capacities generated by those procedures. The turn
toward issues of death at the chapters end then naturally leads into the
tenth chapter on postmortem intermediate process theory and praxis,
which is presented as being a supplement to the preceding two chapters
for those practitioners unable to bring their contemplation to fruition prior
to death. While the overarching term for the ninth chapter is thus literally
signs or marks (rtags), it simultaneously constitutes an expansion of
the notion of relics as the traces and signposts of spiritual realization.
The manifestation of the Buddhas indicators manifesting in the prac-
titioners body during this life and at death is intertwined with the systems
overall emphasis on Buddha-nature as the core of everyones physical
being (topic three). The pseudocosmogonic discussion of the ground and
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 81
its presencing (topic one) is an exteriorized dramatization of the Buddha-
natures unfolding, a process with the two interpretative pathways of
Samantabhadra and sentient beings (topic three). This is then relocated
within the self-structuring interiority of a distinctively human space in
the subtle body discourse (topic four to five), an interiority that thus func-
tions as the ultimate source of value and authority since the ground is
identified as the always potent Buddha. Given the strong emphasis on the
Buddha-nature as lifes ongoing source and ordinary psycho-physical
structures as its distortion, we could characterize the ordinary individual
as conventionally the relics or remains of the Buddha. In other words,
our lived bodies are both womb and tomb to the Buddha; they are the site
of both the pure lands and cyclic existences correlating to the environ-
ments set up by the Buddhas two types of absencethe divine absence
deriving from the Buddhas own retreat into the perpetual internally radi-
ant (nang gsal) creative absence (med pa) of the Reality Body and the
mundane absence deriving from the nonrecognition and latency of this
force in ordinary individuals.
Thus the third topics treatment of Buddha-nature concludes with an
extended reverie on the human body as a temple, that is, the living Bud-
dhas natural setting; one of the main images of topic one is the youth-
ful-body-within-a vase, evoking the still dynamic Buddha now
entombed within an obscuring funerary urn. Topics six through eight then
present the means by which ones relationships to this interiority and its
structuration can be reapproached. Two important themes running
throughout this are absence and pure lands. The Buddha is understood as
a continuing virtual presence with the moment of enlightenment (byang
chub, Sanskrit bodhi) being a full dissolution of all structure or manifest
actuality into the original purity (ka dag) of the internal expanse (nang
dbyings, Sanskrit dha\tu). Yet at the same time this absence that is at the
core also gives birth always to a culture, represented as the mandalic ret-
inues that constitute pure lands. In these contexts, the ninth topic of signs
or relics, is powerful evidence of this indwelling presence of the Buddha-
as-absence and the pure lands to which he inexorably gives rise. They
also function as signposts both to lead the practitioner into this evolving
new configuration of experience and relationships and to invest specific
Teachers with authority within these alternative pure cultures. The tenth
topic then explores in general the issue of reformulation that takes place
in crucial periods of breakdown and collapse, while the eleventh topic is
a meditation on the nature of the new pure land that comes into being as
a result of all the preceding.
DAVID GERMANO 82
It is of interest that the theme of the ultimate Buddha being a type of
cemetery in which sentient beings and Buddhas alike perish is a motif in
several of the tantras in their presentations of the view of the Great Per-
fection. For example, The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness:
I am the cemetery of all the Buddhas!
The cemetery grounds of the unchanging exists in me.
I am the locus of all sentient beings,
Where their karmic propensities appear in deceptive bodily
forms.
57
Subsequently:
The non-conceptual adamantine body itself
Emerges authentically also from your own body
The funerary grounds of the Buddhas are placed
Within sentient beings own bodies.
The yogi who understands this
Within the sky of pure consciousness,
Should take it into his/her experience with deepening attunemnt.
58
Finally:
I am the great cemetery,
The cemetery of all Buddhas and sentient beings!
All the Buddhas of the three times emerge
From my inspiring blessings.
59
The Great Esoteric Unwritten Tantra:
The esoteric emotional distortions are my magical displays,
Buddhas and sentient beings are my funerary grounds
I, the all creating, am a great intrinsically radiant manifestation.
60
The Tantra of the Lions Perfect Dynamism:
If you liberate the Buddha and dispatch him to the cemetary
For the sake of the manifestation of the three Enlightened Bodies
The realization of self-aware self-presencing will ensue. . . .
If you liberate all sentient beings simultaneously
In order to experience the dimension of insight,
All appearances become empty.
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 83
If you kill yourself
In order for compassion to be unceasing,
You will meet with the object of self-awareness.
61
The Garland of Precious Pearls Tantra:
Because it is adorned with the expanse of reality,
The gnostic body of all the Buddhas
Is the cemetary of all Buddhas and sentient beings.
62
All of these passages make a consistent association of the death of the
Buddha, and implicitly his relics, to the bodies of sentient beings. The pas-
sages are all embedded within classic Great Perfection rhetoric expousing
a negative theology of transcendence of formal structures and programs,
even classic Buddhist ones. The rhetoric is also marked by the tendency
in radical forms of tantra to claim that transgression can free the mind,
while extreme states of human being can also be the locus for extreme
realizations of truth, as well as the use of coded language. Finally the
rhetoric is marked by lengthy celebrations of I, with the divine speaker
essentially coterminous with realityI am the ancestor of all the Bud-
dhas!and thus at the center of all existence, transcendent of all con-
ventionalities, replete and omnipresent.
The significance of this motif is even clearer when we turn to
another passage in The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness, which devotes
its eighty-fifth chapter to the subject of how the Buddha leaves behind
supports (rten) for his Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind after
death.
63
All of the Buddha Youthful and Mighty Heros retinue together
petition him, asking what will be those supports after he passes into
nirvana. They ask for a detailed prophecy of events after his death, and
thus the chapter is presented as an account of this Buddhas legacy, his
enduring presence after his manifest absence. The support for his Body
is the triad of Bodies (images on bones), bones and precious (relic)
spheres, and he describes the fivefold nature of bones in detail.
64
The
support for his Mind is the inner luminosity he leaves behind in the tsitta
(i.e., subtle heart) of all living beings, while the support for his Speech
is the more traditional body of canonical teachings he leaves behind,
which culminate in the present tantra. He also says that his manifesta-
tions (snang ba) will be in the eyes of all living beings as the blazing
lamps one must gaze upon in direct transcendence praxis. While par-
tially a traditional account of the enduring presence of the Buddhas
body, speech, and mind as his postnirvana legacy, it also makes very
DAVID GERMANO 84
clear the intimate identification of the relics of the Buddha with the Bud-
dha-nature contained within our bodys interior.
This focus on the Buddha as an absence that is productive of presence
points to a valorization of the unarticulated other that underlies all articu-
lation of self, whether construed as focal modes of attention and the organ-
isms unconscious processes, community life and its organization, or the
hermeneutical play of reason and the principle of reason.
65
Thus concep-
tions of presence and absence are more complex than notions of true or
imagined presence mitigating actual absence. In the Seminal Heart
tradition, absence is instead seen as laced with intelligence (rig stong) and
profoundly active when one has the wisdom to leave it in itself as the in-
visible, without feeling compelled to replace it with real or imagined pres-
ence. In this way this indwelling absence gives rise to mandalically pat-
terned visual images that are its reflection (gdangs), which the visionary
can perceive in direct sensory immediacy (mngon sum); when listened to
instead of looked for, this absence emerges as the Buddhas Reality Body
without face or hands (zhal phyag med), which speaks in strange voices
yielding the literary equivalent of glimpsed pure lands. When one lets go
(cog zhag), the Buddha emerges as a radically active agent within the
womb/tomb of ones body, not a vague potential or the result of painstak-
ingly constructive activity. With the qualification that the stupa or relic
chamber has now become the human body, it echoes Schopens charac-
terization of the relic as a living presence animated and characterized by
the same qualities that animated and characterized the living Buddhas.
66
This is in fact the central dialectic of the Seminal Heart, between the invis-
ible ground and visible worlds of appearances, a dialectic imaged by the
Buddhas absence as invisible being in contrast to a visible present, the
Buddhas visionary coming to light (snang ba) within the field (dbyings)
opened up by contemplation in contrast to his ultimate dissolution back
into reality at the visions end. The ongoing tension between these oscil-
lating relations between the visible and invisible is mediated by the human
body, which in part explains the intense focus on physically locating every
key doctrinal facet: the universal ground within the aorta, the mind
between the lungs and heart; the relics in the kidneys, liver, and elsewhere;
the wrathful deities within the skull; or the ground-presencing within crys-
tal channels within the bodys center.
Since the body also has social meaning and significance, these con-
flicts over understanding of the body also inscribe cultural struggles, espe-
cially when the ultimate authority in Tibetan culture, the figure of the Bud-
dhas themselves, is what is at stake. Though this notion of indwelling
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 85
Buddha is all about absence and latency, paradoxically proof requires dis-
crete material things. Thus along with the stress on the apophatic discourse
of the ground, we find an emphasis on concrete signs of legitimization and
authority. In direct transcendence the pure land can be seen directly (mngon
gsum) with ones own two eyes naturally (rang bzhin gyis). Relics too offer
such physical evidence, from the letter A outlined in the tip of a nose to the
sparkling spheres found in the funerary ashes of a saint.
The discussion of relics is thus closely intertwined with the Buddha-
nature theory that forms the backbone of Seminal Heart thought. Through-
out the tradition we find this constant focus on the Buddha as an active
agent similar in general to the continuing conception in Indian Buddhism
of relics as a means of making the Buddha present again:
67
[T]he relics
are characterized byfull ofexactly the same spiritual forces and fac-
ulties that characterize, in fact constitute and animate, the living Bud-
dha . . . [;moreover,] the relic is not a part or piece of the departed Buddha
that is there in the chamber, but the Buddha himself who is wholly present
there. The literature stresses the literal living presence of the Buddha as
the premier active agent within all life, the spontaneous ground that gives
rise to all of samsara and nirvana. Not only does this agent well up as a
voice within refusing all efforts to quiet it, but physically it was believed
to continually imprint marks on saints very flesh and bones and to give
rise in death to small spheres, which would then continue to multiply in
living ferment long afterward. Thus this Buddha force can still shake one,
light up ones life, mark ones bones, surge up from withinearthquakes,
lights, bodies, bones, and relics.
PROVISIONAL CONCLUSIONS
I have tried to present systematically one of the most important Tibetan lit-
erary traditions with regard to classifications of relics. I have shown how
relics are treated within a broader topic of signs of contemplative practice,
as well as how they are integrated into the mainstream of a philosophical
system. The analysis and classifications of relics as powerful icons or liv-
ing presences are deeply contextualized within the tantric contemplations
and theories that form its matrix. Focusing exclusively on relics as linger-
ing physical influences or residues of a deceased saint, or even as making
present an absent Buddha/saint, can thus be misleading. The Seminal Heart
tradition suggests an alternative strategy complementing the desire to make
the Buddha(s) present again, namely, to preserve and value the otherness of
the Buddhas absence precisely as the ongoing source of renewed vision.
DAVID GERMANO 86
Important issues that I have not dealt with adequately at this point
include biographical discussions of how these groups were treating or
experiencing relics on the ground during this time period, as well as the
larger issue of material evidence for mysticism, around which a whole
cult formed in the Nyingma tradition with the treasure (gter ma) move-
ment. The latter involves such things as the omnipresent stone chests
(sgrom bu) from which visionary documents are revealed, which are sim-
ilar to stone relics containing the literary heart of saints. In addition, the
tradition is driven by very complex notions of the bodythe Buddhas
multiple bodies, subtle body discourse, embryogeny, and so onand
more nuanced consideration of relics in this light is necessary. Finally, I
have limited my treatment to the philosophical and contemplative mate-
rials, but the Seminal Heart also includes an extensive body of narrative
literature in which relics figure prominently.
68
This final body of literature
is particularly interesting in its discussion of disembodied forces called
the three sources of the teachings (bstan pai btsas gsum)essentially
a flying statue, book, and vajrawhich suggest that relics, statues, and
so forth are not just the legacy of the historical Buddha but are them-
selves originally generative forces that create Buddhas in their own right.
Thus it may well be that in some systems relics precede Buddhas, how-
ever paradoxical that may seem at first glance. However tentative my
conclusions may thus be, the paper has both sketched out an alternative
significance to relics and the Buddhas absence in an important Bud-
dhist tradition, and the importance of fleshing out seemingly discrete top-
ics within their broader literary contexts, even if such contexts remain at
present only the bare bones.
NOTES
1. See Yael Bentor, On the Indian Origins of the Tibetan Practice of Deposit-
ing Relics and Dha\ran s in Stu\pas and Images, Journal of the American Orien-
tal Society 115, no. 2 (1995): 24861; and idem, The Content of Stu\pas and
Images and the Indo-Tibetan Concept of Relics, forthcoming.
2. See the discussion in David Germano, The Funerary History of the Great
Perfection (rdzogs chen), in The Journal of the International Association for
Tibetan Studies (volume one, forthcoming, see www.jiats.org).
3. The All-Creating King (kun byed rgyal po), ch. 17, in Tk 1:65.766.6 (see
note 8 for the sigla). This is translated in E. K. Neumaier-Dargyay, The Sovereign
All-Creating Mindthe Motherly Buddha (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1992), 9899. The translation here is my own.
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 87
4. See a description of similar rhetorical strategies in Chan in Bernard Faure,
The Rhetoric of Immediacy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
5. Guenther interprets this dyad in terms of process and structure, though
he ultimately interprets gnosis in terms of process-structures. See Herbert
Guenther, From Reductionism to Creativity: rDzogs-chen and the New Sciences of
the Mind (Boston and Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989).
6. Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, 8795, and many other pas-
sages.
7. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings (tshig don mdzod)
(Gangtok, Sikkim: Sherab Gyaltsen and Khytense Labrang, 1983); and idem, The
Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle (theg mchod mdzod) (Gangtok, Sikkim: Sherab
Gyaltsen and Khytense Labrang, 1983). All further citations will refer to these
texts by the English titles for ease of reference by the nonspecialist.
8. The Seventeen Tantras (rgyud bcu bdun). These are located in most editions
of The Collected Tantras of the Ancients (rnying ma rgyud bum), a canon exist-
ing in different editions available at http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/collections/lit-
erature/ngb (in www.thdl.org). I use abbreviations in the citations to signify edi-
tions, followed by the volume and page numbers (i.e., Tk 4:4345):
1. Tk (gting skyes ed., Thimphu, Bhutan: Jamyang Khytense Rinpoche, 1973).
2. Tb (mtshams brag ed., Thimphu, Bhutan: National Library of Royal Gov-
ernment of Bhutan, 1982).
3. Ab (a dzom brug pa ed., New Delhi: Sanje Dorje, 1973).
9. The Tantra of the Sun and Moons Intimate Union (nyi ma dang zla ba kha
sbyor ba rgyud), in Tb 12:491560 and Ab 3:152233.
10. Karmalingpa (Kar ma gling pa), Liberation through Hearing in the Inter-
mediate State (Bar do thos grol) belongs to a larger cycle, The Profound Doctrine
of Wisdoms Natural Freedom (in Encountering) the Peaceful and Wrathful
Deities (zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol) (Delhi: Sherab Lama, 197576).
This has become well known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, such as
Karmalingpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, trans. Francesca Freemantle and
Chogyam Trungpa (Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 1987).
11. The Blazing Relics (sku gdung bar ba), in Ab 3:15151. Its three chapters
take place within a dramatic setting involving a dialogue between the Teacher
Vajra Holder (rdo re chang, Sanskrit Vajradhara) and a Da\kin.
12. As Martin indicates, this text deals with the particular issue of signs of
saintly death rather than the general classifications of relics per se. See Daniel
Martin, Crystals and Images from Bodies, Hearts and Tones from Fire: Points of
Relic Controversy from Tibetan History, in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the
5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, ed. Ihara Sho\ren
and Yamaguchi Zuiho\ (Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji, 1992), 184.
13. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 160.1.
DAVID GERMANO 88
14. Chapter 9 of Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings,
411437.4 corresponds to chapter 22 in Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme
Vehicle, 2:356.1399.1. The latter text is essentially an expansion of the former
text.
15. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 411.4424.3 and
427.6433.6.
16. Ibid., 424.3427.6.
17. Ibid., 433.6437.4.
18. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 790.5 and Ab 120.2. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:358.5.
19. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:357.4359.7.
20. Ibid., 2:358.2 ff.
21. Ibid., 2:361.47.
22. Ibid., 2:359.5 ff.
23. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 433.
24. The Tantra of the Adamantine Heros Heart-Mirror (rdo rje sems dpa sny-
ing gi me long gi rgyud), in Tb 12: 193245 and Ab 1:31588. This specific cita-
tion is in Tb 808.3 and Ab 142.4. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury of the
Supreme Vehicle, 2:383.2. This passage provides a general outline for the ensuing
discussion.
25. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 413.
26. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 238.5 and Ab 377.4. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:371.4.
27. I would agree with Martins characterization of Tibetan relic cults empha-
sizing the miraculous nature of some of the relics in and of themselves rather
than the wonder working power of the relics (see Dan Martin, Crystals and
Images, 183), though in many contexts this is definitely not the case. In the lat-
ter contexts, relics themselves become active agents working wonders.
28. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 808.7 and Ab 143.2. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:383.6 and 384.6.
29. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:383.3386.3.
30. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 478.6, for a
description of these five. This guiding rope is discussed subsequently as path
to the Adamantine Heros interior (464.1)in our present context the reference
is to the five-colored light-cord rather than the four-colored one.
31. Rather than the emanations being self-presencing out of the force of
enlightenments own dynamics, they are other presencing, impelled forth out of
empty potential by the needs and perspectives of others.
32. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:385.1386.3.
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 89
33. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 809.5 and Ab 144.1. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:386.6.
34. Ibid., Tb 810.3 and Ab 144.5. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury of
the Supreme Vehicle, 2:388.4.
35. Ibid., Tb 811.2 and Ab 145.5. It is cited by Longchenpa, The Treasury of
the Supreme Vehicle, 2:390.1.
36. The corresponding section on bones is in Longchenpa, The Treasury of
the Supreme Vehicle, 2:386390.2.
37. Ibid., 2:386.7387.2.
38. Ibid., 387.46.
39. Ibid., 387.2.
40. Ibid., 387.67.
41. Ibid., 388.13.
42. Ibid., 389.12.
43. Ibid., 389.2390.2.
44. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 811.6 and Ab 146.3. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:390.7.
45. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:390.2391.4.
46. Pillars literally means standing upright (i.e., vertical rays of light),
walls the circumference, though the term can refer to walls around a city,
and beams the corbels, or the ribs of a tent (i.e., horizontal rays of light).
These are discussed in detail within David Germano, Mysticism and Rhetoric in
the Great Perfection (forthcoming).
47. The Tantra of Unimpeded Sound (sgra thal gyur rgyud), Tb 12:1173 and
Ab1:1205. For an example of the tantras distinctive practices regarding sound,
see David Germano, The Elements, Insanity, and Lettered Subjectivity, in Reli-
gions of Tibet in Practice, ed. Donald Lopez (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1997), 31334.
48. Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 436.
49. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 812.2 and Ab 146.6. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:391.7.
50. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:391.4392.4.
51. The Blazing Relics Tantra, Tb 812.6 and Ab 147.4. It is cited by
Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle 2:393.4.
52. This evidently signifies those who have taken the bodhisattva vows, gen-
erated the altruistic desire for enlightenment, and so forth in their involvement
with the exoteric Mahayana teachings.
DAVID GERMANO 90
53. See Longchenpa, The Treasury of Words and Meanings, 313 ff, for a
description of these practices, which are subordinated to Seminal Heart practices
proper characterized as for those to whose intellects awareness is self-manifest.
54. These are amulets containing graphic representations of mandalas or scrip-
tures believed to have the potency to grant liberation merely by wearing, though
here faith is described as activating them.
55. These represent the standard list of eight levels or grounds of spiritual pro-
gression used to systematize the path of Hinayana, corresponding to the famous
ten stages of a bodhisattva in Mahayana.
56. Longchenpa, The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, 2:392.4393.7.
57. The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness (rig pa rang shar chen poi rgyud),
in Tb 11 323696 and Ab 1:389855. This specific citation is in ch. 34, Ab 546.
58. Ibid., ch. 51, Ab 640.
59. Ibid., ch. 78, Ab 785.
60. The Great Esoteric Unwritten Tantra (yi ge med pai gsang ba rgyud chen
po), in Tb 11:298322 and Ab 2:21544. This specific citation is in ch. 1, Ab 222.
61. The Tantra of the Lions Perfect Dynamism (seng ge rtsal rdzogs chen poi
rgyud), in Tb 12:560712 and Ab 2: 245415). This specific citation is in ch. 8,
Ab 346.
62. The Garland of Precious Pearls Tantra (mu tig rin po che phreng bai
rgyud), in Tb 12 30493 and Ab 2:417537. This specific citation is in ch. 4, Ab
436.
63. The Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness, ch. 85, in Tb 689.2693.4 and Ab
844.3849.2.
64. Ibid., 848.
65. See, for example, the chapter entitled Toward a Postmetaphysical Ratio-
nality in John Caputo, Radical Hermeneutics (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1987), 20935.
66. See Gregory Schopen, On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of
a Relic in the Inscriptions of Na\ga\rjunikonda, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 108, no. 4 (1988): 533.
67. Ibid., 532 and 535.
68. See my forthcoming Prophetic Histories of Buddhas, Da\kins, and Saints
in Tibet from Princeton University Press.
LIVING RELICS OF THE BUDDHA(S) IN TIBET 91
I HAVE ELSEWHERE EXAMINED THE ROLE PLAYED BY BUDDHIST RELICS
(arra, dha\tu) in the sectarian context of Chan/Zen and in the devotional
context of popular Buddhism. However, it now seems clear that I pre-
sumed a little too quickly that I knew what relics are.
1
Relics are by no
means simple objects, neither for the believer nor for the scholar. If at first
glance arra seem to be what remains of a body reduced to its simplest
form, the notion is in fact extremely complex and polyvalent; it is a bun-
dle of different elements and at the same time itself an element in a larger
bundle that includes a variety of regalia, of protagonists, and of levels of
discourse. One of these levels of discourse is the royal ideology, already
used by Buddhist rulers such as the Indian king Aoka and the Chinese
emperors Liang Wudi and Sui Wendi.
2
On the symbolic level, relics are
part of a broad semantic field and enter a variety of metonymic and
metaphoric associations. In particular, the definition of the arra as
pearl-like substance commanded its association with jewels and above
all with the wish-fulfilling jewel (cinta\mani).
3
On the pragmatic level,
relics served as an index for differential power and contributed to the
empowerment of specific social groups. For instance, the hair relic of the
Buddha is said to have insured victory in war to Prince Gopal.
4
In
medieval Japan, relics became the main object of worship (honzon) of
many esoteric rituals aimed at destroying the enemy.
I want to focus here on the role of relics and of the cinta\mani in the
political rivalries that divided Japan between the end of the Heian and the
beginning of the Muromachi periods. During this time, there were several
centers of more or less legitimate power: the ruling emperor (tenno\), the
regent (sessho\) during the Heian period, the cloistered emperor (in)
93
CHAPTER FOUR
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA
Bernard Faure
particularly during the so-called Insei or Cloistered Government period
(10871192) and during the Kenmu Restoration (13331336)and
finally, from the Kamakura period (11851333) onward, the sho\gun and
his bakufu.
5
Imperial attempts to wield power away from the bakufu
deserve special emphasis, because it is during the Insei and Kenmu peri-
ods that a new ruling ideology, merging Buddhist teachings and local
cults, came to be established. The relics of the Buddha played a major
role in this discourse, which was supported by the theory of the identity
of royal law and Buddhist Law (o\bo\ soku buppo\). However, the main
element of this new ideology centered on the enthronement ritual (sokui
kanjo\) was the emergence of an alternative to the relics as instruments of
legitimization, the so-called three regalia (sword, jewel, mirror).
After emerging as primus inter pares in the sixth century CE, the
Yamato clan was able to impose its leader as the legitimate ruler of Japan
(tenno\) and thus to monopolize power in the seventh and eighth centuries.
6
This political accomplishment was furthered by the compilation of two
chronicles, the Kojiki (712) and the Nihonshoki (or Nihongi, 720), whose
first parts deal with the mythical age of the gods. This official mythology
provided a divine legitimization for royal/imperial power. As Buddhism
became the dominant ideology, however, a new type of legitimacy became
necessary. Thus, between the Heian and the Muromachi periods (eighth
through fifteenth centuries), imperial legitimacy was redefined to encom-
pass both local and Buddhist foundational ideologies.
7
The essential sym-
bol in this system was a series of regalia, among which the arra of the
Buddha and other relics came to play a prominent role. What complicates
things, however, is that we do not have merely one center of power (and
therefore one such ideology) throughout the period(s) considered. In the
Heian period, while the emperors remained the ultimate source of sym-
bolic authority, the real power was coopted by the regents, usually mem-
bers of the Fujiwara clan. During the Insei era, retired emperors (in), using
the same technique, were able to assert an influence that they never had
while on the throne. But already at that time, they had to compete with
another source of power, the warriors of the Taira and Minamoto clans,
whose internecine fight precipitated the end of the Heian period. In the
following Kamakura period, the actual ruler of Japan was the sho\gun,
governing from Kamakura, but once again, with the Kenmu Restoration
(133336) and the subsequent Nanbokucho\ period, an emperor, Go-
Daigo, tried to reclaim power. In all these political fights, Buddhist sym-
bols of legitimacy came to play a central role. The medieval period is
indeed marked by a radical Buddhist reinterpretation of earlier imperial
BERNARD FAURE 94
mythology, an exegetic movement that extended, beyond Buddhist doc-
trine as such, to artistic and literary realms, delimiting a field of discourse
that has been labeled chu\sei Nihongi (medieval Nihongi) because it
took this text as its ultimate scriptural and metaphysical authority.
RELICS AND THE TENNO
|
The main effort of the imperial house was to establish the legitimacy of
the emperor by giving mythological and metaphysical weight to the three
regalia (jewel, sword, mirror), with the help of the Buddhist clergy. This
was not an easy task, as these regalia met with various kinds of disasters
(fire, theft, loss). Next to the regalia, however, and due to a metonymic
drift between the divine jewel (as one of the three regalia), the Buddhist
mani jewel (or cinta\mani, Japanese nyoi ho\ju), and the arra, the latter
also came to play a central role in imperial ritual. S:arra were distributed
to fifty sanctuaries at the beginning of each new reign, beginning with the
Usa Hachiman Shrine.
8
While they were seen at times as potentially sub-
verting the dominant insignia, the three regalia, they were also used to
reinforce imperial power. This imperial use was based in particular on the
rituals elaborated in the Ono branch of the Shingon school around the
relics brought by the priest Ku\kai (774835).
The cinta\mani and the arra on which the imperial house drew much
of its legitimacy had been allegedly transmitted by Ku\kai. The cinta\mani
was said to come from the na\ga palace, whereas the relics were those
transmitted to China by the Indian master Vajrabodhi (671741). How-
ever, Ku\kai is said to have received them from a monk appropriately
named Qinglong (Blue Dragon), a name that suggests a relation with (or
transmission from) the na\ga king.
9
Another of Ku\kais titles to glory,
closely related to this jewel, was the efficiency of his rain rituals, owing
in particular to his ability to summon the dragon Zennyo to Shinzenen
in 827.
10
Relics were also at the center of the rain rituals performed by
Ku\kais successors at Shinzenen. When these rituals did not succeed right
away, the officiating priest had to perform a dragon offering by wrap-
ping relics in a gold leaf and placing them in a small dragon figure made
out of miscanthus, which was then placed into a larger similar figure.
11
Thus, the success of the ritual was finally achieved by the symbolic return
of the relics/cinta\mani to the na\ga king.
It is not clear how many cinta\mani were used in Shingon. The tradi-
tion usually mentions two of them, but it could also mean two portions of
the same original cinta\mani. The Goyuigo\, an apocryphal testament of
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 95
Ku\kai, indicates that the arra of To\ji must not be dispersed because they
constitute the cinta\mani, but we are also told that Ku\kai himself deposited
the seven pearls of this cinta\mani in seven different places: To\koku (east-
ern Japan), Saikoku (western Japan), Inariyama, Ko\yasan, Ise, the Pre-
cious Repository or Treasure (ho\zo\) of Toba (i.e., Sho\ko\myo\-in), and
Ninnaji in Omuro (on the western outskirts of Kyoto).
12
Most of the time,
only two places are mentioned, To\ji and Muro\zan (alias Benichizan).
Relics were also used as the main object of worship (honzon) in the rain
rituals of Shinzenen, and they were secretly deposited in the dragon
hole of the central island of the pond.
13
They were perceived by Shingon
priests as saintly relics, which legitimized their religious prestige and
their ritual efficacy.
A recension of the Muro\zan goshari so\den engi, written toward the
beginning of the fourteenth century by an abbot of Sho\myo\ji in
Kanazawa, states that Ku\kai disseminated relics on Muro\zan.
14
Because of
this, Muro\zan became a very sacred place indeed, known precisely for its
rain rituals.
15
According to the Kojidan, Muro\s dragon hole (tatsu no
ana) was the dwelling place of the na\ga king Zentatsu. This na\ga king
originally dwelt in Saruzawa Pond (i.e., at Ko\fukuji, in Nara), but after a
maiden (otome) drowned herself in it, he moved to Ko\zan (Incense Moun-
tain, south of Kasuga). When a commoner (genin) in turn killed himself
there, Zentatsu moved back to Muro\zan. This legend shows the close rela-
tionships between Ko\fukuji, Kasuga Shrine, and Muro\zan. Although dif-
ferent in name, the na\ga king of Muro\zan is in essence identical with the
deity of Kasuga Shrine, also a dragon god.
16
The legend suggests the role
of the Fujiwara in promoting the site (and its dragon) to official status.
According to another tradition, the na\ga king who was at the center
of the ancient cult of the dragon-hole of Muro\zan was the same Zennyo
who came to dwell in the pond of Shinzenen. This tradition is somewhat
paradoxical in light of the fact that the founder of Muro\ji was said to be
the Hosso\ priest Shubin (var. Shu\en), the same person who was defeated
by Ku\kai in a ritual contest at Shinzenen.
17
At any rate, the story of the
na\ga king of Shinzenen is intimately connected with the cult of the
dragon hole of Muro\zan.
18
We are also told that, since the jewel of
Muro\zan is the body of the Buddha Dainichi (Sanskrit Maha\vairocana),
this place is none other than the original country of Dainichi (Dainichi
no honkoku, with the usual word play with Dai Nihon koku, Great Coun-
try of Japan).
19
The trace of the jewel (that is, of Dainichi) is the sun
goddess Amaterasu, and the jewel, which is also the source of the three
regalia, is guarded by all the gods and na\gas who protect the country.
BERNARD FAURE 96
According to the Benichizan ki: In Jambudvpa, the homeland
[honkoku] of Dainichi, in Yamato Province, Uda District, there is an
excellent place called Mount Benichi. It is also called Peak of Energy
(Sho\ji[n] no mine). This mountain is a sacred site unequalled in the whole
Empire. It is the first secret place of Japan.
20
Or again: Benichi is the
center of the country of Japan (Nihonkoku). This country has the form of
a one-pronged vajra. This moutain corresponds to the center of this
vajra.
21
The Benichizan ki gives a detailed description of the sacred
geography of this mountain, and in particular of its dragon hole. The na\ga
king is assimilated to Kurikara (Sk. Kulika), a manifestation of the Wis-
dom king Fudo\ as a dragon coiled around an erected sword. The dragon
hole was apparently an initiatic circuit symbolizing the stages of the
bodhisattva career, with several sets of relics (thirty-six grains in all) said
to belong to Ka\yapa, Maitreya, and S:a\kyamuni and to represent the
Three Bodies of the cosmic Buddha Maha\vairocana. The only person said
to have been able to enter this hole after Ku\kai was Ningai (9511046),
another Shingon priest known for his rain rituals and believed to be a rein-
carnation of Ku\kai. Others did try, but they were prevented by a storm
(that is, by the na\ga king).
22
One pearl of Ku\kais cinta\mani (or, according to one variant, one
grain of arra) had been deposited on Muro\zan (it was said to have been
thrown in the dragon hole or in the pond, in other words, returned to the
na\ga palace, from where it had come). Another was transmitted within the
To\ji lineage and kept in the Treasure House of that temple.
23
It was finally
given by the priest Hanjun (10381112) to the Cloistered Emperor Shira-
kawa. Before that time, the jewel was periodically taken to the imperial
palace to serve as honzon (main object of worship) for rituals aimed at the
prosperity of the reigning emperor. The distinction between the two jew-
els seems to reflect one between two levels of truth (ultimate and conven-
tional) or the two hierarchical aspects of the Chinese dynastic treasure
(bao), the two parts of the same tessera (fu): one jewel remains hidden on
the sacred mountain, the other is visible (at least by some) at To\ji, and is
part of a cycle of exchange between Shingon priests and the rulers.
24
This
complementarity also reflects a tension between two modalities of the
relics: as a fixed presence defining a sacred site, ultimate (and often invis-
ible) goal of pilgrimage, or as a circulating token of salvation, dissemi-
nating the sacred presence among growing networks of believers.
Benichizan was also perceived as the abode of Maitreya, just like
Ko\yasan, the other sacred site of Shingon, whose spiritual center, the Oku
no in, was another crypt identified with the Inner Court of Tusita Heaven.
25
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 97
Yet another ritual center was the imperial palace itself. During the
Heian period, the imperial house was ritually protected by high priests
(gojiso\) belonging to the two esoteric schools of To\mitsu (Shingon) and
Taimitsu (Tendai). The main duty of these spiritual bodyguards was to
watch over the jade body, that is, the body of the emperor, and thus over
the prosperity of the imperial house and of the state. Even after the Heian
period, when Shinto\ rites came to be more strictly separated from Bud-
dhist rites, the imperial cult remained dependent on such monks. These
protecting monks performed every night their rites in front of an icon of
the bodhisattva Kannon (honji of the sun goddess Amaterasu), in a small
room adjacent to the emperors bedroom in the inner palace (Seiryo\den),
the Futama.
26
These rites show clearly the relation between mikkyo\ and
sacred kingship, and from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries, many oral
traditions developed in Shingon about them. The Shichiko hiketsu, for
instance, describes a seven-day ritual during which an abbot of To\ji
entered the Seiryo\den and performed rites in front of the emperor. These
rites consisted essentially in a visualization of the cinta\mani of Muro\zan,
and its honzon was the relics stored by Ku\kai in the Treasure House of
To\ji. There were originally eighty grains, but their number came to vary
considerably, according to the belief that When the empire prospers, they
fragment and their number increases. When the country declines, their
number decreases.
27
During this week-long ritual the officiating priest
had to count the relics, a task that became quite difficult as their number
increased, reaching over four thousand grains toward the mid-Heian.
28
The tenno\s control over the relics took two complementary forms:
either the form of a ritual performed by his protecting monks, and cen-
tered on the relics or the cinta\mani, or the display of his property rights
through a request that the relics of various temples be brought to the
palace and inventoried by him. In the latter case, much of the symbolism
was inherited from the monstration of the regalia of the Fujiwara in
the Treasure House of Uji, to which we will return. The relics of To\ji,
whose number tended to increase with time, were periodically brought to
the palace by imperial order, to be officially counted there, and tags
indicating their number were pasted on each bottle. We have a document
related to this, the To\ji busshari kankei ki.
29
The first mention of a num-
bering goes back to 950, and it marks the beginning of the custom of
requesting the relics, during which the ruling emperor or the Cloistered
Emperor were given a few grains. The distribution was entrusted to the
abbot (cho\ja) of To\ji and to selected officials. This ceremony took place
either in the palace or in the Seiryo\den, until a theft of relics in 1216
BERNARD FAURE 98
caused it to be held at To\ji. For three centuries, such ceremonies took
place repeatedly, and their frequency, as well as the number of relic grains,
increased considerably in the fourteenth century due to civil war.
At the beginning of the Kamakura period, after the tragic loss of one
of the regalia (the sword) during the battle of Dan-no-ura (1185), several
attempts were made to regild the imperial blason (and Fujiwara prestige)
by finding new sources of legitimacy and redefining the symbolism of the
enthronement ritual. One of the most significant attempts was made by
the Tendai prelate Jien, himself a Fujiwara. In his Jichin wajo\ muso\ ki,
Jien comments on a dream that he had in 1203. This dream has drawn a
lot of scholarly attention recently, so I shall give its outline here.
30
It is
centered on a vision of the three regalia (the sword, the jewel, and the
mirror). Jien had the intuition that the sword represents the kings body,
and the jewel (or the swords sheath) that of the jade-woman, that is, of
the kings consort. In Buddhist terms, it is the union of the esoteric fig-
ures Butsugen Butsumo and Ichiji Kinrin. The outcome of this union is
the divine mirror, symbol of the sun goddess Amaterasu and ultimate
source of royal power. Jien offered the Muso\ ki to Emperor Go-Toba, to
emphasize the interdependence between kingship (o\bo\) and Buddhism
(buppo\). Scholars have discussed the sexual connotations of the term
jade woman, a term with a long history in China. In Japan, the jade
woman becomes metaphorically associated with the divine jewel, and
more precisely the cinta\mani, the samaya or convention form of
Nyoirin Kannon. Moreover, Ichiji Kinrin, perceived in Tendai as an ema-
nation of Sanno\ Gongen, the tutelary god of Hieizan, came to be associ-
ated with the arra.
31
In the Sanbo\ ekotoba (984) by Minamoto Tamenori, we find an inter-
esting example of the relations among the jewel, the jade woman, and
imperial power. It is a legend taken from Xuanzangs Record of a Journey
to the West (Da Tang Xiyou ji): in order to improve the life of his people,
a prince goes to the palace of the dragon king to get the magic jewel. He
first meets a jade woman who is keeping the palace gates, then the dragon-
king himself. In the Xiyou ji this jade woman is a dragon-woman, that
is, the daughter of the dragon king who keeps the cinta\mani.
32
The jewel
is said to be a transformed relic of the ancient Buddha. The kernel of this
story has the same structure as the legends of visits to the palace of the sea
king in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki: during his visit to the dragon
palace, Hohodemi no mikoto marries Toyotamahime and receives from
her two jewels that control the tides. This story suggests that the jade
woman and Toyotamahime are functionally similar.
33
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 99
The sexual connotations of the arra, expressed in Jiens dream, find
another expression in the architectural symbolism of So\ji-in on Hieizan,
where relic worship took place every year. The ritual was performed at a
nondual stu\pa erected between two halls, the Shijo\ko\-do\ (Hall of Blazing
Lights) and the Butsugen-do\ (Hall of Butsugen), which symbolize Ichiji
Kinrin and Butsugen Butsumo. The cinta\mani at the center of this ritual
was the one allegedly offered to the priest Saicho\ (767822) by Narutaki
Myo\jin, the deity of Narutaki (Pure Waterfall), an episode reminiscent
of the offering of the na\ga girl to the Buddha.
34
The anchin (Pacification)
and shijo\ko\ (Burning Lights) rituals were major Tendai rituals influenced
by yin-yang cosmology (onmyo\do\). In other words, the stupa between the
two buildings symbolizes the result of the union of the two polar opposites
(the two buildings, the two rituals, the Womb and Vajra mandalas, the king
and his consortas jade woman).
RELICS AND THE REGENTS
According to the preface of the Uji shu\i monogatari, the rite of opening of
the gates of the Uji Treasure House, which took place on the second day
of the second month of each year, was reserved to the Fujiwara leaders.
This Treasure House (ho\zo\), built in 1069, contained the regalia of the
Fujiwara, as well as sutras and statues. Gradually, the Treasure House
itself came to be seen as charged with the same aura of sacredness as its
treasures. The ritual act of opening it, known as Entering Uji (Uji-iri),
became for the Fujiwara a ceremonial expression of power. At the basis of
this rite, we find the idea that the ho\zo\ and its content magically protected
the Regents House (Sekkanke). However, the treasures mentioned in leg-
ends about Uji, for instance, the head of the demon Shu\ten Do\ji, no longer
have anything to do with those mentioned in diaries and other such docu-
mentswhich include music instruments, texts, icons, and not surpris-
ingly, a number of arra.
Uji was a burial site for the Fujiwara clan, and the Byo\do\in came to
serve as a focal point for funerary cults. The ho\zo\, where the Uji enter-
ing ceremony took place, was thus intimately related to the power of the
Sekkanke. In the Keiran shu\yo\ shu\, this power is symbolized by the leg-
end of Yorimichis apotheosis as a dragon. Yorimichi lived at the end of
the Fujiwara rule, and it seems that the dragon Yorimichi was per-
ceived as the ancestral spirit of the regent line, whose function was to
protect the Treasure House and its contents.
35
This Uji entering ritual,
performed at a time when the power of the Sekkanke was already wan-
BERNARD FAURE 100
ing, was apparently an attempt to restore Fujiwara prestige by capitaliz-
ing not only on the fame of the historical Yorimichi but also on the fear
inspired by his imaginary, reptilian double. The source of the prestige of
the ho\zo\ was now sought in the dragon who protected it, rather than in
its precious content. This is probably also related to the fact that Uji had
long been a cultic center for water deities. Indeed, the association
between dragons and the Uji River did not begin with Yorimichis leg-
end. The Treasure House of Byo\do\in inherited from the na\ga palace
motif its power to imbue hidden treasures with sacrality. However, these
treasures also had intrinsic sacredness.
Among the symbolically significant objects of the na\ga palace were
the arra and/or the cinta\mani, icons and precious musical instruments.
Not surprisingly, similar objects were preserved in the Treasure House of
Uji. The Byo\do\in gokyo\zo\ mokuroku lists the relics of the Buddha brought
by Ku\kai and Ennin, as well as by the Chinese monk Ganjin. In the
Gyokuyo\, the inventory made in 1187 (Bunji 3/ 8/21) records sixty-nine
grains of Buddha relics. Although the cinta\mani is not explicitly men-
tioned, we know that the samaya form of Aizen Myo\o\, the honzon of the
Treasure House of Byo\do\in, is precisely a cinta\mani. There was indeed
such a jewel in Uji. According to the Hyakurensho\, when the new
emperor, Shirakawa, in response to a dream, went on pilgrimage to Uji in
1072 (Enkyu\ 4/10/26), Yorimichi offered him this cinta\mani. In the
Byo\do\in gokyo\zo\ mokuroku, we are told that the regent (kanpaku), after
worshipping the relics and Aizen Myo\o\, opened the Treasure House from
time to time to consult its inventory and to admire its treasures. In the
Gyokuyo\, Kanezane himself is described as performing the ceremony in
1187 and rejoicing over the miraculous increase in number of the arra
grains. This ceremony showed the prestige of the Sekkanke and confirmed
its legitimacy. In the background, we find the same conception as that in
the Aizen ritual, namely, the symbolic identity of the relics, the cinta\mani,
and Aizen Myo\o\.
RELICS AND CLOISTERED EMPERORS
Although the logic of legitimacy at work through the relics was already
present in the cases of the emperor and of the Fujiwara regents, it is only
with the cloistered emperors of the Insei period that the arra become the
object of a hagiographical discourse centered on the question of royal
power. After the long dominance of the Fujiwara regents, new myths were
needed to legitimize the shift to the Insei rule. The emphasis on arra
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 101
reflected an attempt by the cloistered emperors at finding a basis for their
own royal power with new regalia that would counterweigh the three
regalia held by the tenno\. Shirakawa-in, in particular, was associated with
many secret rites of Shingon centered on the arra and the cinta\mani,
which promoted the alliance of the Buddha Law and the kingly law.
36
Behind such rites, we find Shingon priests, in particular members of the
Ono branch. The relics used in these ceremonies were identified with the
three jewels brought to Japan by Ku\kai.
The jewel transmitted at To\ji was said to be the convention (samaya)
form of Aizen Myo\o\, the honzon of the Circular Hall of Ho\ssho\ji, a
monastery closely connected with the Insei rule.
37
This jewel thus consti-
tuted a bridge between the royal law of the cloistered emperor and the
Buddha Dharma. In the background of several records of relic transmis-
sion, where Shirakawa-ins name often recurs, we find the Shingon theory
of the identity between arra and cinta\mani.
38
The symbolic prestige of the cloistered emperor depended largely on
the wealth (real and imagined) and the perceived sacredness of his Trea-
sure House, the Sho\ko\myo\-in. This Treasure House, built in 1136 after the
model of the Byo\do\-in, was more than an architectural symbol: it signifi-
cantly contributed to the transfer of power from the Sekkanke to the clois-
tered emperor. By the periodical inventory of his Treasure House and the
transfer of precious objects from Byo\do\-in to Sho\ko\myo\-in, the cloistered
emperor Shirakawa reasserted the relations between the sacrality of the
Treasure House and the sacred kingship of its owner.
The relics contained in the Treasure House protected not only their
owner but also the country of which he was the de facto ruler. They were
therefore indispensable to the ruler or to a would-be ruler. Although they
provided the ideal legitimacy for medieval kingship, this legitimacy was
to a large extent controlled by an external authority, the Buddhist clergy.
It is only as a representative of the Buddha that the ruler was entitled to
possess the latters relics, which became the source and guarantee of his
Buddhist and divine mandate.
The medieval conception of the relics provides a convenient index to
relations of power. Among the people who transmitted relics, we find fig-
ures known as protectors of the imperial house, such as Shirakawa-in
and Taira no Kiyomori. The destinies of these two men were connected,
not only through marital alliances but also through the transmission of
relics. This transmission in particular can be read as an expression of the
new form of power that begins with Shirakawa-in in 1096.
39
By linking
ancient myths about royal power and the cult of relics that develops
BERNARD FAURE 102
around that time, a new ideology exalting the cloistered emperor was con-
stituted. Indeed, the arra contributed to the legitimacy of the cloistered
emperor in the same way as the three regalia did for the tenno\.
The cloistered emperor derived legimacy from the possession of the
Chinese relics of the Buddha (by opposition to relics in direct prove-
nance from the na\ga palace). For instance, according to the Goshari so\den
shidai, the arra obtained by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang from a
Southern Indian monk were transmitted to Japan by the Tendai priest
Gishin (780833), before eventually reaching Emperor Shirakawa in
1092.
40
When the latter performed a ceremony with three hundred arra
grains, a miracle is said to have taken place, and one hundred grains were
deposited at Uji, as well as at Rengeo\-in in Rokuhara.
Shirakawa-in also claimed to possess the heavenly tooth relic trans-
mitted by the Chinese priest Daoxuan (596667). The Kyo\shi Ho\onji
butsuga shari engi, for instance, says that the tooth of the Buddha pre-
served at Jo\ju\ji (in Kyoto) came from Daoxuan, who had received it from
the god Nazha (Sanskrit Nada), the son of the Deva-King Viru\pa\ksa.
41
After being eventually transmitted to Shirakawa-in, it passed into the
hands of the Gion Consort, of the cloistered emperor Toba, and of several
former imperial consorts who had become nuns at Hokkeji in Nara, before
coming into the possession of the Ritsu priest Eizon (12011290).
42
Other documents show an attempt at synthesizing the two traditions
concerning the provenance of the relics in the possession of Shirakawa-
inthat of the Chinese relics and that of the relics obtained directly from
the na\ga palace. The Busshari so\jo\ shidai states that the cloistered
emperor had two thousand arra grains coming from Mt. Ayuwang and
from Yanta shan (Goose Stu\pa Mountain) in China, but there seems to be
no other record of this. Another document, the Ga shari bunpu hachiryu\
of Raiganji, agrees in part with the Busshari so\jo\ shidai and describes the
transfer of Kiyomoris relics to the Kannonbo\.
43
We learn that the relics of
Raiganji were the property of a dragon king, whose palace was at the bot-
tom of the Nunobiki waterfall in Settsu\. In all cases, the relics come from
the outsideand in the case of the palace of the dragon king, we find an
echo of the myth of Hoori no mikoto and the daughters of the sea king in
classical Japanese mythology.
44
Court ladies seem to have played a significant role in the transmission
of the relics.
45
Although Shirakawa-in supposedly gave relics to the Gion
Consort, Toba-in had to get them from Taira no Kiyomori. This implies
that they had been transmitted by the Gion Consort to Kiyomori, as
claimed precisely by the Busshari so\jo\ shidai. According to this text, the
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 103
transmission from the cloistered emperor to the Gion Consort took place
at the time of Shirakawa-ins death. Whatever the truth of this, it is clear
that this unusual consort was seen to be closely related to the arra
and/or the cinta\mani. The cinta\mani in question was that of Ku\kai, trans-
mitted in the Ono branch of Shingon. Why did this line thus extend to the
Gion Consort, and how did she come to be entrusted with such important
symbols? Tanaka Takako points out that this imperial concubine
remained an empress without rank nor diadem and that it is therefore
unlikely that she received the emblem of kingship for herself. According
to Tanaka, the mention of the Gion Consort and of her sister in the
Busshari so\jo\ shidai has to do with their role as female mediums (miko),
which triggered a symbolic association with the sea kings daughters,
Toyotamahime and Tamayorihime, and with ancient legends about jewel
transmission. The two mythological sisters played an important role in
the birth of the imperial lineage, and their image was deeply rooted in
medieval imagination. Like them, the Gion Consort and her sister merely
served as intermediaries in the transmission of male power.
46
The younger
sister of the Gion Consort was married to Taira no Tadamori
(10961153), and she gave birth to Kiyomori (11181181), who accord-
ing to a tradition was Shirakawa-ins own son. The Gion Consort brought
up Kiyomori as her own child, just as, in the Kojiki, the child of Hoori no
mikoto and Toyotamahime was raised by the latters younger sister,
Tamayorihime.
47
In this way, Kiyomori saw his authority established as
leader of the Taira clan. The identification of Shirakawa-in with the
dragon king, ruler of the sea world, underscored that, through the inter-
mediary of the Gion Consort, not only his royal blood, but his regalia as
well, the arra, that is, the Buddhist version of the jewel of the na\ga
palace, were transmitted to Kiyomori. Thus, texts such as the Busshari
so\jo\ shidai tried to reconstruct for medieval kingship a mythological dis-
course similar to that of the emergence of ancient kingship, centered on
the jewels. It produces an account of the origins of the Insei rule, a new
form of royal power that began with Shirakawa-in.
After Shirakawa-in, the relics were no longer transmitted through a
single line. Through their dissemination, all kinds of ties between various
people were created, beginning with the transmission from the Gion Con-
sort to Taira no Kiyomori. According to an inventory of Sho\ko\myo\-in, at
the time of Minamoto no Yoshitsunes rebellion against imperial rule
(118485), Go-Shirakawa-in gave his cinta\mani to the Daigoji priest
Sho\ken and asked him to perform rituals on his behalf. After the fall of the
cloistered emperor, Sho\ken kept the jewel. Thus, in 1192, Fujiwara no
Muneyori was sent to the residence of the abbot with a request that the
BERNARD FAURE 104
jewel be returned to the palace. We recall that one of the two jewels made
by Ku\kai with the relics was deposited on Muro\zan, while the other was
transmitted at To\ji and eventually offered by Hanjun to Shirakawa-in.
48
This jewel is said to have been inserted into an icon of Aizen Myo\o\, the
honzon of the Circular Hall of Hossho\ji. However, our source mentions
another jewel, of obscure origin. It was also offered by Hanjun to Shira-
kawa-in, and Toba-in then gave it to one of his ministers. After the latters
death it was returned to Sho\ko\myo\-in.
49
As noted above, after Kiyomori, the structure of the lineage given in
the Busshari so\jo\ shidai text changes significantly: it is no longer a trans-
mission within the imperial family nor the prerogative of To\ji priests. It
passes into the hands of the Ritsu monks and nuns (at Saidaiji and
Hokkeji in Nara). By the same token, the function of these relics and of
their transmission line also changes. It is no longer centered on the secret
rite of the dha\tu (Japanese dato, another name for relics), as it was per-
formed in the Ono branch of Shingon. It is a transmission centered on
Hokkeji, a nunnery affiliated with Saidaiji, in which many former court
ladies had taken their monastic vows.
50
The nuns of Hokkeji served as
female mediums (miko), delivering oracles through rituals centered on
the cinta\mani.
51
Thus, whereas the sectarian lineage of transmission of
the relics, in the Ono branch, had become that of the imperial lineage,
conversely, we have here a lineage of relic transmission that begins as an
imperial lineage and ends up as a sectarian (Ritsu) lineage (from Clois-
tered Emperor Shirakawa and Kiyomori to Eizon, through the court lady
Takakura). A document of Raiganji also claims that the tooth possessed
by this temple and that had been transmitted by Kiyomori, came origi-
nally from the na\ga palace.
52
It should be clear by now that the relics and the cinta\mani constituted
for the cloistered emperors an emblem of legitimacy similar to the three
regalia for the tenno\. If they became so important, it is also because they
solved a problem that the transmission of Buddhist regalia such as the
ka\sa\ya (monastic robe) or the three imperial regalia left unresolved: that
of the dissemination of power. Through fragmentation the relic could be
multiplied and create a network of dependents, in particular women.
The relics offered by the cloistered emperors and distributed to minis-
ters and imperial consorts, and to influential mikkyo\ monks and wander-
ing fund raisers (kanjin hijiri), reflected (or produced) the cloistered
emperors prestige, and they came to symbolize medieval kingship. On the
one hand, relics could not simply be thesaurised if power was to circulate
between the various levels of the imperial system. On the other hand, their
dissemination, by creating a kind of commodity fetishism, led to their
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 105
devaluation. By being exposed to the light of day, they lost their aura of
mystery and saw their power eclipsed. By becoming available as spiritual
currency, they saw their symbolical value eroded.
RELICS AND THE SHO
\
GUN
Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, the clan chiefs whose
rivalry would cause the decline of imperial power at the end of the Heian
period, both secretly worshipped relics from Mt. Ayuwang. In this, they
were influenced by eminent Zen monks such as Myo\an Eisai (11411215)
and Dainichi No\nin (d.u.). Despite his violent criticism against Dainichi
No\nin, the founder of the rival Darumashu\ (Bodhidharma School), Eisai
shared with him a deep interest in relics and in the tradition of Mt.
Ayuwang. In his Ko\zen gokokuron, he mentions the miracles caused by the
relic of the Ayuwang monastery.
53
The Darumashu\ lineage was centered on
the transmission of the relics of the six Chan patriarchs and of the Bodhi-
sattva Samantabhadra (Japanese Fugen).
54
A document concerning these
relics, dated 1460, reports that No\nin, after ascending in a dream to Tusita
Heaven, also received from Maitreya a relic of the Buddha.
55
The struc-
tural equivalence between Tusita Heaven and the na\ga palace is striking.
56
Although he never became sho\gun, Kiyomori skillfully used the relics
and the cinta\mani to enhance his prestige. At the background of the the-
ory concerning the transmission of the relics from Shirakawa to Kiyomori
through the Gion Consort, a theory which can be seen as supporting Kiyo-
moris usurpation, we find the tradition that makes him an illegitimate
child of Shirakawa. Eventually, however, Kiyomori was to fail in his
attempt to found a new dynasty, and all the members of the Taira clan were
to be reborn in the na\ga palace, where the sacred sword had returned after
their defeat. They continued, in a way, to watch over the imperial regalia
in their Treasure House, now under water. This vision of the imperial con-
sort Kenreimonin, described by the Heike monogatari, is an ambivalent
one, merging the sufferings of rebirth in an animal destiny with the glories
of the na\ga palace.
57
After Kiyomoris death and the Genpei war that ensued, Yoritomo
assumed full power as sho\gun. From that time onward, the real center of
power shifted to the bakufu government in Kamakura. During the
Kamakura period, other ceremonies focused on the relics brought back by
the monk Eisai.
58
According to the Butsuga shariki (Chronicle of the Relic
of the Tooth of the Buddha), the third sho\gun Minamoto no Sanetomo
(11931219) also received the tooth of the Buddha from the Chinese
monastery Nengrensi (No\ninji). He deposited it in turn in a monastery,
BERNARD FAURE 106
Daijiji, built for the occasion, and for which he ordered the celebration of
an annual ceremony.
59
This story deserves closer scrutiny: it was as the
result of a dream that Sanetomo came to take a great interest in this relic.
In the dream, he had gone to China, to a Chinese monastery that turned
out to be Nengrensi, and heard there a sermon from a priest who, he was
told, was the Vinaya master Daoxuan (596667). When he expressed his
surprise that Daoxuan had already been dead a long time, he heard the
reply that holy men transcend time and space. This is how Daoxuan had
been able to be reborn in Japan under the name of Sanetomo. After he
woke up, the sho\guns puzzlement grew all the greater when he learned
that two prominent Kamakura monks, Ryo\shin and Senko\, had had the
same dream. He then decided to send an envoy to China to ask the Nengrensi
monks for the tooth. The monks of this monastery, apparently convinced
by his dream (and by the substantial gifts offered by the Japanese delega-
tion) finally agreed to part (temporarily, they seem to have believed) from
their relic. First deposited at Daijiji, the tooth was transferred in 1285 to
Engakuji in Kamakura, to contribute to the prosperity of the state. A relic
assembly was held every year on the fifteenth of the tenth month. The text
adds that, although Emperor Go-Daigo wanted to worship the relic, he did
not, because it was perceived as the protector of Kamakura (that is, of the
sho\gun). Then, an emperor of the brief northern dynasty, Go-Ko\gon (r.
13531371) ordered the Zen master Muso\ Soseki to request the relic,
which was finally sent to the capital. In 1396, it was moved to Sho\kokuji
(the Kyoto monastery that is the homonym, in Japanese reading, of Xiang-
guosi, former shelter of the relic). The relic eventually disappeared during
the O|nin war (14671477).
60
This short text, despite some obscurities, shows clearly the rivalry
between Go-Daigo and the sho\gun for the relic and the mediating role
played by Muso\. After the death of Go-Daigo, Muso\ suggested that the
sho\gun Takauji build stupas in all the provinces, risho\to\ (life-benefitting
stupas), in which the relics of the Buddha would be deposited. This ges-
ture was in clear imitation of King Aoka and a symbolic attempt to claim
control over the whole country.
According to a variant, in 1214, Sanetomo had a dream that identified
Eisai as an avatar of Daoxuan. As a result of this dream, Sanetomo had
Eisai officiate a ceremony welcoming relics of the Buddha from Dao-
xuans monastery, Nengrensi, in Southern Song China. The emphasis on
this tooth relic may have been to undermine the credibility of another
tooth relic mentioned above, supposedly brought by the Tendai master
Gishin and transmitted for a long time within the Fujiwara family. The
Sennyu\ji, founded by the Vinaya master Shunjo\ (11661227), also
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 107
claimed to possess the tooth of the Buddha transmitted by Daoxuan. A
relic assembly took place each year in this monastery, on the eighth of the
ninth lunar month.
61
However, even in Buddhist circles close to the sho\gun, the symbolic
associations of relics with the na\ga palace were alive. Thus, according
to the Rokuo\ zenin nyoi ho\ju\ ki, Muso\ Soseki received a cinta\mani from
a mysterious old man, who was the avatar of a celestial (golden) dragon
and who had obtained awakening because of sermons. The text com-
pares this event to the na\ga girls gift of her jewel to the Buddha and to
Bodhidharmas father, king of the Ko\shi kingdom in India, giving a
jewel to the patriarch Praja\tara. Just before dying, Muso\ transmitted his
jewel to his disciple Shunoku Myo\ha.
62
The cinta\mani, here, remains a
sectarian treasure.
EMPEROR GO-DAIGO AND THE CINTA
|
MANI
Emperor Go-Daigo (whose official reign is dated 13181339, although he
spent much of it under siege or in exile) made a large use of esoteric ritu-
als and drew in particular on the power of the regalia to establish his legit-
imacy as ruling (and not merely reigning) emperor. The most obvious
expression of this is his frequent requests for the relics. He had the relics
of To\ ji and other major temples brought to court at least fourteen times over
a three-year period (from 1334 to 1336), that is, as many times as his father,
Emperor Hanazono, during his entire reign (13081318). He also tried to
prevent these relics from circulating among other hands. On two occasions,
in 1324 and 1333, he ordered an interdiction to request the relics.
With Go-Daigos return to the throne in 1333, Monkan, the priest who
had protected him through these difficult years, was promoted to the high-
est clerical offices. As abbot (cho\ ja) of To\ ji, he brought on several occasions
the relics of To\ ji to court and used them as honzon in his rites. He was also
ordered to distribute some of these relics to other temples, to create or rein-
force networks of adhesion. In the Himitsu gentei kuketsu (dated 1338), we
find instructions attributed to him, concerning the three honzon of a state rit-
ual (one of the Buddha, and two wisdom kings, Fudo\ and Aizen, symboliz-
ing the two mandalas). These icons were placed in a five-degree stupa, at
the center of which were two jewels or arra, which are said to have turned
into a cinta\ man i. The central icon is identified with the emperor himself, in
essence identical with the cinta\ man i and with the sun goddess Amaterasu.
Monkan seems also to have conferred the unction of enthronement (sokui
kanjo\ ) on the emperor, a form of abhis eka in which the ruler identified with
Vairocana, the honji (essence) of his mythical ancestor Amaterasu.
63
BERNARD FAURE 108
RITUALS OF POWER
The presentations of the relics were not intended merely, as in the case
of Chinese and Japanese regalia, to make a show of imperial legitimacy.
64
The relics also played a central role in rituals of power, destined at bring-
ing down an enemy. This agonistic function, mentioned earlier, developed
considerably in medieval Japan, in a time of intense political strife.
The goal of the presentations of relics at court was apparently auspi-
ciousness. Thus, the relics presented in 1326 (Kanreki 1/8/30) were
allegedly destined to serve as honzon for a ritual aimed at the safe delivery
of the imperial consort. However, the Taiheiki reveals that the real goal of
this ritual was to subdue the bakufu. Unfortunately, when the ritual contin-
ued for four years (until 1329), it became clear that the consorts pregnancy
was an ominous one, and the sho\ gun was informed. Go-Daigo, placed in a
delicate situation, decided to perform himself a goma ritual to the elephant-
headed god Sho\ ten (alias Kangiten, Sanskrit Vina\ yaka). The ambivalent
nature of the relic, whose fecundity symbolism justifies relic use at the time
of childbirth, but which could also serve as apotropaic symbols, made them
the perfect instruments for rebirth and rebellion strategies. Again, accord-
ing to the To\ ji busshari kankeiki, the thirty-two grains of arra brought to
the palace in 1330 (Gentoku 2/3/11) by the abbot of To\ ji, Sho\ jin, were des-
tined to serve as honzon for a secret rite aimed at defeating the enemy.
Although the image of Go-Daigo performing black magic has left a
deep impression, he was in fact merely enacting on a larger scale the same
rituals already performed by the cloistered emperors of the Insei period
(Shirakawa, Horikawa, Toba) and the Fujiwara regents. These rituals used
the relics or the cinta\mani as part of the worship of specific deities, the
besson, deities that were at first marginal in the Buddhist pantheon but that
came to assume a central role in Tantric Buddhism, particularly in Japan
from the eleventh century onward. Among the most popular of these eso-
teric deities, we find Sho\ten (Vina\yaka), Fudo\ Myo\o\, Aizen Myo\o\,
Benzaiten, and Dakiniten.

Even if their function can be traced back to Indian and Chinese prece-
dents, in Japan the relics of the Buddha were reinscribed in specific
symbolical or pragmatic and political networks. In particular, the devel-
opment of the theme of the identity between the arra and the
cinta\mani deviated the relic cult from the worship of the Buddha (as
honzon) to that of the Special Worthies (besson), secondary deities
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 109
that take the center stage in rituals from the Insei period onward. In this
way, the cult of the relics was put at the center of the Buddhist ideology
of royal power that developed toward that time. They became, as it
were, floating signifiers, and this precisely because of their uncanny
capacity to sink and resurface, after sojourning for a time in the na\ga
palace. Meanwhile, other relicsthe arra of the saintscontinued
their traditional trajectory as cultic objects in monasteries and among
the faithful. They do not seem to have been associated to the cinta\mani
or to the regalia, and if we see the same rhetoric of invisibility at work
in their case, the crypt or the reliquary is not the na\ga palace or its
earthly replicas, the Treasure Houses (ho\zo\), but the stupa. A case in
point is the Peak of the Five Elders (Goro\ho\) at Yo\ko\ji in Noto penin-
sula, a mound where the Zen priest Keizan Jo\kin (12681325) buried
various relics (arra in the strict sense, bones, texts written in blood,
etc.) of the five patriarchs of the So\to\ tradition (including his own pre-
posthumous relics). In the same temple, a Life-Benefitting Stupa
(risho\to\) was erected after the death of Emperor Go-Daigo to receive
some of the relics of the Buddha, which the sho\gun disseminated
throughout the country. This shows that the distinction between the two
types of relics (those of the Buddha, those of the saints or patriarchs),
while generally valid, must in some cases be nuanced. The relics of the
Buddha where circulating in several circles (or rather ellipses) of power
whose real centers were the various incumbent rulers or challengers of
the time (the emperor, the Fujiwara regent, the cloistered emperor, or
the sho\gun) and major Buddhist monasteries (To\ji, Hieizan, or Ten-
ryu\ji). However, the relics also circulated between the periphery of
these circles and their symbolic centers (the Treasure Houses of To\ji,
Sho\ko\myo\-in, Rengeo\-in, etc.) and sometimes broke out of these cir-
cles of power to disseminate among clerics and the faithful. This is for
instance the case of the relics transmitted by Shirakawa-in to the Gion
Consort and Kiyomori, which came to circulate among the nuns of
Hokkeji in Nara and pursued their centrifugal trajectory among the
faithful of the provinces.
NOTES
1. See Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of
Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 13247; The
Daruma-shu\, Do\gen, and So\to\ Zen, Monumenta Nipponica 42, no. 1 (1987):
2555; Les cloches de la terre: Un aspect du culte des reliques dans le boud-
dhisme chinois, in Bouddhisme et lettrs dans la Chine mdivale, ed. Catherine
BERNARD FAURE 110
Despeux (Paris, 2002); and Dato, Ho\bo\girin, fasc. 8, Paris: Adrien Maison-
neuve, 2003: 11271158. The following chapter is a shortened version of a paper
written in 1996, some of whose material was published under the title Relics,
Regalia, and the Dynamics of Secrecy in Japanese Buddhism, in Rending the
Veil: Concealment and Secrecy in the History of Religions, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson
(New York: Seven Bridges Press, 1999), 27187. It was written before the publi-
cation of Brian Rupperts Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early
Medieval Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), which covers
some of the same ground. I have unfortunately been unable to take Rupperts find-
ings into account. Despite the inadequacy of the term relics (even in the Western
context), pointed out by several scholars, I chose to continue using it here as short-
hand for the Sanskrit terms dha\tu and arra.
2. See Faure, Bouddhisme et lettrs.
3. On the cinta\mani and Japanese kingship, see in particular Abe Yasuro\,
Ho\ju to o\ken: chu\sei to mikkyo\ girei, in Iwanami ko\za to\yo\ shiso\ 16, Nihon
shiso\ 2 (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1989), 11569.
4. See Buppatsu, in Ho\bo\girin: Dictionnaire encyclopdique du boud-
dhisme daprs les sources chinoises et japonaises, ed. Sylvain Lvi, et al., fasc.
2 (Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1930), 170b; see also Taisho\ shinshu\ daizo\kyo\
(hereafter abbreviated as T.), ed. Takakusu Junjiro\ et al., vol. 23 (Tokyo: Taisho\
issaikyo\ kanko\kai, 192434), no. 1435:415, and T. 50, 2040:66.
5. On the Insei period, see G. Cameron Hurst III, Insei: Abdicated Sovereigns
in the Politics of Late Heian Japan, 10861185 (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1976). On the Kenmu restoration, see H. Paul Varley, Imperial Restoration
in Medieval Japan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971).
6. Strictly speaking, the tenno\ is not an emperor (at least at this time). How-
ever, to avoid complicating the matter further, I will retain the established trans-
lation, which reflects the medieval (and modern) Japanese perception of the tenno\
as universal ruler by divine inheritance.
7. I use the expression local ideology here, for lack of a better one, to desig-
nate the first elements of a system of beliefs and rituals that will only much later
come to be called Shinto\. On this question, see Kuroda Toshio, Shinto\ in the
History of Japanese Religion, trans. James C. Dobbins and Suzanne Gay, Jour-
nal of Japanese Studies 7, no. 1 (1981): 121.
8. Such distributions took place for instance in 1038 (Cho\ryaku 2), 1192
(Kenkyu\ 3), 1229 (Kanki 1), and 1253 (Kencho\ 5). See Koji ruien, Shu\kyo\-bu,
vol. 2 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa ko\bunkan, 1977), 242, 24748. As we will see later,
after the Nanbokucho\ period, the sho\gun used a similar method.
9. See To\bo\ ki, by Go\ho\ (130662), in Zoku zoku gunsho ruiju\ 12.
10. On Ku\kais rain rituals at Shinzenen, see Brian D. Ruppert, Buddhist
Rainmaking in Early Japan: The Dragon King and the Ritual Careers of Esoteric
Monks, History of Religions 42, no. 2 (2002): 14374.
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 111
11. See Kakuzensho\, quoting the Goyuigo\, in Dai Nihon bukkyo\ zensho, vol.
51, 22a (hereafter DNBZ).
12. See Keiran shu\yo\ shu\, T. 76, 2410:545c. According to one tradition, the
jewel of Ninnaji (the so-called no\saku jewel) had been sent to the sho\gun. When
an emissary left Kamakura with it, lightning fell, and a dragon god tried to steal
it. However, as it was wrapped in a ka\sa\ya, his attempt failed, and the jewel was
returned safely to the capital. On Sho\ko\myo\-in, see Mimi Hall Yengpruksawan,
The Phoenix Hall at Uji and the Symmetries of Replication, The Art Bulletin 77,
4 (1995): 64671.
13. See Kakuzensho\, DNBZ 51:13435.
14. See Zoku gunsho ruiju\ 27: 299. At the beginning of the Kamakura period,
a monk named Ku\tai, a Chinese disciple of Cho\gen (11211206) of To\daiji, stole
several grains of relics from Muro\ji, and he was arrested at Ko\fukuji. However,
because of this theft he came to be called the Saint who spread the arra of
Muro\[zan] (Muro\ shari ru\fu sho\nin). In 1272, a group of Shingon adepts also
obtained a few grains of those a\rra, which they later disseminated in the Kanto\
region. See on this question Azuma Kagami 11, s.v. Kenkyu\ 2 (1191), 7/23; and
No\tomi Jo\ten, Kamakura jidai no shari shinko\, Indogaku bukkyo\gaku kenkyu\
33, no. 2 (1985): 3236; Tsuji Hidenori, Muro\ji oyobi Hasedera no kenkyu\
(Kyoto: Seika Gakuen 1970), 90.
15. On this site, see Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes.
16. See for instance Robert E. Morrell, Passage to India Denied: Zeamis
Kasuga Ryu\jin, Monumenta Nipponica 37, no. 2 (1982): 179200.
17. According to the Taiheiki, Shubin, in a fit of anger, had captured the dragon
gods and locked them up in a jar, thereby causing a terrible drought. There was
only one na\ga king in the Heatless Lake on the Himalayas, whose power was
greater than his, and who remained free. It is this na\ga, Zennyo, whom Ku\kai
invited to reside in Shinzenen Pond. See The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval
Japan, trans. Helen Craig McCullough (Tokyo: Tuttle 1979), 37479.
18. On this question, see Tsuji Zennosuke, Nihon bukkyo\shi (Tokyo: Iwanami
shoten, 1970), 99.
19. See the Benichizan ki, in DNBZ, Jishi jo\sho 3; and Zoku gunsho ruiju\ 27:
299. See also, from a Shinto\ standpoint, the Benichi himitsu ki (compiled
toward the Nanbokucho\ period).
20. See Yanagita Kunio, Shakujin mondo\ (var. Ishigami mondo\ ), in Yanagita
Tamemasa et al., eds., Yanagita Kunio zenshu\, vol. 15 (Tokyo: Chikuma shobo\,
19891991), 41, on the etymology of these places named Sho\ji(n), derived from
sho\ji = sae (obstacle), rather than from the Buddhist term sho\jin (Sanskrit vrya,
one of the six pa\ramita\ ).
21. Quoted in Tsuji, Muro\ji oyobi Hasedera no kenkyu\, 12526.
22. See Zoku gunsho ruiju\ 27b:29699.
BERNARD FAURE 112
23. See Kakuzensho\, DNBZ 51:133b. The transmission went as follows:
Ku\ kaiShingaGenninSho\ bo\ KankenIchijo\ Genko\ Ningai
Jo\zonHanjun. See Kakuzensho\, 136a.
24. The repeated injunction not to disseminate the relics of To\ ji suggests reluc-
tance on the part of some monks to entrust their temples treasure to power-hungry
prelates and rulers. The fact that the relics were stolen on several occasions shows
that the monks fears were justified. We are told that, on one occasion, the dragon
of Shinzenen flew to To\ ji, amidst thunder and lightning, and the culprit subse-
quently confessed. Despite these threats, as we will see, the number of relics tended
to increase with time, while their role as symbols of transmission diminished.
25. The symbolism of rebirth in Tusita Heaven is suggested by its forty-nine
courts, a number reminiscent of the forty-nine days of the liminal period between
death and rebirth. This symbolism also partly explains the association between
Tusita Heaven and Amaterasus Heavenly Rock Cave.
26. See Abe, Ho\ju to o\ken, 12425.
27. See To\bo\ki, 12.
28. See the numbers given over fifteen generations in Kakuzen sho\, DNBZ
51:116b. These relics were contained in two bins (a and b), whose content
varied from 3,406 to 4,486 grains and from 390 to 740, respectively. At one point,
in 1054, the tags on the two bottles were interverted. On this question, see Rup-
pert, Jewel in the Ashes.
29. On this topic, see Kageyama Haruki, Shari shinko\: Sono kenkyu\ to shiryo\
(Tokyo: To\kyo\ bijutsu senta\, 1986); and Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes, 13638.
30. See for instance Ryu\ichi Ab, The Weaving of Mantra: Ku\kai and the Con-
struction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (New York: Columbia University Press,
1999), 36366; Iyanaga Nobumi, Da\kini et lEmpereur: Mystique bouddhique de
la royaut dans le Japon mdival, Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici 8384
(1999): 7579.
31. See T. 76:557a.
32. See Sanbo\ ekotoba, vol. 1:4, trans. Edward Kamens, The Three Jewels: A
Study and Translation of Minamoto Tamenoris Sanbo\e (Ann Arbor: Center for
Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan, 1988), 11820; and Tanaka Takako,
Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei (Tokyo: Tsunakoya shobo\, 1993), 102.
33. Commentaries on the Nihonshoki emphasize the importance of this story to
understand the origin of the divine jewel (shindama), one of the three regalia.
The tama contained in Toyotamahime, as Yanagita Kunio and Orikuchi Shinobu
have shown, means divine spirit (shinrei), and Toyotamahime may be a generic
term for the female mediums (miko) who were possessed by such spirits.
34. See Keiran shu\yo\ shu\, T. 76:578c79a.
35. We find the same story in the Utsubo monogatari, in the chapter Zo\kai
(Opening of the Repository, first part). When Nakatada, the grandson of Toshi-
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 113
kage, discovers the repository left by his grandfather and wants to open it, he is
warned by an old man who passed by that it is guarded by a dragon. No one can
open it, and all those who come near it die. The story resembles that of Yorimichi,
but in the Utsubo monogatari it is the spirit of Nakatadas grandfather who keeps
the repository to transmit it to his legitimate heir. See Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no
chu\sei, 127.
36. Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 134.
37. See for instance Kujo\ Kanezane (11491207), Gyokuyo\ (Tokyo: Kokusho
kanko\kai, 1907), s.v. Kenkyu\ 3/4/8.
38. See Abe, Ho\ju to o\ken, 155.
39. See Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 151.
40. See Daijo\in jisha zo\ji ki, s.v. Kansei 3/10/4 = 1462, quoted in Tanaka, Geho\
to aiho\ no chu\sei, 153. Another source, the Nyorai ha-shari denrai (dated 1367),
mentions that this relic was transmitted in Japanese Tendai before eventually
reaching the Fujiwara clan. See Gunsho ruiju\ 716:19.
41. This text is included in the Saidaiji Eizon denki shu\sei, quoted in Tanaka,
Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 156. The Sennyu\ji in Kyoto also claimed to be in pos-
session of that relic. See Koji ruien, s.v. Shari-e, Shu\kyo\-bu 2:119, and Butsuga
shari ki, ibid., 117. See also John S. Strong and Sarah M. Strong, ATooth Relic
of the Buddha in Japan: An Essay on the Sennyu\-ji Tradition and a Translation of
Zeamis No\ Play Shari, Japanese Religions 20, no. 1 (1995): 133.
42. See Hokkeji shari engi; reproduced in Busshari to ho\ju: Shaka o shitau
kokoro, Nara Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, ed. (Nara-shi: Nara Kokuritsu, 2001), ill.
70, and 2134. Next to the tooth of the Buddha, another relic appeared, that of the
left eye of the Buddha, said to be in the possession of the Shingon temple Oppo\ji
(in Niigata Prefecture). The name of that temple, which means literally Temple
of Treasure B, is said to derive from the legend that, whereas the relic of the Bud-
dhas right eye had been enshrined in the Jiabaozi (Temple of Treasure A) in
China, the relic of the left eye was brought to Japan by an Indian priest known as
the Brahmin Priest (Baramon so\jo\) and enshrined in the temple founded for that
purpose, on imperial order, by the priest Gyo\ki in 736.
43. See Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 16768.
44. Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 152.
45. The Heike monogatari claims that the Gion Consort was the mother of
Kiyomori. While she was pregnant by Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa, he married
her to his vassal Tadamori to reward him. Consequently, Kiyomori was not the son
of Tadamori but of Shirakawa-in. According to documents of Komiya Shrine,
however, it is the younger sister of the Gion Consort who, pregnant by Shirakawa-
in, was married to Tadamori in order to settle things. She died two years after giv-
ing birth, and Kiyomori was raised by his aunt, the Gion Consort. Just before
dying in 1192, Shirakawa-in gave the Gion Consort two thousand grains of relics,
BERNARD FAURE 114
which she is said to have transmitted to Kiyomori. See Helen Craig McCullough,
trans., The Tale of the Heike (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), 217.
46. Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 15859.
47. See Donald L. Philippi, trans., Kojiki (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press,
1968), 15058.
48. See Asabasho\ 187, by Sho\cho\ (120582), DNBZ: 41:120b.
49. See Abe, Ho\ju to o\ken, 129.
50. The relics of Hokkeji included those transmitted by Ku\kai, those brought
by Ganjin, those of the Baramon so\jo\, and those brought from the dragon palace.
See the Saidaiji chokushi Ko\sho\ Bosatsu gyo\jo\ nenpu, quoted in Tanaka, Geho\ to
aiho\ no chu\sei, 162.
51. See Abe Yasuro\, Chu\sei nanto no shu\kyo\ to geino\, Kokugo to kokubun-
gaku (May 1987).
52. See Tanaka, Geho\ to aiho\ no chu\sei, 16869. See also Hokkeji nyoi ho\ju
engi no koto, in Keiran shu\yo\ shu\, T. 76, 2410:545b; and Hosokawa Ryo\ichi,
O|ken to amadera: chu\sei no sei to shari shinko\, in Retto\ no bunkashi, ed. Amino
Yoshihiko, vol. 5 (Tokyo: Nihon edita\ suku\ru shuppanbu, 1988).
53. See T. 83, 2543:15c.
54. See Faure, The Daruma-shu\, Do\gen, and So\to\ Zen, 2556.
55. See Takahashi Shu\hei, Sanbo\ji no Darumashu\ monto to rokuso Fugen
shari, Shu\gaku kenkyu\ 26 (1984): 11621.
56. In other medieval texts, the Tusita Heaven is also assimilated to the Rock-
Cave of Heaven into which the sun goddess Amaterasu withdrew temporarily,
when she felt threatened by her impetuous brother Susanoo. See for instance
Shasekishu\, trans. Robert Morrell, Sand and Pebbles (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1985), 7374. On the episode of the Rock-Cave of Heaven, see
Kojiki, trans. Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki, 8186.
57. See McCullough, The Tale of the Heike, 42638.
58. According to the Azuma kagami (in Kokushi taikei 3233), in Kenryaku 2
(1212), the sho\gun deposited at Jufukuji in Kamakura the arra transmitted by
Eisai. In 1214, the first ceremony (shari-e) took place at Daijiji. In 1217, another
took place at Yo\fukuji. In 1220 and 1226, ceremonies were repeated at Daijiji, and
in 1231 at Yo\fukuji.
59. Depending on the sources, this tooth had been transmitted to the Chinese
Vinaya master Daoxuan by Nazha (Sanskrit Nada), the son of the Deva-King
Viru\pa\ksa (see Kakuzensho\, DNBZ 51: 123a), or by the god Weituo (Sanskrit
Skanda); see Nol Peri, Le dieu Wei-to, Bulletin de lcole Franaise dEx-
trme-Orient 17 (1916): 53. One tradition claims that it was transmitted to Japan
under the reign of Emperor Saga (r. 80923); see Peri, Le dieu Wei-to.
60. See Gunsho ruiju\ 19:28687; and Kamakura kanryo\ kyu\dai ki, quoted in
Koji ruien, Shu\kyo\-bu 2:119.
BUDDHIST RELICS AND JAPANESE REGALIA 115
61. Koji ruien, Shu\kyo\-bu 2:121. On the Sennyu\ji relic, see Strong and Strong,
ATooth Relic of the Buddha in Japan.
62. See Gunsho ruiju\ 443, vol. 19, 28889.
63. See Abe, Ho\ju to o\ken, 153.
64. On Chinese regalia, see Anna Seidel, Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacra-
ments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha, in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honor of
R. A. Stein, ed. Michel Strickmann, vol. 2 (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes
tudes Chinoises), 291371.
BERNARD FAURE 116
THE PERSISTENCE OF PRESENCE
Only the portrait, or image, has the presence necessary for
veneration, whereas the narrative exists only in the past.
Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence
IT HAS BECOME VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DISCUSS STUPAS, RELICS, AND
images of the Buddha without recourse to the language of presence.
Although presence may be a convenient, and even an accurate, rubric for
what these objects effect, such language is also inherently vague and
carries with it significant and sometimes troubling philosophical and
theological overtones. Added to this is the familiar problem, not in any
way unique to Buddhist studies, that the texts upon which we base our
studies are frequently either entirely silent or extremely cryptic regard-
ing such matters. This is not to say that talk of presence should therefore
be abandonedno doubt to be replaced by some equally vague, equally
loaded terminology. On the contrary, relics and images obviously
involve and produce some sort of presence; what sort, however, is by no
means self-evident.
A sampling of such presence talk is illustrative: The stu\pa is an
important symbol in early and later Buddhism because of its ability to
render the Buddha and other departed saints spiritually present.
1
The
stu\pa is the Buddha, the Buddha is the stu\pa.
2
The stu\pa symbolised
His presence.
3
Relics and the cults that surround the traces, or physical
117
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHAS PRESENCE
Jacob N. Kinnard
remainders, seem to evoke a continuing presence of the Master.
4
[T]he Buddhas eternal presence is contained in the Stu\pa, and
although enshrining relics, the worshipper sees it as the eternal Bud-
dha.
5
[T]hese are thought to contain something of the spiritual force
and purity of the person they once formed part of.
6
[T]he relic in early
Buddhist India was thought of as an actual living presence and was
characterized byfull ofexactly the same spiritual forces and facul-
ties that characterize, in fact constitute and animate, the living Buddha.
7
The stupa is at one and the same time the body of the whole world and
the Body of the Buddha, which is the body of perfected Man, of the Bud-
dha as the universal type or norm of the human. . . . [T]he stupa and the
Buddha image are interchangeable.
8
[I]n being the Buddha, the image
is the Buddhas story.
9
Such a list could go on for several more pages, but what should be
abundantly clear is that although there is some scholarly agreement on
the fact that presence is involved with images and relics and stupas, there
is little consensus as to what exactly this presence is. In the above quota-
tions, for instance, there is posited a kind of ontological presenceto
which one might add a kind of ontological absence;
10
a kind of symbolic
presence; and a kind of commemorative presence. Although such a state
of ambiguity may be appropriate to the context, given the many histori-
cal and intellectual layers such statements encompass, it is compounded
and further confused by a tendency to treat all relicsand here I mean
the term in the broadest senseas the same, if not in terms of their clas-
sification, at least in terms of their function.
11
Such an amalgamation is
problematic. A stupa, for instance, ideally contains physical, or bodily,
remains of the Buddhaalthough the relics contained within a stupa can
also be relics of use, such as a bowl, and even images or pieces of images,
that is, uddesika relics, therefore further muddying an already murky dis-
courseand thus a stupa does have a kind of ontological link to the once-
living teacher. A stupa also evokes a symbolic presence, since, by con-
vention, it signifies the relics it contains (and by extension the Buddha as
the source of these relics); thus even a stupa without relics can symbolize
the Buddha, or nirvana, or even another, more significant stupa with
relics. Astupa also effects a commemorative sort of presence, in that it is
a place to remember, to call to mind, the Buddhas life, his teaching, his
nirvana, and so on.
What about a Buddha image,
12
though? What sort of presence does
it, or do they, evoke? It has been rather common to see images as func-
tional extensions, and therefore equivalents, of stupas: Other trends,
JACOB N. KINNARD 118
such as the cult of the image, can equally be seen as developments of
the stu\pa cult. . . . [I]t functions like a stu\pa in making the saint pre-
sent.
13
Can we, or should we, so easily blend images into the
relic/stupa discourse? Or does a Buddha image involve other sorts of
presence that ought to be discussed as such?
One way images involve a different sort of presence is in their nar-
rative function. In short, images tell a story. This is most obvious with the
early examples of Buddhist art from such places as Bha\rhut and Sa\c, as
well as the countless illustrations of the Ja\takas found in temples
throughout the Buddhist world.
14
Steven Collins has articulated a signifi-
cantly more complex notion of this kind of narrative presence; he says
that when an image is encountered and recognized . . . or when an
enshrined relic is venerated, the whole story is implicitly present.
15
What
Collins means by this is that the larger narrative is already familiar, and
thus the specific object acts as a kind of mental seed, a kind of Buddhist
version of Prousts madeleines. An image of the seated Buddha display-
ing the bhumiparsamu\dra\, for instance, not only visually narrates the
specific episode of Ma\ras calling into question the Buddhas powers but
also implicitly tells the story of all of Buddhism, from the young Sid-
dharthas first journey outside of the palace to the parinirvana.
An example of the sort of narrative presence that images evoke is the
comparatively late stelaemost of these images date to the Pa\la period
(7501200 CE)
16
depicting the eight great events in the Buddhas life,
the Asamaha\pra\tiha\rya, and the places at which those events took place,
the Asamaha\stha\nacaitya.
17
John Huntington, for instance, says of these
stelae: The sequence is a kind of epitome of the life of S:a\kyamuni. . . .
[T]he Asamaha\pra\tiha\rya epitomizes the whole life of the Buddha, his
attainments, his teachings and the benefits of faith in his life to his fol-
lowers. In short, the set of eight scenes epitomizes the whole of Bud-
dhism.
18
Although Huntington provides a detailed discussion of the lit-
eral, narrative function of these imagesthat is, textual accounts of the
events the images depicthis analysis does not perhaps go quite far
enough. What might have enabled the tenth-century pilgrim to recognize
and value such images? What is it that was valued? Furthermore, why is
there a continued emphasis on the life of the historical Buddha (i.e.,
S:a\kyamuni) in artistic images during the Pa\la period, particularly when
in contemporary textual practices S:a\kyamuni is increasingly nudged
aside by the plethora of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities that come to
inhabit the greater Buddhist pantheon? In short, what was the field of
presence in Pa\la India?
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 119
THE CONCEPT OF THE FIELD
One of the major difficulties of the social history of philosophy, art or lit-
erature is that it has to reconstruct these spaces of original possibles
which, because they were part of the self-evident givens of the situa-
tion, remained unremarked and are therefore unlikely to be mentioned in
contemporary accounts, chronicles or memoirs.
Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production
In his articulation of the notion of the field, Pierre Bourdieu charac-
teristically emphasizes the relational nature of artistic production and
reception. In so doing, he rejects Foucaults concept of the pistem
because, Bourdieu argues, Foucault refuses to look outside the field of
discourse for the principle which would cast light on each of the dis-
courses within it . . . he thus refuses to relate works in any way to their
social conditions of production, i.e., to positions occupied within the field
of cultural production.
19
Bourdieu also argues explicitly against Kants
pure gaze aesthetic, insisting that the work of art is an object which
exists as such only by virtue of the (collective) belief which knows and
acknowledges it as a work of art.
20
In order to understand the work of art
in its original context, it is necessary to reconstruct the field in which that
work was situated, a field that was made up of a whole range of strategies
of production and reception.
We know that the field of Buddhist practice during this period was far
from unified. Given the broad expanses of time and space (including large
parts of the modern Indian states of Bihar, Orissa, Bengal, plus parts of
modern Bangladesh), plus the substantial international traffic through the
regionit seems clear that what we have here is at the very least a diverse
field.
21
What constitutes this field, though? What strategies were available
to Pa\la-period Buddhists for making the Buddha present?
One place to begin is with the Pa\li Canon. It may seem odd to direct
our gaze back to the Pa\li materials here, but it is precisely the earlier con-
ceptions of the presence of the historical Buddha in artistic images that
inform and underlie the later production and use of sculptures and paint-
ings, such as the As amaha\pra\tiha\rya images. Indeed, all of the accounts
of the significant events depicted on these stelae are contained within the
Pa\li Canon. Certainly these stories are retold and reworked throughout
Indian Buddhist history, but there is a strong sense in which such images
implicitly tell the original story, in much the same way, say, that the cross,
in the Western Christian context, tells the original story of Jesus.
22
Thus
what I shall attempt here is a kind of archaeological explicationnot in
JACOB N. KINNARD 120
Foucaults sense, but in the sense of Bourdieus methodological convic-
tion that the field of art at any given time is constructed on, or through, a
complex system of beliefs and practices made up of many layers of prior,
inherited beliefs and practices. It is this layered system, this field, that
allows for the recognition, in the deepest sense, of the object; it is the field
that creates the belief which knows and acknowledges the kinds of pres-
ence evoked by physical images of the Buddha. Here I am concerned, in
particular, with the relatively few references to making and worshiping
visual images of the Buddha in the Pa\li material and also with those pas-
sages that emphasize the importance of being in the physical presence of
the historical Buddha in this literature and with the strategies employed
when this physical presence is unavailable. Another important element in
the field of presence is the concept of buddha\nusmrti (Pa\li anussati), or
recollecting the Buddha. Although this technique is explicitly medita-
tional, and therefore involves a cognitive act of making present the Bud-
dha, it too is an essential part of the Pa\la-period habituswhat Bourdieu
calls the principles of the generation and structuring of practices and rep-
resentations
23
of Buddha images.
IMAGINING THE BUDDHA: IMAGE TALK
Honor these: an elder of the sangha, a Bodhi tree, an image, a reliquary.
Buddhaghosa, Samantapa\sa\dika\
Beings are contented, even just by seeing the Buddha; having heard the
uttering of the discourse [of the Buddha], they obtain deathlessness.
Buddhavamsa, in Jayawickrama,
Buddhavamsa and Cariya\piaka
SEEING THE BUDDHA
A great deal of ink has been spilled on the topic of Buddha images. Begin-
ning with the debate between Ananda Coomaraswamy and Alfred Foucher
over the indigenous or exogenous origins of the Buddha image,
24
and pro-
gressing through the very recent debates about the aniconic period in early
Buddhism,
25
scholars have been wrangling over two very basic questions: (1)
When did Buddhists begin representing the Buddha in sculptures, drawings,
and paintings? and (2) Why did they do this? The first question, one would
think, would be relatively straightforwardgiven the precision of modern
dating techniquesand for the most part it is, except that some art historians
have recently begun to introduce new data that would push the date back
in time.
26
Although this temporal debate is of considerable empirical interest,
I will leave this to be argued by archaeologists and art historians.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 121
Turning then to the second questionWhy did Buddhists begin mak-
ing images of the Buddha?as we have seen, they did so in order to
make the Buddha present, with all of the vagaries and polyvalent reso-
nances of this phrase. What, though, is it about being in the presence of
the Buddha? On the most basic level, the Buddhas disciples wish to be
in the Masters presence in order to hear the dharma directly from him,
in order to receive his direct guidance. We see variations of this through-
out the Pa\li Canon; a would-be disciple learns that the Buddha is preach-
ing the dhamma somewhere and resolves to go hear for him- or herself.
This is also emphasized by the familiar opening of so many of the suttas:
Evam me sutam, Thus have I heard. The text that follows this stock
beginning is, at least on a very superficial level, legitimized by the fact
that it was heard directly from the mouth of the Buddhait is bud-
dhavacana, the Buddhas own speech.
27
One of the most well-known and oft-cited expressions of this general
theme is A|nandas tearful lament in the Maha\parinibba\na-Sutta when he
knows that the masters death is imminent: Alas! I am still but a learner,
one who has [more] work to do. And the Teacher is about to pass away
from mehe who is so compassionate to me!
28
A|nanda here is express-
ing several layers of distress, not the least of which is the emotion of los-
ing a dear companion. What is perhaps most emphasized in the passage,
though, is A|nandas fear that without the present Buddha there to teach
and to guide him, he will remain a mere learner.
29
Hearing the Buddhas words directly from the Buddhas mouth is not
the only rationale for being in the physical presence of the Buddha. We see
this explicitly addressed in the commentary on the Dgha-Nika\ ya, the
Suman galavila\ sin: the text states that the evam me sutam with which
A| nanda begins each narrative is intended to make present (paccakkham ,
more literally make visible) the Buddhas dhamma-ka\ ya.
34
The emphasis
on visibility here is noteworthy. Indeed, in the episode preceding A| nandas
lament, the godswho have heard that the Buddha is about to pass from
the worldcome to see him (tatha\ gatam dassa\ yana) one last time.
This visual emphasis is seen, of course, throughout later Buddhism;
31
seeing the Buddha is itself a tremendously significant eventseeing not
just as an analytical act but also as David Eckel has claimed with respect
to Bha\vavivekas vision longing, seeing as an emotional vision of a
beloved object that fills the eyes with tears of joy, sadness, frustrations, or
satisfaction.
32
We find this emphasized in the stock phrase that occurs in
later texts such as the Lalitavistara and Pacavimatipraja\pa\ramita\, as
well as the Divya\vada\na and Maha\vyutpatti: Upon seeing the Buddha,
the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the mad recover their rea-
JACOB N. KINNARD 122
son, nakedness is covered, hunger and thirst are appeased, the sick cured,
the infirm regain their wholeness.
33
tienne Lamotte links this desire to see the Buddha and behold his
miraculous qualities to an essentially lay-devotional impulse that took
place after the Buddha had died:
If monks, devoted to a life of study and meditation, are able to resign
themselves to regarding their founder only as a sage who had entered
Nirva\na, lay followers, who are exposed to the difficulties of their times,
require something other than a dead god of whom only the remains
(arra) could be revered. They want a living god, a god superior to the
gods (deva\tideva) who will continue his beneficial activity among them,
who can predict the future, perform wonders, and whose worship (pu\ja)
will be something more than more [sic] recollection (anusmrti).
34
Leaving aside the problems of seeing the devotional aspect of early Bud-
dhism as a lay affair,
35
Lamotte is probably correct in emphasizing the rel-
ative lateness of this tradition, although there are certainly earlier strata
that emphasize the importance of seeing the physical Buddha.
In Ja\taka 2, the Vannu-patha-ja\taka, for instance, a young member of
a Sa\vatthi family, after being admitted to the first stage of the sangha, and
after having been given a topic of meditation by the Buddha, goes off to
the forest to meditate. After living there for three months, however, he
makes no progress. Dwelling there, he was not able to obtain even a hint
of insight. He thinks to himself: I will go back to the Teacher, and hav-
ing gone to the presence of the Teacher, I will live looking at his most
excellent body and listening to his honey-sweet teaching. The Buddha,
however, admonishes him for giving up so easily and then delivers a story
about the need for perserverence in which the now-remiss Bhikkhu is
shown in his former life as an energetic young man. Having delivered
this dhamma-discourse, he made known the Four Truths; at the end of this
the remiss Brother was established in the highest fruit, Arahatship.
36
Although the intent of this ja\ taka is quite clearly the need for persev-
erence, it is noteworthy for its dual emphasis on seeing and hearing and for
the especially efficacious effects of this sight and sound. The young
Sa\ vatthin does not want merely to receive the Buddhas words; he also
wants to look at the Buddha, to be in his physical presence. There is,
indeed, a rather striking emphasis on the physical body of the Buddha here;
not only do we get the stock phrase, Satthu-santikam gantva\ (Having gone
to the presence of the Teacher), but also the phrase, Buddha-sarram olo-
kento (looking at the body of the Buddha). Although I wish to avoid the
temptation to make too much of this use of sarram, it is significant that the
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 123
emphasis in this episode is placed equally on hearing the dharma and on
seeing the physically present Buddha.
An even more striking example of this desire to see the living Buddha
is found in the story of Vakkali, as it occurs in the Samyutta Nika\ya.
37
In
this version, Vakkali is a rather frail monk who has fallen ill and is visited
by the Buddha, who is concerned about Vakkalis health. When the Bud-
dha asks him how he is faring, however, Vakkali replies that he has long
desired to see the Blessed One (Bhagavantam dassana\ya), but due to his
illness he has been unable to satisify this desire. The Buddha sharply
rebukes him: Enough, Vakkali! What is the sight of this putrid body to
you? He who sees the dhamma, Vakkali, he sees me; he who sees me, he
sees the dhamma.
38
As in the ja\taka story above, the point of this passage
is quite clear: attachment to the physical body of the Buddha is point-
lessif not actually a hindrancesince the vision of the Buddha and the
vision of the dhamma are equal.
In the Dhammapada commentary, however, the message of the Vakkali
story is somewhat more ambiguous. In this version, Vakkali is a young
Brahmin who one day sees the Buddha and is so struck with his appearance
that he joins the sangha in order to see the Blessed One constantly. As a
monk, he is so attached to the physical form (sarrasampatti) of the Buddha
that he follows him everywhere, to the point that he neglects his dhamma
study and meditational exercises. The Buddha upbrades him with the
Samyutta verse (equating seeing the Buddha with seeing the dhamma), but
the visually obsessed Vakkali is unable to leave the Buddhas side. The Bud-
dha finally attempts to cure Vakkali by forbidding the young monk to
accompany him on the rains retreat; Vakkali responds by vowing to hurl
himself off a cliff. In order to save him, the Blessed One creates an image
39
of himself for Vakkali. Vakkali is overjoyed at the sight of this image. Once
the Buddha sees that Vakkali is out of danger, he delivers a short sermon,
and Vakkali is cured of his visual obsession and obtains arhatship.
Again, although the immediate message of this episode is the danger
of becoming too attached to the physical form of the Buddha, there is also
a kind of celebration of the joy one receives from a vision of the Buddha.
It is, after all, the sight of the Buddha that immediately prevents Vakkali
from committing suicide in the Dhammapada commentary version of the
story and enables him to absorb the Buddhas wisdom. Much more could
certainly be said about the dynamics of vision in the Buddhist context;
40
what is most relevant at this point, however, is that seeing the Buddha is
linked to progress on the Path and that this is one of the basic tenets under-
lying the construction of Buddha images from the earliest periods of Bud-
dhist history. As Reginald Ray has put it recently, with specific reference
JACOB N. KINNARD 124
to Avaghosas Buddhacarita, but with implications for all of Buddhism:
The sight of the Buddha, buddhadarana, is a vehicle of transformation,
wherein one is able to participate in the holy charisma of the Buddha. . . .
[D]aran is a vehicle to knowing who the Buddha really is. . . . It enables
one to know the Buddha, commune with him, and actively participate in
his charismaexperiences that rouse those who see him to faith, to spon-
taneous acts of devotion, to insight.
41
SEEING IMAGES
Despite the scholarly debates over the earliest Buddha images and the ori-
gins of these images, there are suprisingly few textual references to
images and image making. In all of the Pa\li canonical literature, there is
not, to my knowledge, a single reference to images of the Buddha. This is
striking, but understandable. The Canon is, after all, largely concerned
with events contemporaneous with the living Buddha. Certainly shortly
before and immediately after his death there is discussion of his corporeal
remains, but there is simply no mention of images.
42
There are, however,
references to images in the commentaries, and although a detailed analy-
sis of the Pa\li commentarial literature is beyond the scope of this chapter,
there are a few specific references to why images were made, references
that demonstrate that images were in part made to fill the void left by the
absent Buddha. They were intended, in contrast to Lamottes out of
sight remark, to bring him back into sight.
In the Samantapa\ sa\ dika\ , the commentary on the Vinaya,
43
there are sev-
eral references to both viggaha and paimam .
44
Most of these references are
not of particular value in the present context in that they fail to explain why
Buddhists made images. There are two, however, worthy of note. The first
is embedded in a list of objects deserving of veneration: cetiyam paimam
bodhim san ghattheram vandatha\ ti (Samantapa\ sa\ dika\ 627). What is strik-
ing about this is the inclusion of the paimam , particularly without the mod-
ifier sadha\ tukawith relicsin the list.
45
Both cetiya and bodhi resonate
with the presence of the Buddhathe one in which are deposited his phys-
ical remains, the other under which he achieved enlightenmentand the
eldest member of the sangha is almost by definition worthy of respect and
veneration; an image, however, is usually worthy of veneration only if it
contains relics, only if it is sadha\ tuka.
46
This is not to say, however, that images are simply a different sort of
reliquary, significant only because a relic is contained within. This is cer-
tainly important, but the degree to which the image truly is a paimam ,
truly is an accurate measure of the Buddha, is also significant. At
Samantapa\ sa\ dika\ 114243 (8:32), we encounter this passage:
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 125
Formerly, they gave gifts to both sides of the sangha [i.e., male and
female], headed by the Buddha; the Blessed One sat in the middle, the
Bhikkhus sat on the right, the Bhikkunis sat on the left, [and] the Blessed
One was the Sanghathera of both; then the Blessed One himself received
the gifts and also enjoyed them himself; then he had them given to the
Bhikkhus. Now, however, learned people, having [first] set up either a
reliquary [cetiya] or an image enclosing relics, give gifts to both san-
ghas, headed by the Buddha. Having set a bowl on a stand in front of the
image or reliquary, and having given water as an offering, they say, We
will give to the Buddhas [buddha\nam].
47
There are many points of interest here, the most relevant of which is the
temporal dimension, the emphasis on before (pubbe) and now (etarahi).
While the Buddha was alive, he was the leader of the sangha, the one who
sat at the head of the assembly, the one who first received gifts from the
laity. When the Buddha is gone to nirvana, however, a kind of ersatz Bud-
dha replaces him, mediates his presence: offerings are made to the Bud-
dha (to the Buddhas, that is) via the medium of the statue (or cetiya).
Although Collins is certainly correct in his reservations about the use
of the language of presence with regard to Buddhism,
48
the language in
this passage comes very close, indeed, to just the sort of presence we see
in early Christianity, even if we encounter no emic terms in the Buddhist
materials. Peter Brown describes the milieu in which the cult of the saints,
and particularly the cults surrounding their bodily relics, arose as being
one in which Mediterranean men and women, beginning in the fourth cen-
tury, turned with increasing explicitness for friendship, inspiration and
protection in this life and beyond the grave, to invisible beings who were
fellow humans and whom they could invest with the precise and palpable
features of beloved and powerful figures in their own society.
49
As in the
early Christian context, relics were perhaps the primary means by which
Buddhists brought the absent invisible beingthe Buddhainto the
visible present. As the passage from Buddhaghosa demonstrates, though,
visual images such as sculptures could also serve this function. And also
as in the Christian context, this presence was always in dialectical tension
with absence: The carefully maintained tension [in early Christianity]
between distance and proximity ensured one thing: praesentia . . . the
praesentia on which such heady enthusiasm focused was the presence of
the invisible person.
50
One of the clearest, and perhaps one of the earliest,
51
expressions of a
reason for making images of the Buddha occurs in the many versions of
the Prasenajit story.
52
The story, as recorded by Faxian, goes as follows:
JACOB N. KINNARD 126
When the Buddha went up to heaven for ninety days to preach the Faith
to his mother, king Prasenajit, longing to see him, caused to be carved in
sandal-wood from the Bulls head mountain an image of Buddha and
placed it where Buddha usually sat. Later on, when Buddha returned to
the shrine, the image straightaway quitted the seat and came forth to
receive him. Buddha cried out, Return to your seat: after my disap-
pearance you shall be the model for the four classes in search of spiri-
tual truth. At this, the image went back to the seat. It was the very first
of all such images, and is that which later ages have copied.
53
The degree to which the image mediates the absence of the Buddha here
is obvious. Whether this is in fact a very early story that was still popu-
lar in Faxians time, or whether it is in fact a much later explanation
for the existence of Buddha images, the image is intended to fill in for
the Buddha in his absence. Xuanzang records an almost identical story,
although King Uda\yana replaces Prasenajit. In that version of the story,
the Buddha himself explicitly expresses the function of the image. Upon
his return from the Tra\yatrimati heaven, where he has been preaching
the dharma to his mother for three months, he tells the sandalwood
image that King Uda\yana has had carved: The work expected from you
is to toil in the conversion of heretics, and to lead the way of religion in
future ages.
54
IMAGINING THE BUDDHA, PART TWO: IMAGE THOUGHT
Therefore in the presence of an image
Or reliquary or something else
Say these twenty stanzas
Three times a day
Na\ga\rjuna, in Hopkins and Lati Rimpoche, trans.,
The Precious Garland and the Song of the Four Mindfulnesses
Buddhists did not begin making images of the Buddha as a result of some
wave of visual theism
55
that swept across Buddhist culture with the rise
of Mahayana. Rather, it was the result of a gradually developed and multi-
layered habitus, a habitus constituted by a range of strategies intended to
respond to the absence of the Buddha. An important strategy to negotiate
this absence of the Buddha as a teacher and guide is the practice of bud-
dha\nusmrti, recollection of the Buddha. Although this is typically por-
trayed as a meditational practice, buddha\nusmrti is also a mediating prac-
tice, in that it can make present the absent Buddha. Recollection of the
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 127
Buddha also often explicitly involves the use of physical images in addi-
tion to the creation of a mental image of the Buddhawhat might be
called iconographic thought about the Buddha.
In the Pa\li materials, anussati tends to be rather low on the scale of
things, a preliminary step in the more complex systems of meditation.
Winston King, for instance, calls the different forms of anussati prelim-
inary low-level techniques in which ones mood is set favorably toward
the meditative process but that produce no recognized level of higher
awareness. . . . [T]his type of meditation never reaches that deep inner iso-
lation of consciousness, completely cut off from outer stimuli, that takes
place in the jha\nas.
56
In this light, buddha\nussati is a kind of meditational
warm-up, a rather simple exercise intended to clear the slate for the
higher levels of jha\nic attainment. Edward Conze notes that the descrip-
tions of the recollections are rather sober and restrained, without great
emotional fervour. This is the way of the Theravadins.
57
Anussati, accord-
ing to Paul Harrison, is a kind of exercise in the power of positive think-
ing, but of the most abstract kind.
58
Buddha\nussati is the first item in a larger list of either six or ten things
to which one should devote ones thoughts;
59
it is a name for mindfulness
with the Buddhas virtues as object.
60
Buddhaghosa, in his long exposi-
tion of the different forms of anussati, opens his description of
buddha\nussati in this way:
Now a meditator with absolute confidence who wants to develop firstly
the recollection of the Enlightened One among these then should go into
solitary retreat in a favourable abode and recollect the special qualities
of the Enlightened One, the Blessed One, as follows: That Blessed One
is such since he is accomplished, fully enlightened, endowed with (clear)
vision and (virtuous) conduct, sublime, the knower of worlds, the
incomparable leader of men to be tamed, the teacher of gods and men,
enlightened and blessed.
61
The effect of this practice is the greater concentration of the mind that then
enables one to move on to the cultivation of the higher jha\nas. As he con-
tinues to exercise applied thought and sustained thought upon the Enlight-
ened Ones special qualities, says Buddhaghosa, happiness arises in
him (Visuddhimagga 229). This leads to tranquility and bliss: When he
is blissful, his mind, with the Enlightened Ones special qualities for its
object, becomes concentrated, and so the jhana factors eventually arise in
a single moment (Visuddhimagga 22930). There is thus a sort of
mimetic rationale for the development of buddha\nussati in the Pa\li texts;
JACOB N. KINNARD 128
one is to concentrate on the qualities of the Buddha in order to emulate
him and, in the process, to develop those virtues he exemplifies.
Mimesis is not, however, the only rationale for recollecting the Bud-
dha.
62
At the end of the section in the Visuddhimagga enumerating the var-
ious qualities of the Buddha, Buddhaghosa states: When a bhikkhu is
devoted to this recollection of the Buddha, he is respectful and deferential
toward the Master. He attains fullness of faith, mindfulness, understand-
ing and merit. He has much happiness and gladness. He conquers fear and
dread. He is able to endure pain. He comes to feel as if he were living in
the Masters presence.
63
Thus by recollecting and concentrating on the
Buddhas many virtues, the meditator creates a mental picture so vivid and
lifelike that the absent Buddha is made present.
64
It is not, perhaps, immediately clear what these recollectionsthese
mental imageshave to do with visual images made of stone and wood.
Buddhaghosa does not introduce any specifically visual language here,
although his long elaboration of the special qualities of the Buddha does,
in a way, create a visual image of the Buddha, such that: When he encoun-
ters an opportunity for transgression, he has awareness of conscience and
shame as vivid as though he were face to face with the Master (Visud-
dhimagga 230). In the Vimuttimagga,
65
however, this visual aspect is made
explicit: If a man wishes to meditate on the Buddha, he should worship
Buddha images and such other objects.
66
The text does not mention med-
itation on the Buddhas physical form anywhere, but as Harrison has noted,
this reference in the Vimuttimagga is a tantalizing clue.
67
Harrison sees a
gradual movement in terms of the conception of the Buddha. At first, the
Buddha was a teacher and exemplary religious figure, and the emphasis
was, as we have seen, on hearing the dharma directly from him and, later,
conforming to the model he had established while alive. This paradigmatic
quality, however, is according to Harrison gradually replaced; the Buddha
becomes not so much a figure to be emulated as one to be worshipped. As
much as the corpus of his teachings (the Dharma) was preserved, transmit-
ted, and inexorably enlarged, his followers must still have felt keenly how
unfortunate it was to be deprived of his actual presence. . . . It is not too dif-
ficult to conceive how buddha\ nusmr ti was pressed into service in such cir-
cumstances, until practices were evolved that entailed not merely a remi-
niscence of the Buddha, but an imaginitive evocation of his presence by
means of structured meditative procedures.
68
Harrison has written extensively on an early Mahayana text that repre-
sents a developed form of buddha\ nusmr ti, a text that includes both a more
standard discussion of meditation on the physical body of the Buddha,
69
and
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 129
a detailed treatment of the importance of images in devotional practice. The
text is appropriately entitled the Pratyutpanna-buddha-sam mukha\ vasthita-
sama\ dhi-su\ tra (henceforth PraS),
70
the Su\ tra on the direct encounter with
the Buddhas of the present. The main point of this sutra is to provide prac-
titioners with the means to translate themselves into the presence of this or
that particular manifestation of the Buddha-principle for the purpose of
hearing the Dharma, which they subsequently remember and propagate to
others.
71
The Buddhas discussed in this text are not the historical Buddha
S: a\ kyamuni, but such figures as Amita\ bha; Harrison notes, however, that
these Buddhas are simply idealized clones of S: a\ kyamuni transposed to dif-
ferent world systems.
72
Although the PraS is largely concerned with meditational techniques
(hence the sama\dhi in the title), there are several very relevant discussions
of the use of images in the cultivation of this sama\dhi. For instance, the
sama\dhi itself is attained through an extremely detailed visualization of
the Buddha, in much the same way as we have seen in the Pa\li texts, but
with even greater attention to the iconographic qualities of the Buddhas
physical body. As Harrison puts it, To aid this detailed iconographical
visualization, practitioners are encouraged to imagine the Buddhas body
as resembling an image.
73
In the PraS, images act as a kind of visual cue:
If you desire this most excellent of sama\dhis
Paint pictures well, and construct images of the Incomparable
One,
Which have the marks complete, resemble the colour of gold,
Are large, and flawless.
74
By gazing at the artistically created physical image, the practitioner is thus
able to conjure up a detailed mental image of the Buddha; in turn, it is via
this mental visualization that one is fully able to recollect the Buddha, a
process that, if perfected, effectively brings the Buddha into the present.
Significantly, even this direct encounter with the Buddha is described in
the PraS in specifically iconographic terms: In that way those bod-
hisattvas will see the Tatha\gata (like) a beautifully set up beryl image.
75
This idea that the Buddhas physical body resembles an image is seen
elsewhere in early Mahayana texts. In what may be the earliest Mahayana
sutra in India, the Dao-xing jing of Lokaksema (compiled in 179 CE), we
encounter this passage:
The Buddhas body is like the images which men make after the Nirva\na
of the Buddha. When they see these images, there is not one of them who
JACOB N. KINNARD 130
does not bow down and make offering. These images are upright and
handsome; they perfectly resemble the Buddha and when men see them
they all rejoice and take flowers and incense to revere them.
76
The context of this passage is a conversation between the Bodhisattvas
Sada\prarudita, who is in search of the Praja\pa\ramita\ teachings, and
Dharmodgata, who guides and instructs Sada\prarudita.
77
The close inter-
play between the present (inanimate) image and the absent (animate) Bud-
dha is striking here. As we have already seen in the Pa\li texts, with the cre-
ation of the sandalwood image in the Prasenajit story, and the substitution
of the image for the departed Buddha in the midst of the assembled sangha
as described in the Samantapa\sadika\, the rationale for making and vener-
ating Buddha images passes fluidly between a commemorative sort of rep-
resentation of the absent Teacher, and a more ambiguous sort of recollec-
tion, one that explicitly makes present, really present, the Buddha. The
interplay between these conceptions of the significance of visual images
is particularly evident in Dharmodgatas discussion of images in the Dao-
xing jing. On the one hand, the image is there as a reminder: If there is a
man who has seen the Buddha in person, then after [the Buddhas]
Nirva\na he will remember the Buddha and for this reason make an
image. On the other hand, the image is more than a reminder, since it is
capable of activity: If men constantly see the Buddha [in the form of a
visual image] performing meritorious deeds, then they too will constitute
a perfect Buddha body, and be endowed with wisdom (see figure 5.1).
78
CONCLUSION: THE PERSISTENCE OF PASTNESS
In closing, I wish to return briefly to the passage from the Samantapa\ sa\ dika\
and the reference to the gifts given to the sangha, headed by the Buddha.
The passage tells us that in the past (pubbe) the Buddha himself was at the
head of the sangha, but now it is not the Buddha himself, but an image or a
reliquary (paima\ ya va\ cetiyassa va\ ). Gregory Schopen has analyzed the use
of the word pamukkha/pramukha in medieval inscriptional data, and he con-
cludes that the designationpramukha was never applied symbolically,
but always referred to actual individuals holding certain responsible posi-
tions.
79
Pramukha, Schopen argues, indicates that the Buddha himself was
thought to actually reside in the specifically named monastery.
80
The evi-
dence I have presented here concerning images is consistent with Schopens
assertion, and, I would argue, it is this conception of presence that is passed
on through the Pa\ la period and beyond.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 131
132
FIGURE 5.1. As amaha\pra\tiha\rya image (tenth century, Bihar, currently in the col-
lection of the National Museum in New Delhi). The central figure depicts the
Buddha at the time of his enlightenment and his victory over Ma\ra. The other
seven scenes are, from the top and moving clockwise: the Buddhas death (parinir-
vana), first sermon, descent from the Tra\yastrima heaven where he had gone to
teach his mother, gift of honey to the monkey at Vaia\l (the Buddhas compassion
and the importance of giving), birth, taming of the wild elephant Nlgiri (the
power of the teachings), and the miracle at S:ra\vast (representing the triumph of
the Buddhas teaching over all others). Photograph by Jacob N. Kinnard
What the evidence I have examined also illustrates, though, is that this
way of characterizing presencereal, even ontological presenceis per-
haps too narrow and too neat. With images the field of presence is consti-
tuted by several layers of overlapping discourse, several different concep-
tions of presence that are not always consistent with one another. We
should be more cautious, then, in how we characterize the way Buddhists
themselves have conceived of and perceived the presence of the Buddha
in relics and stupas and images. The language of the texts and inscriptions
may seem to indicate, unambiguously, that the Buddha was thought to
actually reside in the object in question; does it necessarily follow, how-
ever, that those who composed these texts and inscriptionsas well, say,
as those who actually gave gifts to the sangha with the Buddha at the head
in the form of a statuedid indeed believe that the living Buddha was
there in the stone image?
Jonathan Smith has examined a similar problem in a very different
context in his article, The Bare Facts of Ritual.
81
In this article, Smith
specifically examines a group of bear hunting rituals in which the partici-
pants are said to go through an elaborate, formalized ritual every time they
kill a bear; among other things, they ask the bear for permission to kill it,
and they kill it without shedding any blood. Smith reproduces, in sum-
mary form, the text of these rituals, a text that, if taken literally, indi-
cates that the participants in the rituals are, simply put, daft: [I]f we
accept all that we have been told by good authority, we will have accepted
a cuckoo-land where our ordinary, commonplace, commonsense under-
standings of reality no longer apply.
82
Smith argues, however, that to take such texts literally is to miss the
point. This is a kind of idealized language; the language of the ritual, and
the ritual itself, is intended as a way of making up for an incongruity, of
creating an idealized version of the world. As Smith puts it, there is a gap
between their ideological statements of how they ought to hunt and their
actual behavior while hunting.
83
What the bear hunting ritual represents
indeed, for Smith, what all rituals representis a conscious strategy
intended to bridge the gap; Ritual is a means of performing the way things
ought to be in conscious tension to the way things are in such a way that
this ritual perfection is recollected in the ordinary, uncontrolled, course of
things. . . . [T]he ritual is unlike the hunt. It is, once more, a perfect hunt
with all the variables controlled.
84
If we apply Smiths view of ritual to the Pa\la periodto, say, images
such as the Asamaha\pra\tiha\rya stelaewe can see how such images
represent, or are, a strategy of choice, a way of creating an ideal world in
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 133
contrast to the actual one. The real world, of course, is marked by the
absence of the historical Buddha. What, then, is the idealized world? Pre-
cisely that contained in the Asamaha\pra\tiha\rya images. Here the Bud-
dha is not so much made present, but the believing viewer is made past.
The image transports one into the pastinto the pubbe of the Saman-
tapa\sa\dika\the ideal time when the Buddha was alive, preaching the
dharma, defeating Ma\ra, and so on; the image transports the viewer into
a time when these places were not merely shrines and the Buddha was not
merely a presence but a living being.
In the end, I would agree with John Huntingtons emphasis on the
narrative, almost instructive function of images such as the
As amaha\pra\tiha\rya, and I would also say that he is correct in positing the
total representation of Buddhism in the image, such that, in Collins
words, the whole story is implicitly present.
85
What I have attempted to
demonstrate here, however, is that there is more to the picture than meets
the eye. There is a field of practice underlying not only the production of
such imagesthat is, what sorts of conventions are handed down
(parampara)but also the reception of such images. Let us recall Bour-
dieus point: A work of art, be it intended for decorative purposes, for
commodity exchange, for religious worship, must be recognized as such,
and the ability to recognize it depends on the field of practice, the larger
habitus in which the work is situated. What I have attempted to uncover
here are merely some of the highlights of that field. Thus a piece of stone
or clay, such as the small terra cotta versions of As amaha\pra\tiha\rya that
were common in medieval northeast India, is at once a pilgrims memento,
a reminder of a significant journey (or a token in lieau of such a journey)
and also a representation of the Buddhas entire life and entire teachings;
such an image creates an opportunity to remember the Buddha in the
anusmrti sense and thus to conjur him up mentally; such an image also
creates the Buddhas very presence (see figure 5.1).
Certainly I am not suggesting that a Buddhist layperson living in,
say, Bihar in the middle of the tenth century would have necessarilyor
even possiblybeen consciously aware of all of the layers underlying
the image to which he or she was performing a buddhapu\ja or
buddha\nusmrti exercise. On the contrary, these are the self-evident
givens that, according to Bourdieu, constitute any field of practice. Per-
haps, then, the language of presence, with all of its baggage, is ultimately
fitting for discussing the field of Buddha images; for presence is just
vague enough, just broad enough, and just elusive enough to encompass
such a field.
JACOB N. KINNARD 134
NOTES
1. Reginald A. Ray, Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and
Orientations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 344.
2. Paul Mus, quoted in Benisti, Etude sur le stu\pa linde ancienne, Bulletin
de lEcole Francaise 50 (1960): 51.
3. Sushila Pant, The Origin and Development of the Stupa Architecture in
India, Journal of Indian History 51, no. 3 (1973): 472.
4. Nancy Falk, To Gaze on the Sacred Traces, History of Religions 16, no.
4 (1977): 283.
5. Akira Hirakawa, The Rise of Maha\ya\na Buddhism and Its Relationship to
the Worship of Stu\pas, Memoires of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunkyo
22 (1963): 88.
6. Peter Harvey, The Symbolism of the Early Stu\pa, Journal of the Inter-
national Association of Buddhist Studies 7, no. 2 (1984): 69.
7. Gregory Schopen, Burial Ad Sanctos and the Physical Presence of the
Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism, Religion 17 (1987): 203; and On the Bud-
dha and His Bones, Journal of Indian Philosophy 108, no. 4 (1990): 181217.
8. Adrian Snodgrass, The Symbolism of the Stupa (Ithaca: Studies in South-
east Asia, 1985), 360, 363.
9. Donald Swearer, History of Religions 34, no. 3 (1995): 15.
10. See Malcolm David Eckel, To See the Buddha (San Francisco:
Harper/Collins, 1992).
11. See Kevin Trainor, Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rema-
terializing the Sri Lankan Therava\da Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1997).
12. See below for a discussion of the indigenous terms for images; see also
Schopen, The Buddha as an Owner of Property and Permanent Resident in
Medieval Indian Monasteries, Journal of Indian Philosophy 18 (1990): 181217,
particularly the lengthy note (20) on page 208.
13. Reginald Ray, Buddhist Saints, 416.
14. See Vidya Dehejia, On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art,
Art Journal 49 (1990): 37492.
15. Steven Collins, Nirva\na, Time, and Narrative, History of Religions 31
(1992): 241.
16. For some tentative suggestions on dates, see John Huntington, Pilgrimage
as Image: The Cult of the As amaha\pra\tiha\rya, part 1, Orientations 18, no. 4
(1987): 5563; and part 2, Orientations 18, no. 8 (1987): 5668.
17. There is a short textextant in Chinese and Tibetan onlythat describes
these eight places; see Hajime Nakamura, The As amaha\stha\nacaityastotra and
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 135
the Chinese and Tibetan Versions of a Text Similar to It, in Indianisme et boud-
dhisme: Mlanges offerts Mgr. tienne Lamotte (Louvain-La-Neuve: Univer-
sitea\ Catholique de Louvain, Institute Orientaliste, 1980).
18. John Huntington, Pilgrimage as Image, pt. 1:55 and pt. 2:6768.
19. The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed,
trans. Richard Nice; originally published in Poetics (Amsterdam) 12, nos. 45
(1983): 31156; reprinted in Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production:
Essays on Art and Literature, ed. and intro. Randal Johnson (New York: Colum-
bia University Press, 1993), 33.
20. Ibid., 35; emphasis added. See also, in the same volume, Outline of a
Sociological Theory of Art Perception, 21537.
21. See Lal Mani Joshis Preliminary Observations to his Religious
Changes in Late Indian Buddhist History, Buddhist Studies Review 8, nos. 12
(1991): 4564, and vol. 9, no. 2 (1992): 15368.
22. As Julien Ries has put it: In the cross, the entire ancient symbol system
is assumed, but it is now placed within the context of a new vision of history
framed by the theology of creation and redemption. In the eyes of the Christian,
the cross is considered inseparable from the mystery of the divine Logos. Hence
it takes on a cosmic dimension, a biblical dimension, and a soteriological dimen-
sion (Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade [New York: MacMillan,
1987], 4:165).
23. Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1977), 72. See also Bourdieus discussion of habitus in The
Logic of Practice (Stanford: Standford University Press, 1990), especially chap-
ter 3.
24. See Alfred Foucher, LOrigine grecque de limage du Bouddha, Annales
du Musee Guimet, Bibliotheque de vulgarisation, tome 38 (Chalon-sur-Saone,
1913), 23172. In this highly influential article, Foucher first articulates the view
that the origins of the earliest Buddha images were Greek; see also Foucher, The
Beginnings of Buddhist Art, in Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and
Other Essays in Indian and Central Asian Archaeology (Paris: Paul Geuthner,
1917), 129; originally published in Journal Asiatique, Jan.Feb. 1911. Perhaps
the most vocal opponent of this theory was Ananda Coomaraswamy. See his Ori-
gin of the Buddha Image, The Art Bulletin 11, no. 4 (1927): 143; and also his
Indian Origin of the Buddha Image, Journal of the American Oriental Society
46 (1926): 16570.
25. See Susan Huntington, Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism,
Art Journal 49 (1990): 40107, for a useful survey of the relevant points here.
Also see A. K. Narain, First Images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas: Ideology
and Chronology, in Studies in Buddhist Art of South Asia, ed. A. K. Narain (New
Delhi: Kanak Publications, 1985), 121, as well as John Huntingtons article, in
the same volume, The Origin of the Buddha Image: Early Image Traditions and
JACOB N. KINNARD 136
the Concept of Buddhadaranapunya\, pp. 2458. See also Paul Mus, The
Iconography of an Aniconic Art, RES 14 (1987): 528.
26. See for instance J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, New Evidence with Regard
to the Origin of the Buddha Image, in South Asian Archaeology 1979, ed. Her-
bert Hartel (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1981).
27. There are many places in both the Canon and the Commentaries in which
this point is emphasized. For a useful discussion of buddhavacana in the Pa\li
Theravada context, see George Bond, The Word of the Buddha (Colombo: M. D.
Gunasena, 1982), 133; see also Paul Griffiths, On Being Buddha: The Classical
Doctrine of Buddhahood (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994),
particularly pp. 4641; and also Jos Ignazio Cabezn, Buddhism and Language:
A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994), especially chapters 2 and 3. The phrase evam me sutam has gener-
ated a fair amount of controversy in Buddhist studies; see John Brough, Thus
have I heard . . ., Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 13, no.
1 (1949): 41626; and, more recently, Jonathan A. Silk, A Note on the Opening
Formula of Buddhist Su\\tras, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies 12, no. 1 (1987): 15863.
28. Dgha Nika\ya (DN), T. W. Rhys Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter, eds. (Lon-
don: Pali Text Society, 194960).
29. The Buddhas advice to him in this matter is twofold: first, he must be dili-
gent and earnest in his own efforts (DN 2:144); and second, he and the other dis-
ciples must realize that after the Buddhas parinibba\na the dhamma will continue:
Oh Ananda, that Dhamma and Vinaya has been made known and taught to you
by me; after me (after Im gone) that is your Teacher (DN 2:154).
30. See Collins, Nirva\na, 236.
31. Andrew Rawlinson has gone so far as to argue that seeing the Buddha and
hearing the sound of his voice were the defining motifs in the emergence of the
Mahayana. He sees the Mahayana appearing suddenly and with great power.
At the heart of this sudden appearance is a transformative experience: This
experience was nothing less than direct contact with the Buddha. By direct con-
tact I mean three things: (a) a vision of the Buddha (buddha-darana) (b) hear-
ing the Buddhas voice (buddha-abda) (c) immersement in the Buddhas knowl-
edge (buddha-jana). See his Visions and Symbols in the Maha\ya\na, in
Perspectives on Indian Religion: Papers in Honour of Karel Werner, Bibliotheca
Indo-Buddhica, no. 30, ed. Peter Connolly (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications,
1986), 191.
32. Eckel, 1.
33. tienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the
S:aka Era, Sara Webb-Boin, trans. (Louvain-la-Neuve: Universit catholique de
Louvain, Institut orientaliste, 1988).
34. Ibid., 645.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 137
35. Gregory Schopen has argued that this is a fundamental misconception
about Indian Buddhism. See his On Monks, Nuns and Vulgar Practices: The
Introduction of the Image Cult into Indian Buddhism Artibus Asiae 49, nos. 12
(1988): 15368. According to the evidence Schopen presents, it was the monas-
tics who initiated and disproportionately supported the cult of images at Sa\rna\th
[among other places] in the early periods. . . . A picture of the actual Indian Bud-
dhist monk and nun is gradually emerging, and these monks and nuns differ
markedly from the ideal monk and nun which have been presented on the basis of
textual material alone. The actual monk, unlike the textual monk, appears to have
been deeply involved in religious giving and cult practice of every kind from the
very beginning (155, 167).
36. I have translated the Pa\li ossahaviriyo bhikkhu as remiss bhikkhu,
although the commpound ossahaviriyo means literally one whose energy
(viriyo) is let loose (ossaha). It would make equal semantic sense to translate
this phrase as diligent bhikkhu, since the ossaha can also have the sense of put
forth. The redactors of this Ja\taka are obviously playing on this compound,
although it is difficult to say, exactly, how they intend it to be taken. Either the
young monk achieves arhat status as a result of his former diligence, or achieves
itrather paradoxically, in my opinionas a result of seeing and hearing the
Buddha.
37. There are several versions of this story, in the Anguttara Nika\ya (AN), as
well as the commentary on the Dhammapada.
38. Samyutta Nika\ya (SN) 3:120. The episode concludes with Vakkali com-
mitting suicide, although the Buddha then declares that, in fact, Vakkali had
already been parinibutto at the time of his death. For more on such suicides, see
Martin G. Wiltshire, The Suicide Problem in the Pa\li Canon, Journal of the
International Association of Buddhist Studies 6, no. 2 (1983): 12440.
39. The Pa\li is obha\sam, the most immediate sense of which is appearance.
40. See, for instance, Ananda Coomaraswamys interesting article, Samvega,
Aesthetic Shock, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7 (194243): 17479;
Alex Wayman, The Buddhist Theory of Vision, in Buddhist Insight: Essays by
Alex Wayman, ed. George Elder (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984), 15361;
Stephan Beyer, Notes on the Vision Quest in Early Maha\ya\na, in
Praja\pa\ramita\ and Related Systems: Studies in Honour of Edward Conze, ed.
Lewis Lancaster (Berkeley: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1977), 32940.
41. Reginald Ray, Buddhist Saints in India, 52.
42. The earliest textual references to images seem to be from the Mathura\
inscriptions. See H. Luders and K. L. Janert, Mathura Inscriptions (Gottingen,
1961), nos. 4, 9, 29, 74, 135, 167, and 180, among others.
43. It is perhaps significant that these references occur in the Vinaya commen-
tary, since much of the fuel behind the aniconic thesis about early Buddhist art has
been a purported ban on images in the Vinaya. In fact, only one such passage
JACOB N. KINNARD 138
occurs, in the Mulasarva\stava\din-Vinaya, where the Buddha is said to have
explicitly prohibited the use of images. See the appendix to Arthur Waleys arti-
cle, Did the Buddha Die of Eating Pork? Mlanges chinois et bouddhiques 1
(1932): 35254. See also G. Roth, The Physical Presence of the Buddha, in
Investigating Indian Art (Berlin: Museum fr Indische Kunst, 1987), 30405. One
of the most commonly cited passages to support the purported ban on images is
the Kalingabodhi Ja\taka (J 4:228). Stanley Tambiah has seen in this passage an
early Buddhist view against the representation of the Buddha in human form; see
his Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of the Amulets (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1984), 201. In this ja\taka, Ana\thapindika learns that
while the Buddha is away from Jetavana on pilgrimage, the people of Sa\vatthi, in
the absence of the Buddha, leave garlands and wreaths at the gateway of the Bud-
dhas chambers. Ana\thapindika goes to A|nanda and tells him that the monastery
is unsupported (nipaccayei.e., without the four requisites, since there is no
place for the laypeople to deliver them, or no Buddha to receive them) while the
Buddha is on pilgrimage. He asks A|nanda to speak to the Buddha in order to find
out whether there is a place for such offerings. The Buddha informs A|nanda that
of the three kinds of memorials (cetiya\ni), a bodily memorial (sarraka) is not
proper because the Buddha is not dead; an uddesika memorial is not proper
because it depends on imagination (uddesikam avatthukam manamattakena hoti);
a bodhi tree (here, presumably, a pa\ribhogika shrine), however, is fit for worship.
The Buddha thus allows A|nanda to have a bodhi tree planted. Tambiah has sug-
gested that the Buddha rejects personalized (i.e., uddesika) symbols because
such are groundless and merely fanciful, that is, they are only artificially, arbi-
trarily, and by convention referable to the absent being (20102). Tambiah is
placing a great deal of emphasis on the word avatthuka here. Literally, this means
without ground. This, however, is not some general indictment of image wor-
ship (or an iconoclastic precedent, as Tambiah suggests on p. 202). No images
are, in fact, mentioned in this passage. Rather, the specific discussion is about
what sort of structure would be most appropriate to allow laypeople to bring alms
and flowers to the monastery in the Buddhas absence.
44. These are perhaps the most common terms for physical (i.e., artistic)
images. The precise distinction between the two is not at all clear, however. Vig-
gaha (Sk. vigra\ ha) derives from the Vedic root /grah, grasp, grab, seize, with the
prefix vi here serving as an intensifier. Hence the viggaha seizes that which it
depictsor it enables the viewer to seize on to it. Paima\ (Sk. pratima\ ) comes from
the verbal root /ma\ , measure, with the suffix pai functioning here as a compar-
ison, as in that which is measured against the original, or copied. Other terms
from images are ru\ pam(form, often as buddharu\ pamsee Visuddhimagga (VM)
228, or the particularly interesting episode in the Samantapa\ sa\ dika\ (SP) in which
Aoka convinces a na\ gara\ ja to create an image of the Buddha for him to see, at
which point the text reads: Buddha-ru\ pam passanto satt-divasa\ ni akkhi-pu\ jam
na\ ma aka\ si, SP 4344), bimba and paibimba (see VM 190, Vima\navatthu 50), and
occasionally sarra (J 5:98). Other terms can also refer to images, although in a
more general sense, such as vesa (i.e., dress, disguise, appearance), and obha\ sa.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 139
45. Walpola Rahula is thus incorrect when he states that the Buddha image,
though in existence at the time, was not given a place in the scheme of worship
by the Pa\li Commentaries. . . . [T]he image is completely ignored. See his His-
tory of Buddhism in Ceylon (Colombo: M. D. Gunasena, 1956), 126.
46. Ibid. Rahula notes, An image was considered important only if relics were
enshrined in it. Without them it was a thing of little or no religious value.
47. Collins writes about a remarkably similar passage that occurs in
Nirva\na, 237.
48. See note 30 in this chapter.
49. Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Chris-
tianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 50.
50. Ibid., 88.
51. See John Huntington, The Origin of the Buddha Image: Early Image Tra-
ditions and Concept of Buddhadaranapunya\, in Studies in Buddhist Art of South
Asia, ed. A. K. Narain (New Delhi: Kanak, 1985), 3233.
52. A. Waley notes that there is a version in the Ekottara\ gama, as well as vari-
ous Mahayana and Hnaya\ na texts translated into Tibetan and Chinese; see Did
the Buddha Die of Eating Pork? 35354. See also Richard Gombrichs interesting
discussion of the Kosala-Bimba-Van n ana\ , a medieval Sri Lankan text in Pa\ li (the
text as well as Gombrichs translation are printed in the article), in Buddhism in
Ceylon and Studies on Religious Syncretism in Buddhist Countries, ed. Heinz
Bechert, Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung, 1, Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Gttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, Dritte Folge, no. 108 (Gttingen: Van-
denhoeck and Ruprecht, 1978), 281303. See also Padmandabh S. Jaini, On the
Buddha Image, in Studies in Pali and Buddhism: A Homage Volume to the Mem-
ory of Bhikkhu Jagdish Kashyap, ed. A. K. Narain (Delhi: B. R. Publishing,1979),
18388; here Jaini discusses a Thai story in a Burmese manuscript of the Prasena-
jit story, contained within the Burmese Ja\ taka collection as the Vaan gulira\ ja-
Ja\ taka (no. 37). For a particularly thorough account of the literature on this topic,
including Chinese materials, see also G. Roths excellent article, The Physical
Presence of the Buddha and Its Representation in Buddhist Literature, in Investi-
gating Indian Art (Berlin: Museum fr Indische Kunst, 1987), 291312. A story
similar to the Prasenajit story occurs at the beginning of the Pratima\ laks an am, a
ilpasa\ stra (the date of which is far from clear) that describes in great detail the
proper proportions of a Buddha image. In this version it is S: a\ riputra who asks the
Buddha how he is to be honored when he is away (in the Tus ita Heaven), to which
the Buddha responds: Oh S: a\ riputra! When I am gone or when I attain parinirva\ n a,
[my] body is to be made [as a] well-proportioned body [or image]. See Jitendra
Nath Banerjeas extensive notes in Pratima\ laks an am Journal of the Department
of Letters 23 (Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1933).
53. The Travels of Fa hsien, trans. H. A. Giles (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1923), 3031.
JACOB N. KINNARD 140
54. Samuel Beal, trans., Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World
(London: Routledge, 1884), 1:236. In a footnote, Beal gives the somewhat less
hyperbolic: To teach and convert with diligence the unbelieving, to open the way
for guiding future generations, this is your work.
55. I borrow this phrase, out of context, from Stephan Beyer; see his Notes on
the Vision Quest in Early Maha\ya\na, in Praja\pa\ramita\ and Related Systems:
Studies in Honour of Edward Conze, ed. Lewis Lancaster (Berkeley: Berkeley
Buddhist Studies Series, 1977), 32940.
56. Winston King, Therava\da Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of
Yoga (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980), 33, 38.
57. Edward Conze, Buddhist Meditation (London: George Allen and Unwin,
1956), 28. Conze here is following in a long line of rationalizers of Buddhism
those who wish to portray as pure Buddhism that which has no taint of what
Conze, later in the same volume, calls practices which offered salvation at a
cheap price (p. 61). See Philip Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), for a particularly good discus-
sion of this rationalizing construction of Buddhism.
58. Paul Harrison, Commemoration and Identification in Buddha\nusmti, in
In the Mirror of Memory, ed. Janel Gyatso (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1992), 21617.
59. See AN 5:32832 for the six-fold list and AN 1:30 for the ten-fold.
60. This is Pe Maung Tins translation of the Visuddhimagga, Pali Text Soci-
ety Translation Series, nos. 11, 17, and 21 (London: Luzac, 1971), 226.
61. This is a\namolis translation, p. 206. Buddhaghosas commentary is on
the standard formula for buddha\nussati: Iti pi bhagava\ araham samma\sambud-
dho vijja\carana-sampanno sugato lokavidu\ anuttaro purisadammasa\rathi sattha\
devamanussa\nam buddho bhagava\ ti (D 1:49; AN 3:285).
62. Harrison has noted that there is an apotropaic function to anussati; at S
1:218, for instance, the Buddha is said to have prescribed the first three anussati
as a method to ward off fear while meditating in solitary places. See Harrison,
Commemoration, 218.
63. VM 230, emphasis mine.
64. Paul Williams has drawn attention to a scene from the Sutta Nipa\ta that
illustrates precisely this sort of presence created via the practice of buddha\nussati.
Significantly, the episode is almost the mirror opposite of the Vakkali story. In the
SN, a monk, Pingiya, is asked why he does not spend all of his time with the Bud-
dha. Pingiya responds that he is old and frail, that his body is decaying. However,
he says that there is no moment for me, however small, that is spent away from
the Gotama, from this universe of wisdom, this world of understanding. . . . [W]ith
constant and careful vigilance it is possible for me to see him with my mind as
clearly as with my eyes, in night as well as day. And since I spend my nights rever-
ing him, there is not, to my mind, a single moment spent away from him [vv.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 141
1140, 1142]. See Paul Williams, Maha\ya\na Buddhism (New York: Routledge,
1989), 21718.
65. The relationship between these two texts is, to say the least, ambiguous,
and is not really relevant here. See P. V. Bapat, Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga:
A Comparative Study (Calcutta: J. C. Sarkhel, 1937).
66. In Eharas translation, p. 141.
67. Harrison has pointed out that in the Chinese translations of the Sanskrit
A|gamas, in particular the Ekottara\gama III, buddha\nusmti is propounded as the
one practice for realizing all spiritual goals and [it] recommends that practioners
contemplate the image of the Buddha without taking their eyes off it, that they call
to mind the body and the countenance of the Buddha and then his moral and men-
tal qualities, arranged under the traditional rubrics of morality, mediation, wis-
dom, liberation, and the cognition and vision of liberation (see Harrison, Com-
memoration, 220).
68. Paul Harrison, Buddha\nusmrti in the Pratyutpanna-Buddha-Sammuk-
ha\vasthita-Sama\dhi-Su\tra, Journal of Indian Philosophy 6 (1978): 37. Harrison
produces a translation here of a particularly relevant passage in the Ekottara\gama
(extant only in the Chinese translations of the Sanskrit) in which buddha\nusmrti
is discussed: Without entertaining any other thought he earnestly calls to mind
(anusmr-) the Buddha. He contemplates the image of the Tatha\gata without tak-
ing his eyes off it (see ibid., 38). Image here is denoted by the Chinese hsing,
and Harrison notes that it is unclear whether it refers to a mental image or a phys-
ical one, or both.
69. I say more standard here because this attention to the magnificant quali-
ties of the Buddhas body are common in the Pa\li materials as well as the early
Mahayana texts.
70. See Paul Harrisons edited version, along with a translation, The Sama\dhi
of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present (Tokyo: The International
Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990).
71. Ibid., xx.
72. Harrison, Commemoration, 220.
73. Ibid., 222.
74. Harrison, Direct Encounter, 47.
75. Ibid., 40.
76. Lewis R. Lancaser, An Early Mahayana Sermon about the Body of the
Buddha and the Making of Images, Artibus Asiae 36, no. 4 (1974): 289.
77. This part of the story is not contained in the Sanskrit recension of the
As asa\hasrika\praja\pa\ramita\su\tra, the text upon which Lokaksemas Dao-xing-
jing is based.
78. Lancaster, An Early Mahayana Sermon, 289.
JACOB N. KINNARD 142
79. Schopen, The Buddha as an Owner of Property, 191.
80. Ibid., 192.
81. Jonathan Smith, The Bare Facts of Ritual, History of Religions 20, no. 2
(1980): 11227. See also Smith, I Am a Parrot (Red), History of Religions 11,
no. 4 (1971): 391413.
82. Jonathan Smith, The Bare Facts of Ritual, 122.
83. Ibid., 123.
84. Ibid., 125, 127.
85. See note 15 in this chapter.
THE FIELD OF THE BUDDHA S PRESENCE 143
INTRODUCTION
ON JULY 8, 1993, THE HIGHLY REVERED THAI MONK BUDDHADA\ SA BHIKKHU
died. Prior to his death he penned the following verses:
Buddhada\sa shall live; theres no dying.
Even when the body dies, it will not listen.
Wherever it is or goes is of no consequence;
It is only something passing through time.
Even when I die and the body ceases,
My voice still echoes in comrades ears,
Clear and bright, as loud as ever.
Just as if I never died, the Dhamma-body lives on.
Buddhada\sas poetic necromancy is reminiscent of Gotama Buddhas
admonition that after his death, the dhamma will be his successor. Pa\li
sources reveal a dispute regarding not that but how the absent, parinib-
baned Buddha will be presenced. The debate focused on whether Gotama
Buddha would be presenced by his teaching, namely the dhamma, or in
objects such as bodily relics or other material signs.
1
The sides in the
debate cannot be precisely delineated, although it is much too simplistic
to identify the dhamma contenders with a monastic elite, and the material
sign advocates with lay devotional piety.
145
CHAPTER SIX
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA
IN NORTHERN THAI CHRONICLES
Donald K. Swearer
The Pa\li suttas suggest that the disagreement was not framed solely in
terms of the post-nibba\ned Buddha, the context popularized in current
scholarship by the terminology of absence versus presence, but that it
arose during the Buddhas own lifetime. From this perspective, the Bud-
dhas answer to the question about his identity or nature connects with the
Buddhas parinibba\na legacy. The Buddhas claim that he is not a god or
a divine being but the fully enlightened one (samma\sambuddha) repre-
sents but one side in a debate about his nature and mission. From the very
beginning of his career, the Blessed One was revered not only as the
enlightened teacher of the dhamma realized on the night of his enlighten-
ment but in a variety of other waysa divine being; a yogi with super-
natural powers; an ascetic sage whose very touch could heal, protect, and
bring other benefits. Illustrations of disagreement about the Buddhas
nature and mission abound in canonical and commentarial literature as,
for example, in the following account of the Prince Bodhi Sutta in the
Majjhima Nika\ya, an episode also recorded in the Cullavagga.
On one occasion when the Blessed One was staying at Sum suma\ ragira,
Prince Bodhi invited the Buddha and his disciples to receive the noon meal
at Kokanada, his newly constructed palace. Descending from the verandah
to greet the Blessed One, Prince Bodhi asked the Buddha to step on the
white cloth he had draped over the staircase saying, Venerable sir, let the
Blessed One step on the cloth, let the Sublime One step on the cloth, that
it may lead to my welfare and happiness for a long time.
2
The commen-
tary specifies that by this act Prince Bodhi, who was childless, hoped to
have a son. After making the request a second and third time A|nanda
asked the prince to remove the cloth, saying, The Blessed One will not
step on a strip of cloth; the Tatha\gata has regard for future generations.
The commentary stipulates that A|nanda was concerned lest people honor
monks as a way of ensuring the fulfillment of their mundane wishes and
lose faith in the sangha if their displays of honour do not bring the suc-
cess they desire.
3
The commentarys disclaimer regarding the power of a
material signin this case a relic of associationappears to be a quali-
fied one, however. The white cloth touched by the Buddhaor his
bhikkhusmight, indeed, lead to the hoped for result, but if it does not,
the laity might lose faith in the Buddha and his sangha. It should be
pointed out that the onus appears to fall on the laitys act of veneration
rather than power of the material sign.
In this chapter I propose to examine the signs of the Buddha and their
power as constructed in a particular northern Thai text representative of a
DONALD K. SWEARER 146
popular literary genre that flourished in northern Thailand between the fif-
teenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter is divided into two sections,
a background discussion of the literary genre known in northern Thai as
tamna\n (chronicle) followed by a study of the narrative from the perspec-
tive of the material signs of the Buddha.
THE CHRONICLE GENRE
In the first chapter of his influential book, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History
of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (1976), Charnvit Kaset-
siri analyzes the conceptualization of ancient Thai history. Noting that the
Thai word prawatsat (Sanskrit pravatia\stra), history, was coined dur-
ing the reign of King Ra\ma VI (19101925), he points out that prior to the
twentieth century the words most frequently used to denote history were
tamna\n, phongsa\wada\n, and jotmaiht.
4
Charnvit does not specifically
mention the Thai term wongsa (Pa\li and Sanskrit vamsa), perhaps because
it comprises the first segment of phongsa\wada\n (Sanskrit vamsa +
a\vata\ra). Phongsa\wada\n, as for example in the Phongsa\wada\n Yo\nok
(The Chronicle of Yo\nok [Northern Thailand]), a late nineteenth-century
chronicle compiled by Praya\ Pracha\kitkorajak, conveys the sense of
dynastic annals, an account of a royal line or kingdom. This sense of the
meaning of phongsa (vamsa) reflects one of the root meanings of the term,
which refers to the connecting links in a stalk of bamboo. Metaphorically,
royal genealogies link together to constitute a dynasty just as sections of
bamboo join to make a stalk or a trunk. Etymologically the Thai term
tamna\n conveys a meaning quite similar to vamsa.
5
Kasetsiri proposes that premodern Thai records or historical docu-
ments fall into two main categories, the history of Buddhism and the his-
tory of dynasties.
6
Tamna\n history or the history of Buddhism, he con-
tends, flourished from before the fifteenth century into the seventeenth
century from which point its influence began to decline. Dynastic history
or phongsa\wada\n history appeared in the seventeenth century and to a
great extent still governs the modern writing of Thai history.
7
Tamna\n
history highlights the Buddha and particular events in the development of
the tradition (sa\sana). For example, the best known northern Thai Pa\li
chronicle, the sixteenth-century Jinaka\lama\lpakaranam (The Sheaf of
Garlands of the Epochs of the Conqueror) begins with the lineal succes-
sion of the sa\sana commencing with the time of the aspiration of Gotama
to become a Buddha and a sketch of his life. The story then continues
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 147
through the major Buddhist councils, King Asoka, and an account of Bud-
dhism in Sri Lanka before moving to the establishment of Buddhism in
northern Thailand. Kasetsiri summarizes the nature of tamna\n history in
the following manner:
The main theme of tamnan history is clearly religion and it is the
Gotama Buddha who is the moving force in it. Its purpose is to describe
the development of Buddhism. Kings and kingdoms come into the pic-
ture in so far as their actions contribute to promoting Buddhism. History
in this sense is concerned not only with the past. The past is continuous
with the existence of the present and the present is also part of the future.
Thus the past, the present, and the future are parts of one whole, the his-
tory of Buddhism.
8
Kasetsiri traces the origin of phongsa\wada\n history to changes in
Thai society and contact with Europeans during the reign of King Narai
(16571688) of Ayutthaya\ (Ayudhya). The basic change is the growing
autonomy of the king and the court from the religious order. Historians
were now men who served the court rather than the monk scholars who
composed the religious chronicles. Phongsa\wada\n history, consequently,
tends to begin with the foundation of a kingdom and then list the activi-
ties of successive kings, unlike the tamna\n histories which begin with the
Buddha and have the history of Buddhism as their central concern.
9
Kasetsiris characterization of the dual historiography of premodern
Thailand has both strengths and weaknesses. The distinction between dif-
ferent types of historical documents representing differing views of the
nature of history
10
challenges the relatively loose sense of the meaning of
the English word chronicle. There has been a tendency to use chronicle
rather carelessly as a generic term for both tamna\n and phongsa\wada\n
views of history. The distinction between two types of historiography, reli-
gious and royal, needs to be refined, however. Kasetsiri himself acknowl-
edges that chronicles may, in fact, be hybrids, combining both ways of
reading history. He fails to make the point, however, that the broad, struc-
tural distinction between tamna\n and phongsa\wada\n history does not
account for the subtle and sometimes blatant distinctions among differing
kinds of historical documents. In particular, the tamna\n type of document
Kasetsiri outlines fits what might be characterized as classic tamna\n
such as the Pa\li Jinaka\lama\lpakaranam composed about 1517 by
Bhikkhu Ratanapanna, but it hardly fits another noted Pa\li chronicle, the
Ca\madevvamsa, written by Bhikkhu Bodhiramsi in the early fifteenth
century.
11
That the chronicle of Queen Ca\ma, the first ruler of Haripujaya
DONALD K. SWEARER 148
(modern Lamphu\n), is a vamsa might suggest that it should be classified
as dynastic rather than religious history. Although the Ca\madevvamsa
contains dynastic chronology, the writer is even more interested in legends
surrounding Queen Ca\mas accession to the throne of Haripujaya, King
Adittara\jas discovery of the Buddha relic enshrined today at Wat
Haripujaya, and the Buddhas visit to the region.
12
Even the Mu\lasa\sana\
chronicles of the Wat Pa\ Daeng and the Wat Suan Dok monastic lineages,
historical accounts of sectarian religious history, are as noteworthy for
their differences in style and content as they are representative of a type of
religious chronicle.
13
Furthermore, is it possible to classify under only one
genre the muang tamna\n (city-state chronicles) such as The Chiang Mai
Chronicle
14
and the various kinds of Buddha tamna\n about the Buddhas
travels in northern Thailand such as Phra Chao Liap Lo\k (The Buddha
Travels the World)?
Other students of northern Thai literature have suggested more diver-
sified tamna\n taxonomies. David K. Wyatt divides northern Thai tamna\n
into two broad categories: the tamna\n of the distant past or universal his-
tories in Pa\li and Thai, and monumental histories concerning Buddhist
images, relics, and institutions.
15
Hans Penth proposes five descriptive
classifications: chronicles that deal with the history of Buddhism, chroni-
cles about Buddha images, chronicles of religious sites, inscriptions, and
a miscellaneous category.
16
The term tamna\n covers such a wide variety of
texts that it may be best understood in the primitive sense of the term,
namely, a hollow stalk or container. That is to say, a tamna\n takes its def-
inition from its particular content rather than the other way around.
17
This
suggestion goes against the propensity of Western analytical scholarship
toward classification, but it may more accurately represent the variety of
documents that bear the title tamna\n.
18
This chapter focuses on the signs of the Buddha in the genre of pop-
ular Buddha tamna\n that abound in northern Thai monastery libraries, or
at least they did before monks began limiting their study almost exclu-
sively to the national monastic curriculum prescribed by the Thai national
sangha. These Buddha tamna\n come under the general classificaton of
vohara texts; that is, they are written in the Tai Yan vernacular, although
in a vestigial manner they retain the form of a Pa\li commentary. That is,
Pa\li words and phrases are interspersed throughout the textoften corrupt
and ungrammaticalgiving the impression that the vernacular functions
as an explanation of the Pa\li. In general terms, Buddha tamna\n texts share
a similar content. They treat in varying detail the Buddhas wanderings in
northern Thailand, his encounter with different ethnic and occupational
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 149
groupsLawa, Burmese, farmers, artisans, and so ontheir conversion
to the path of the tatha\gata, the establishment of particular historical and
religious sites or the prediction of their future appearance, and a passing
on of a legacy of Buddha relics, images, and footprints to ensure the suc-
cess of the Buddhas religion. Consequently, these narratives not only
evoke the Buddha as a figure of the past; they invoke his presentness
through his signs.
Very little critical, comparative work has been done on the northern
Thai Buddha tamna\ n.
19
These legendary accounts of the Buddha and his
material signs presuppose developments in the Theravada tradition associ-
ated with Buddha cult and devotion found in texts ranging from the
Maha\ parinibba\ na Sutta to the Pa\ li commentaries of the fifth century and
later. They are, furthermore, reminiscent of late Pa\ li texts composed in Sri
Lanka such as the Dha\ tuvam sa and Thu\ pavam sa as well as the stories
recorded in the diaries of the Chinese pilgrims Faxian (Fa-hsien, fifth cen-
tury) and Xuanzang (Hsang-tsang, seventh century). In addition to lengthy
Buddha tamna\ n of several palm leaf bundles that provide a broad, compre-
hensive history of the Buddhas travels in northern Thailand, virtually every
significant monastery temple (Thai wat) and every hill or mountain (Thai,
doi) topped by a cetiya reliquary (Thai ched) has its tamna\ n.
20
In many
cases, the histories in booklet form that are sold today at various wats in
northern Thailand are adapted from the tamna\ n histories of these sites.
Of course, the Buddha did not confine his travels to northern Thai-
land. Legendary chronicles have him traveling throughout Buddhist Asia,
but one can speculateand with more research possibly demonstrate
that northern Thailand produced a larger body of vernacular ja\taka stories
and Buddha tamna\n than other regions of Buddhist Asia. If that is the
case, then the question naturally arises: What was there in the northern
Thai religious, historical, and cultural milieu that led to such a rich prolif-
eration of ja\taka and Buddha tamna\n?
21
Perhaps future scholars of north-
ern Thai Buddhism will find an answer. When they do, we shall know
much more about the nature of the early religious history and practice of
the Tai than at present.
The particular text that serves as the backdrop for our examination of
signs of the Buddha is the Tamna\n Ang Salung (The Chronicle of [Sacred]
Water Basin Mountain). The name apparently derives from a basinlike
depression on the top of the mountain better known today as Doi Chiang
Dao (the Mountain of the Abode of the Stars) located about seventy kilo-
meters north of Chiang Mai on the way to the town of Fa\ng. Chiang Dao
resembles a molar tooth jutting abruptly above its immediate surround-
DONALD K. SWEARER 150
ings. Deep overhangs on the mountains western side have served as
retreats for hermits and holy men and women for generations. Natural
rock and mineral formations in the Chiang Dao cave have been given
supernatural attributions, and powerful spirits (devata\) are believed to
assemble in the largest cavern. In the caves antechamber visitors
encounter Burmese style cheds and alabaster Buddha images partially
illuminated by a window of light permeating the darkness through
crevices in the vaulted ceiling.
One of the Chiang Dao chronicles attributes the discovery of this holy
site to a legendary hermit who over a thousand years ago happened across
the cave mountain while searching for a peaceful place to pursue his reli-
gious practices.
22
Through the attainment of extraordinary mystic trance
states he gained the ability to communicate with the spirits inhabiting the
site. Various supernatural beingsdevata\, na\ga, yakkhabestowed upon
the holy man miraculous rewards including a gold Buddha image; a
golden pagoda and bodhi tree; and a magical elephant, horse, and sword.
The sage left an inscription in which he stipulated that those who wished
to see these magical creations must strictly observe the Buddhist precepts
to overcome greed, hatred, and delusion. Today, Chiang Dao cave guides
unhesitatingly point out formations representing and corroborating this
ancient tale, without, however, ascertaining the moral qualifications of
tourist or pilgrim.
Chiang Dao chronicles have various namesTamna\n Doi Luang Chi-
ang Dao (The Chronicle of Chiang Dao Mountain), Tamna\n Tham Chiang
Dao (The Chronicle of the Chiang Dao Cave)although they are similar
in content to Tamna\n Ang Salung. Chiang Dao was an early Tai historical
site,
23
but my interest is in the mythic and legendary aspects of the chron-
icle, not in historical information that might be derived from it.
24
In par-
ticular, I propose to explicate the chronicle for what it can tell us about the
worldview of the northern Thai and the nature of the Buddha as revealed
through his signs, that is, his relics.
25
The Tamna\ n Ang Salung can be analyzed as a composite of three dif-
ferent stories: the Buddhas travels in northern Thailand; the decline of
Buddhism in Jambudpa, including northern Thailand, beginning two thou-
sand five hundred years after the founding of the sa\ sana; and the story of
the Chiang Dao cave. The three stories are linked by Doi Ang Salung Chi-
ang Dao: Chiang Dao is one of the sites visited by the Buddha; the moun-
tain is associated with the concept of the Righteous King (dhammikara\ ja)
who will bring peace and order to the chaos of the declining world aeon;
and, finally, the Chiang Dao cave mountain is a sacred site in and of itself.
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 151
The text incorporates many Buddhasized folkloric elements. The folkloric
dimension of the text is acknowledged by the compiler himself, who refers
to the text as a tamna\ n nida\ na or a folklore tamna\ n. In the remainder of this
chapter I shall explore passages from each of the three sections of the text
in order to discern the tamnanic view of the person of Buddha, material
representations of the Blessed One, and the relationship between the two as
constructed within the chronicle narrative.
26
In conclusion, the emergent
picture of the Buddha and his material signs will be interpreted from three
perspectivesmagical, cosmological, and ontological.
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA IN THE TAMNA
\
N ANG SALUNG
In contrast to larger, comprehensive Buddha chronicles, the Tamna\n Ang
Salung does not begin with previous existences of the Buddha, his appear-
ance as Prince Siddhattha, or recount the development of Buddhism in
India and Sri Lanka. Rather, the text begins with the Buddha already pre-
sent in the Chiang Mai region. The Blessed One starts his travels at Doi
Kung, a sacred mountain site south of Chiang Mai proper, wandering pri-
marily in the Chiang Mai valley with occasional forays into the broader
reaches of the mythical space of Jambudpa. On his journeys, the Buddha
meets a Lawa farmer turning a water wheel to irrigate a field. Seeing the
Buddha approach, the farmer unwinds a turban from around his head and
uses it to wash the Buddhas feet. When he wraps the turban around his
head again, it miraculously turns into gold.
Residing temporarily at a mountain to the south of the Lawa village,
the Buddha and the arahants accompanying him are offered food by the
villagers. After the Buddha and the monks eat their meal,
King Asoka says to the Lawa, O, Lawa, there is no longer any need
for you to irrigate your fields with a water wheel. Take the precepts of
the Buddha and you will have sufficient food to eat. The Lawa then
take the five precepts from the Buddha. When the Lawa return home
they find that everything both inside and outside of their homes has
turned into gold. Amazed, they exclaim, In the past we worked our
fingers to the bone and still didnt have enough to eat. Now that we
have taken the Buddhas precepts we find that everything has turned to
gold. The Buddhas precepts are precious, indeed! We will observe
them all of our lives.
After the Buddha gave the Lawa the precepts, he spoke to the arahants:
Before I came here, the Lawa irrigated their fields with a water wheel
DONALD K. SWEARER 152
because this is a very dry area. Consequently, this place shall be known
as Hot. The arahants and King Asoka then said to the Buddha, Bhante
Bhagava\ . . . O, Blessed One, you should establish your religion
(sa\sana) here. The Lawa will worship you by raising tall banners (Thai
tung)
27
in your honor, and Brahman ascetics will burn their robes. Alarge
dwelling place (a\ra\ma) will be constructed for you and your disciples,
known as Jotika\ra\ma.
28
The arahants and King Asoka then took a hair
relic (kesadha\tu) from the Buddha, encased it in a container of bamboo,
and enshrined it in a gilded container seven hands high. After putting the
relic in a hole in the earth, they worshipped it. Indra placed a spear in the
ground at the site to protect the relic; the hole was covered up, and over
it a ched three hundred wa\ (600 meters) high was constructed.
29
The
Buddha then spoke to the arahants and to King Asoka, After I have
passed away (parinibba\na), a bone relic from my right hand will be
enshrined in this ched.
The Buddha then proceeded to the home of a wealthy potter. There he
preached a sermon on the meritorious blessing (a\nisamsa) of building a
monastic dwelling place (a\ra\ma) and of constructing Buddha images.
The potter who had listened to the sermon decided then and there to
make [many] Buddha images. He ordered his neighbors and the Lawa to
bring all the things needed to make 3,300,000 images. [After they were
made] the images were put in an appropriate place and everyone wor-
shipped the Buddha. The Lawa, led by a wealthy merchant, then conse-
crated the images and worshipped them. The Buddha blessed the people
saying, Sa\dhu . . . It is good that you have made these images of me
because I cannot always be here with you.
30
After I have passed away
this place will become a great city (maha\na\gara) [Chiang Mai] where
my religion will flourish. It will be a major center for monks and schol-
ars. The officials of the kingdom as well as the common people will have
great fortune (pua) and my religion will flourish. Those who live here
but who do not reach Nibba\na in my lifetime will do so in the lifetime
of Phra Ariya Metteyya. After King Asoka and the arahants buried the
Buddha images, the Buddha made the following prediction: After I
have passed away, these images will appear before both human and
divine beings (devata\, manussa\) so that they may be worshipped in this
city now and in the future.
The author of the text continues the Buddhas itinerary with little
regard to geography. Most of the sites are in the Chiang Mai region, but
towns in Burma and northern India
31
are also included, and predictions are
made regarding the future rulers of La\n Cha\ng (in Laos), Chiang Mai, and
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 153
Hamsa\vat (in Burma). The tatha\gata leaves hair relics and footprints and
grants permission for the construction of Buddha images. In the Tamna\n
Ang Salung the bodhi tree, an important commemorative relic in other
parts of Buddhist Asia, is insignificant.
32
Although there appears to be no
hierarchial value assigned to one type of Buddha sign, occasionally the
text suggests a preference for one material representation over another, as
in the following encounter with a na\ga.
Seeing the Buddha approaching from a distance, the na\ga king who
lived there [the Ping River] was overjoyed. Having nothing to offer the
Lord Buddha except a honeycomb from a tree by the river bank, the
na\ga assumed the form of a human being, climbed the tree, brought
down the honeycomb, and offered it to the Buddha . . .
[Seated respectfully beside the tatha\gata] the na\ga made the following
request, O, Blessed One, please leave a footprint here. The Buddha
replied, Since theres no suitable flat stone for my footprint, I grant you
permission to make a Buddha image. It will be known as the reclining
Buddha of the honey inlet (Thai phra non nong phung) in remembrance
of the gift of honey given to me by the na\ga king.
33
To build, repair, or
venerate this Buddha image will be the same as venerating the tatha\gata
when he was alive. Delighted, the na\ga king made a reclining image of
the tatha\gata for both human and divine beings to venerate in the future.
In the Tamna\n Ang Salung the Buddhas hair is the predominant
preparinibba\na relic. As we would expect, body relics figure into post-
mortem or postparinibba\na predictions. Occasionally, however, physical
parts of the Buddha other than hair become relics in rather surprising
ways, as evidenced in the following examples.
While walking in an area north of Chiang Mai, the Buddha felt the
urge to relieve himself. A na\ga king dug a hole and Indra built a shelter
(mandapa) over it. The Buddha predicted that in the future this site would
be known as Phrapa\da Yang Vijjha. [The monastery is known as Phrapa\t
Yang Wit/the Holy Footprint Bathroom Resting Place located in Sam-
padong district].
In another unusual incident the Buddha sits under a tree near a paddy
field being tilled by a Lawa farmer. Mistaking the Buddha for a demon,
the peasant starts to run away. Reassured by the Blessed One that he is not
a yakkha but the Lord Buddha, the farmer sits down beside the tatha\gata:
As they were sitting under the tree, mucus dripped from the
tatha\gatas nose but miraculously floated up to the leaves of the Asoka
DONALD K. SWEARER 154
tree giving them a golden hue. A|nanda collected the mucus-covered
leaves and fashioned them into a relic which he gave to the Lawa
farmer. Indra, who together with the arahants and Vissukamma had
joined the Buddha and A|nanda, made a reliquary tower (prasa\da) [to
house the relic]. Afterwards, the Buddha spoke to them, This relic
will be here as long as you live. In the future it will be known as Chom
Thong because the relic was given to the farmer on the leaves of the
Thong tree. This relic has the power to determine who is good (pua)
and who is evil (pa\pa).
34
Doi Ang Salung Chiang Dao is visited by the Buddha during his trav-
els in northern Thailand and serves as a kind of axis mundi from which the
righteous world ruler (dhammikara\ja) will address the evils of the world
described in great length. I quote only a brief passage from this apocalyp-
ticand resonantly propheticvision.
It will be a time of the ascendency of evildoers, of war, and of suffering.
Girls ten years old will engage in sexual intercourse; parents will
encourage their very young daughters to marry; husbands and wives will
commit adultery and families will disintegrate. At the beginning of the
third millennium after the founding of the religion of the tatha\gata, the
sa\sana will suffer decline; people will not respect those with knowledge;
they will sell images and amulets of the Buddha and of the king; both
monks and lay people, old and young, the learned and ordinary folk will
be unable to discern the difference between right and wrong, good and
evil. They will be illiterate and without skills; discipline and tradition
will disappear. Lay people will not respect monks who observe the
vinaya, and both laity and monks will follow their own selfish interests,
doing as they please.
The apocalyptic sections of the Tamna\n Ang Salung only briefly men-
tion material representations of the Buddha, in this case, images and
amulets. In a possible critique of contemporaneous practice, the author
sees the selling of images and amulets as a sign of the decline of the
sa\sana. Amore momentous mark of the degeneration of the Buddhist age
in the third millennium after the death of the Buddha, however, is the
degeneration of the dhamma and the sangha. These also are important
signs of the Buddha, although they figure into the Tamna\n Ang Salung
more by their absence in the Ka\la Yu\ga than by their presence during the
lifetime of the Buddha. In the age of the decline of Buddhism, monks
will not study the dhamma; undisciplined laity interested only in eating
and sleeping will ordain as monks; they will be governed by greed (lobha)
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 155
and craving (tanha\); they will not seek the way to heaven or nibba\na and
will do only those things that lead to continuous rebirth (samsa\ra).
Doi Ang Salung Chiang Dao emerges at the end of the tamna\n as a
locus for signs of the Buddha after his parinibba\na that, in turn, form part
of a nexus for various sacred representations.
After the Buddha passed away at Kusina\ra\, five hundred disciples took
his relics to Doi Ang Salung Chiang Dao. The Lord Indra, Brahma, the
devata\, devaputta and King A|nanda Ra\japingmuang, the ruler of Chiang
Dao, built a large golden ched to a height one ga\vut [4,000 meters] for
the Buddhas relics (dha\tu). A hermit by the name of Brahma Isi dwelt
on the mountain one yojana high [16,000 meters]. Together with Indra,
Brahma, a na\ga king named Viru\pakkha, and with the devata\ they fash-
ioned a golden standing image of the Buddha for both divine and human
beings to worship. This precious image was erected in the cave [of Chi-
ang Dao]. Even those who see it from a distance and venerate the image
make merit. Such an act guarantees them a long and successful life. . . .
The ruler of the yakkhas, Chao Luang Kham Daeng [Lord Burnished
Gold]
35
with ten thousand attendants guard the cave. In the cave are the
possessions of divine beings and of kings, a priceless golden bodhi tree,
a golden Buddha image, and a golden ched. Chao Luang Kham Daeng
and his attendants stand guard over these precious objects that are encir-
cled by a fence. . . .
Ten thousand yakkhas also guard Doi Ang Salung. Whoever enters the
cavemonk, layperson, or Brahman asceticshould first bathe, then
take the five or the eight precepts and offer flowers, puffed rice, three
hundred gold and three hundred silver candles, four flowering plants,
eight flags in each of three colorsblack, red, yellow, and whiteand
one thousand small clay lamps. By making these offerings, one will be
greatly rewarded by the guardian yakkhas and will be able to leave the
cave. Moreover, if one enters the cave in order to make offerings to the
Buddha and the relic, to keep the precepts, and to practice meditation
you will be blessed with good fortune. . . .
Doi Ang Salung Chiang Dao is a place where the Buddha image, the
Buddha relic, and relics of all the previous Buddhas, arahants, and her-
mits (isi) are kept. The wise will care for the image and the relics.
Everyone who knows this tamna\n nida\na, who pays respects to the
Buddha image and the relics of the Buddhas and the arahants at Doi
Ang Salung, whether they come from far or near, will be blessed
(a\nisamsa) beyond calculation.
36
DONALD K. SWEARER 156
INTERPRETATION
Tamna\ n Ang Salung opens a window into the tamnanic or popular world-
view of northern Thai Buddhism, which existed from before the fifteenth
century up to the modern period. Indeed, many aspects of this worldview are
very much alive today. I propose that the tamnanic worldview constructs the
Buddha and material representations of the Buddha on three different yet
related levels: magical, cosmological, and ontological. The first is the instru-
mental significance of a particular event or object; the second is the under-
lying meaning of the interrelationship among particular events and objects;
and the third is the overarching reference to which events and objects refer.
The first is the most transparent. For example, in the episode of the
Lawa village, taking the precepts leads to an abundance of riches, and the
turban of the peasant who washes the feet of the tatha\gata turns into gold.
The same magical, instrumentalist view characterizes the installation and
maintenance of bodily relics and Buddha images. These pious acts not
only guarantee the survival of the sa\sana, but they accrue specific bless-
ings to the patrons. In short, contact with the Buddha, whether his bodily
person in the storys narrative present or contact with his relics in the Bud-
dhas absence, is at the basis of the popular Buddhist understanding of
blessing (a\nisamsa) and merit (pua).
37
The second and third levels of meaning point beyond a magical,
instrumentalist view of particular events associated with the Buddha and
his relics to the topological and cosmological map in which they are
imbedded. The Buddhas wanderings in northern Thailand constitute the
region as a buddha-desa or Buddha-land. The presence of the Buddha
literally gives the region an identity. Part of that identity is constituted by
the giving of a name, a custom associated with folklore.
38
In the Tamna\n
Ang Salung, particular places are namedthat is, they now have a loca-
tionas a consequence of the Buddhas visit.
But the Buddha is more than a mere name giver; in the act of naming
he creates order. The tatha\gatas itinerary establishes a map that is simul-
taneously both topological and cosmological; furthermore, his very pres-
ence defines the region ontologically as a buddha-desa. The Blessed
Ones journey throughout northern Thailand is a cosmogonic event that
creates an ordered, meaningful world. His physical signs are much more
than mere reminders of a visit, legendary or otherwise. They are his con-
tinuing presence, the presence of the conqueror (jina) to whom the
untamed forcesbe they barbaric Lawa, yakkhas, or na\gasrender ser-
vice and pledge allegiance.
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 157
In the Tamna\n Ang Salung, the cosmic center is Doi Ang Salung Chi-
ang Dao. It integrates timepast, present, and futureand space, the
seemingly world-extended Jambudpa. Both cave and mountain, Ang
Salung Chiang Dao brings together all of the signs of the Buddha (bodily
relics, image, footprint, and even a bodhi tree), the powerful forces oper-
ative throughout the story (Asoka and other dhammikara\jas, Indra,
Brahma and various other superhuman forces), and the guardian hosts of
the area (Chao Luang Kham Daeng and his retinue).
Finally, I suggest that in the tamnanic worldview the Buddha is read
from his relics or material signs rather than the other way around.
39
What
is of utmost importance is the presence of the Buddha, not as a historical
memory but as a living reality. That the tamnanic story of the Buddhas
visit to the Chiang Mai valley may offend our modern historical con-
sciousness in its utter disregard of time, space, and history is totally irrel-
evant. The tamna\n was not written to be read as history but as a story of
the Buddhas living presence represented in his signs. In this sense, even
the most mundane material objects such as excrement and mucus become
hierophanies of the Buddhas presence.
NOTES
An earlier version of this chapter appeared in Wannakam Phutasa\sana\ Nai La\nna\
(Buddhist Literature in Northern Thailand), ed. Phanphen Khru\ngthai (Chiang
Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996). Passages from the Tamna\n Ang Salung included in
this chapter were translated by the author in collaboration with Phaitoon Dok-
buakaew; see note 26 below for the complete citation.
1. In this chapter, I use the term sign in the strong sense of Charles Peirces
notion of index. That is, the sign in some sense participates in the object it repre-
sents. It does not merely point toward or symbolize an object; it re-presents the
object or is a surrogate for the object.
2. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, tr. Bhikkhu a\namoli and
Bhikkhu Bodhi (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), 705.
3. Ibid.
4. Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the Four-
teenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Oxford and Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University
Press, 1976), 1.
5. Dr. Udom Roongruangsri and the late A|cha\n Bumphen Rawin of the
Department of Thai Studies, Chiang Mai University, suggest that the term tamna\n
is derived from Pa\li through Khmer, that is, tam + na\la. Na\la refers to an empty
stalk and conveys a similar metaphorical association to lineage, as does vamsa.
DONALD K. SWEARER 158
6. Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayudhya, 1.
7. Ibid., 2.
8. Ibid., 3
9. Ibid., 9.
10. Historical documents can be interpreted as offering constructions of ethnic,
communal, and national identity. From this perspective, Thai chronicles have
served to root Thai identity in Buddhism and in kingship. These two foci of Thai
identity, with differing emphases, have endured until quite recently. It is relevant
to note that the reign of Ra\ma VI not only coined a new term for history, prawat-
sat, he propagated the nation (Thai, cha\t) as the basis of Thai identity and loy-
alty alongside of Buddhism and the king.
11. Bodhiramsi, The Legend of Queen Ca\ma, trans. Donald K. Swearer and
Sommai Premchit with commentary (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1998); Ratannapanna Thera, The Sheaf of Garlands of the Epochs of the Con-
queror (Jinaka\lama\lpakaranam), trans. N. A. Jayawickrama, Pali Text Society
Translation series, no. 36 (London: Luzac, 1968). Important northern Thai chron-
icles have been translated into French: George Coeds, Documents sur lhistoire
politique et religieuse du Laos Occidental, BEFEO, vol. 25 (Paris: lcole
Franaise dExtrme-Orient, 1925); Camille Notton, Annales du Siam, 3 vols.
(Paris: Imprimeries Charles-Lavauzelle, 19261932). In addition, the Social
Research Institute of Chiang Mai University has published several northern Thai
muang tamna\n in Thai script.
12. Bodhiramsi states unequivocally that his story is based on written records
(maha\carika). He also claims to have translated the story into Pa\li. One assumes
that the translation was from Tai Yan and that he was translating a legendary
story.
13. For a translation of the Mu\lsa\sana\ of the Wat Pa\ Daeng lineage, see Don-
ald K. Swearer and Sommai Premchit, Mu\lasa\sana\ Wat Pa\ Daeng: The Chroni-
cle of the Founding of Buddhism of the Wat Pa\ Daeng Tradition, Journal of the
Siam Society 65 (January 1977): 73110.
14. See David K. Wyatt and Aroonrut Wichienkeeo, ed. and trans., The Chiang
Mai Chronicle (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1995).
15. David K. Wyatt, Chronicle Traditions in Thai Historiography, in South-
east Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall, ed. C.
D. Cowan and E. W. Wolters (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976),
10722.
16. Hans Penth, Literature on the History of Local Buddhism, Wannakam
Phuttasa\sana\ (The Literature of Northern Thailand), 74.
17. Tamna\n in this sense has a meaning similar to the contemporary use of the
term monograph; namely, it is a writing or a document about a particular subject
such as the founding of a town, the Buddhas visit to northern Thailand, the build-
ing of a Buddha image.
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 159
18. It is worth noting that in Thailand the collection of paritta texts are referred
to as tamna\n.
19. A masters thesis on the Phra Chao Liap Lo\k appeared in 1982. Katanyoo
Chucheun, Pra Chao Liap Lo\k Chabap La\nna\. Botwichro (Pra Chao Liap Lo\k
Archives in La\nna\: An analytical study) (Bangkok: Silpakorn University, 1982).
20. I classify the Phra Chao Liap Lo\k (PCLP) as a Buddha tamna\n. In addi-
tion to constituting a genre, Buddha Tamna\n is a specfic text. It is similar to the
PCLP in form, although I have been informed by scholars who have studied both
texts that the Buddha Tamna\n is more nida\nic in the sense that it contains more
miraculous legends. Colophons in manuscripts of both the Phra Chao Liap Lo\k
and the Buddha Tamna\n record the earliest transcriptions in northern Thailand in
the late fifteenth century and subsequent copies into the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Katanyoo Chucheun, Pra Chao Liap Lo\k, 69.
The Phra Chao Liap Lo\k states explicitly that the text was brought from Sri
Lanka, although to the best of my knowledge no one has discovered the prototype
text. Some scholars of northern Thai Buddhist religious history and literature, fur-
thermore, are of the opinion that the structure of the Buddhas travels and legacy
of relics that characterizes Buddha tamna\n texts as a genre was simply appropri-
ated from Sri Lankan sources but then creatively adapted to the northern Thailand
context.
Scholarly study of Buddha tamna\n as a genre must first compare the various
northern Thai texts and then seek to identify comparable sources in Sri Lanka and
other Buddhist countries. That the colophon claims the Phra Chao Liap Lo\k was
brought from Sri Lanka may be a way of giving the text authority rather than
recording a historical fact.
21. It might be more accurate to ask, What was there among the Tai? which
not only includes the Thai of central Thailand but other Tai ethnic groups in north
and northeastern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Yunnan, and Assam.
22. See Tamna\n Ru Prawat Tam Luang Chiang Dao (The Chronicle or History
of the Chiang Dao Cave) (Chiang Mai: Phra Singh Press, 2513/1970).
23. In the early days of Tai occupation of the Chiang Mai valley, Chiang Dao
seems to have been a way station between the larger centers of Chiang Mai and
Fa\ng.
24. Michael Vickery warns against using tamna\n in historical reconstruction.
See Michael Vickery, The Lion Prince and Related Remarks on Northern His-
tory, Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 64, pt. 1 (Jan., 1976): 32677.
25. The tamna\n on which this chapter is based is a microfilm copy in the Social
Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, of a manuscript located in the San Pa
Khoi monastery in the Muang district of Chiang Mai. It is dated C.S. 1306 (1941
CE) and was transcribed at a monastery in the Muang district of Lamphu\n. It is
impossible to date the root text. Mention of Burmese monks might suggest that
the text was subsequent to Burmese suzerainty over northern Thailand, that is,
after the end of the sixteenth century. More important for dating purposes, how-
DONALD K. SWEARER 160
ever, may be the reference to King Kawila who ruled Chiang Mai in the later half
of the eighteenth century. The colophon at the end of the eleventh bundle of the
Wat Ku Kham palm leaf manuscript of the Phra Chao Liap Lo\k states that the text
was first copied in BE 2071/CE 1471 at a wat near the foot of Doi Kung now in the
Hot district of the province of Chiang Mai. This would place the origin of one of
the prototype Buddha tamna\n texts of northern Thailand in the fifteenth century
during the high classic period of Chiang Mai.
26. Phaitoon Dokbuakaew, a research associate at the Social Research Center,
Chiang Mai University, collaborated with me in translating the Tamna\n Ang
Salung; see the complete translation of this text in Donald K. Swearer, Sommai
Premchit, and Phaitoon Dokbuakaew, The Sacred Mountains of Northern Thai-
land and Their Legends (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2004).
27. It is customary to erect long banners or flags (tung) at northern Thai
Buddhist merit-making festivals. The custom is also practiced among the Shan
and the Lao. Generally it is said that the length of the flag provides an oppor-
tunity for those being punished in the Buddhist hells to grab the tail of the ban-
ner and thus escape from their kammic punishment; that is, the power of the
merit generated by the ritual produces a beneficent effect for the dead as well
as for the living.
28. A possible reference to Wat Chedi Luang (Pa\li, Jotika\ra\ma), a major Chi-
ang Mai monastery connected with the ruling family of the kingdom.
29. This passage conforms to recent cosmogonic interpretations of the mean-
ing of the stupa (cetiya) built around an axial pillar (i.e., Indrakla). See John
Irwin, The Stu\pa and the Cosmic Axis: The Archaeological Evidence, South
Asian Archaeology, 1977, vol. 2, ed. Maurizio Taddei (Naples: Instituto Universi-
tario Orientale, 1979), 799839.
30. The Buddhas absence is the standard Buddhist apologia for the making of
Buddha images, namely, that they function as reminders of the Buddhas presence.
For example see Richard Gombrich, The Kosala-Bimba-Vannana\, in Buddhism
in Ceylon and Studies on Religious Syncretism in Buddhist Countries, ed. Heinz
Bechert (Gttingen: Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenchaften, 1978),
281301. Asimilar rationale applies to Buddha relics. See The Jtaka, trans. E. B.
Cowell (Cambridge: Cambridge Universty Press, 1901), 4:14243.
31. Place names of Buddhist sites in India are ascribed to locations in greater
India, thereby problematizing a specific identification.
32. In Thailiand today it is still true that in relationship to other representations
of the Buddhaimages, relics, footprintsthe bodhi tree is of secondary impor-
tance.
33. Today the image is located at Wat Phra Non in the district of Saraph, Chi-
ang Mai Province, south of Chiang Mai.
34. Wat Chom Thong in Chiang Mai Province is a highly revered pilgrimage
site. The reliquary located there is, indeed, in a prasa\t style.
SIGNS OF THE BUDDHA 161
35. Chao Luang Kham Daeng is revered as the guardian spirit of Chiang Dao.
He is the functional equivalent of Phu Sae/Yae Sae, the Lawa guardian spirits of
the Doi Suthep/Doi Kham area adjacent to the city of Chiang Mai.
36. The conclusion of the text reminds us that relatively brief Buddha tamna\n
such as Tamna\n Ang Salung were desana\ or preached texts.
37. Popular Buddhist devotion in Thailand today often reflects a magical,
instrumentalist understanding of the Buddha and lacks the more profound levels
of interpretation also present in the Buddha tamna\n.
38. Conventionally naming within the context of folklore is given an etio-
logical significance, that is, why a place is named such and such. While there is
an etiological signification to naming in the tamna\n, I find deeper cosmological
and ontological significations having to do with creating order and meaning.
39. It is noteworthy that Buddha tamna\n are often characterized not as the
story of the Buddha but as the story of the Buddhas relics, images, and footprints.
DONALD K. SWEARER 162
FOR ALMOST A HUNDRED YEARS CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE BEEN
carrying on a lively and ofttimes rancorous debate over the issue of how
natives think. Do primitives, to resort to the early but now unfashion-
able term, apprehend and reflect upon the world in a fundamentally dif-
ferent way than do we moderns? Does it make sense to talk of primitive
mentality, or less contentiously, of divergent rationalities?
In an attempt to characterize the thinking of so-called primitive peo-
ples as recorded in the ethnographic literature available at the time, Lucien
Lvy-Bruhl posited a prelogical kind of thinking that does not abide by the
law of noncontradiction.
1
According to Lvy-Bruhl, primitive mentality
does not clearly distinguish between subject and object, such that primi-
tives perceive themselves in mystic participation with the world. To the
primitive, the world is not comprised of lifeless natural objects; rather,
since everything that exists possesses mystic properties, and these proper-
ties, from their very nature, are much more important than the attributes of
which our senses inform us, the difference between animate and inanimate
things is not of the same interest to primitive mentality as it is to our own.
2
Lvy-Bruhls thesis was subjected to considerable criticism soon after
it appeared, and to this day his work tends to be summarily dismissed for
its supposed ethnocentrism. Lvy-Bruhl himself went to great lengths to
clarify and qualify his thesis in his later writings. He insisted, for exam-
ple, that what he called primitive rationality is not characteristic of
primitives alone but is rather a universal mode of thought that can and
does coexist with logical thinking. Indeed, the charge of ethnocentrism is
largely misleading; Lvy-Bruhl was, if anything, an early champion of
cultural relativism in the social sciences.
3
163
CHAPTER SEVEN
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS
Robert H. Sharf
No matter what ones opinion of Lvy-Bruhls thesis, the issues he
raised could not be ignored. It would no longer be possible to simply
assume, as did Edward Tylor, James Frazer, and other early compara-
tivists, that primitives are essentially no different from ourselvesthat the
gap between primitive and modern societies is merely the product of the
relative gap in factual knowledge and scientific know-how. Lvy-Bruhl
raised the possibility that different peoples conceptualize in different
ways: Primitives see with eyes like ours, but they do not perceive with
the same minds.
4
Ironically, later generations of anthropologists, many of whom held
Lvy-Bruhls theories in contempt, found themselves retracing his foot-
steps. For Lvy-Bruhls notion of the collective representations or col-
lective mentality of a people presaged the emphasis on culture in mod-
ern anthropology, and the insistence that a given culture be understood in
its own terms.
5
Indeed, many of the questions raised by Lvy-Bruhl are
still very much with us: To what extent is the world of human experience
itself a social or cultural product? Do modern scientific modalities yield a
more objective view of the world than do premodern systems of thought?
Are different conceptual schemes ultimately incommensurable? Such
hermeneutic quandaries cannot be ignored, for they decide whether, in the
final analysis, we privilege etic analysis over emic description, or vice
versa. (Indeed, the more fundamental issue is whether the distinction
between emic and etic is conceptually viable in the first place.) There is
still no resolution in sight, as attested by the recent and somewhat vitriolic
exchange between Gananath Obeyesekere and Marshall Sahlins.
6
Despite the obvious significance of these issues for the study of com-
parative religion, such debates have had little impact on the study of Bud-
dhism. Earlier generations of Buddhologists seemed confident in the
belief that whatever the final verdict might be with regard to primitives,
Buddhists were not to be numbered among them. Asian apologists and
Western scholars alike felt confident in treating Buddhism as a critical and
essentially rational tradition that has more in common with Occidental
philosophy and ethics than with religion per se. Standard treatments of the
topic assured the reader that Buddhism was and remains an atheistic creed
that categorically rejects superstition, magic, ritualism, and idolatry. If
Buddhists occasionally act otherwise it merely attests to the degree to
which they have lost touch with the roots of their own tradition.
7
In the last few decades this notion of pure or essential Buddhism
has come under considerable scrutiny. There is a newfound enthusiasm for
supplementing the study of canonical texts with a variety of extracanoni-
ROBERT H. SHARF 164
cal sources, including archaeological, epigraphic, and art-historical mate-
rials. Inspired in part by the work of social historians of medieval Chris-
tianityPhilippe Aris, Peter Brown, Caroline Bynum, Patrick Geary, and
Jacques Le Goff, to name but a fewmany Buddhologists are beginning
to focus on reconstructing the institutional, social, and economic context
of the elite clerical tradition.
At the same time, not a few scholars are combining their study of
Buddhist canonical languages with extended periods of fieldwork in Asia,
experiencing Buddhist culture firsthand. Fieldwork has proven to be a
potent corrective to earlier idealized notions of pure Buddhism construed
on the basis of scriptural representations alone. Scholars of Theravada are
now able to consult the rich ethnographies compiled by Melford Spiro,
Stanley Tambiah, Gananath Obeyesekere, and others, while scholars of
Tibet, China, and Japan pay increasing attention to indigenous regional
traditions, including Bon, Confucianism, Taoism, shamanism, and various
forms of popular religion. The earlier reconstruction of an essential
Buddhist teaching on the basis of canonical sourcessources that were
often compiled and edited in the Westis beginning to appear as little
more than a Western fiction, and some scholars now prefer to speak not of
Buddhism but rather of multiple regional Buddhisms.
In the reappraisal of Buddhism on the ground, perhaps the most
fruitful development has been the discovery of the seminal role that
images and relics have played in Buddhist culture throughout its history.
Rather than envisaging the spread of Buddhism through Asia as the prop-
agation of a sacred creed or faith, the movement of Buddhism might be
better understood in terms of the diffusion of sacred objects, most notably
icons and relics, along with the esoteric technical knowledge required to
manipulate them. Gregory Schopen, a pivotal player in the revaluation of
early Indian Mahayana, has argued that the scriptures themselves were
actually regarded as a kind of relic, valued not so much for what they say
as for their inherent charismatic or apotropaic powers.
8
For many scholars who found themselves disenchanted with the
romanticized and/or rationalized versions of Buddhism that once domi-
nated the field, the discovery of relic and image worship was the smoking
gun that provided irrefutable evidence that Buddhists are not bourgeois
rationalists after all.
9
The worship of relics exemplified the newfound oth-
erness of Buddhism, for it would seem to involve the sanctification of that
which is utterly profane and loathsomethe corporal remains of the dead.
10
But despite their enthusiasm for the subject, to date Buddhologists have
done little more than document the phenomena. While they readily attest to
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 165
the extent and popularity of relic veneration, they have yet to say much
with regard to the question Why? Why have Buddhists been so obsessed
with bits of desiccated or otherwise transmogrified remains of the dead?
Why, for that matter, would anyone attribute apotropaic or salvific power
to scraps of dead organic matter, much less a contact relic surrogate (that
is, an object such as a piece of clothing whose sacred status is derived from
its having been in physical contact with a saint or holy man)? On this issue
scholars have had little to say. And when they do offer something by way
of explanation they tend to conflate relics proper with virtually every other
object of Buddhist ritual devotion, including sculpted and painted images,
stupas, so-called aniconic symbols, and even scriptures and incantations.
All of these, we are told, denote the presence of the Buddha in his very
absence. The relics, images, and words of the Buddha or his enlightened
disciples are deemed worthy objects of veneration insofar as all serve as
manifestations or instantiations of the formless dharma itself.
This rubric of presence in absence has proved particularly, and I think
understandably, alluring. For one thing, it renders the worship of relics and
images consonant with Buddhist doctrine. The relic is a potent vestige of
the death of an enlightened being, a memento of his or her abiding liber-
ation. The same holds true for the image of the Buddha and his stupa
they all signify the unfathomable freedom of nirvana. By instantiating a
numinous absence, relics, images, and their kin function as a physical
locus for the saints enduring charisma, apotropaic power, and grace.
11
This argument has been made by a number of Buddhologists, including
David Eckel, John Strong, and myself on several occasions.
12
The notion that relics denote the Buddhas enduring presence in his
very absence has proved an effective bulwark against the marginalization
of this popular form of Buddhist piety. It is no longer acceptable to casu-
ally dismiss the worship of relics and images as aberrant or un-Buddhist,
as a sop to the plebeian needs of the unlettered masses. Scholars now
appreciate that, with few exceptions, the clerical elite found nothing
objectionable in the worship of relics but enthusiastically engaged in and
promoted such activities themselves. There is thus little reason to believe
that the display of relics contravenes either the letter or the spirit of Bud-
dhist teachings; why is a relic any less appropriate a signifier for nirvana
than the word nirvana itself?
The problem, however, is that with few exceptions Buddhist sources
do not speak of relics in terms of absent presences or present absences.
13
On the contrary, the materials at our disposal suggest that relics were
treated as presences pure and simple. That is to say, a relic did not repre-
ROBERT H. SHARF 166
sent, symbolize, or denote a transcendent presence, numinous absence, or
anything in between, any more than the person of the Buddha represented
or symbolized the Buddha. (We do not typically think of President Clin-
ton as representing the presidenthe simply is the president.) The source
of the muddle is due in part to the tendency to conflate images, stupas,
relics, and other signifiers of Buddhahood, all of which were undeniably
objects of veneration. I shall return to this issue further on.
There are, of course, other strategies available with which to deal with
the Why question, strategies that do not rest on an appeal to quasitheo-
logical notions such as absent presences. Those predisposed to more
down-to-earth explanations can avail themselves of a number of function-
alist accounts. For example, it is clear that relics, unlike sacred sites, are
eminently portable, and thus they aid and abet the decentralization and
propagation of the cult. While there was only one historical Buddha, his
relics, not to mention the relics of his enlightened disciples, can be multi-
plied virtually ad infinitum. There is, in fact, considerable evidence that
the mobility of relics contributed to the success of Buddhism as a mis-
sionary religion; relics facilitated and legitimized the Buddhist appropria-
tion of indigenous religious centers throughout Asia, transforming the
landscape into a sacred Buddhist domain.
14
At the same time, the popular-
ity of relics was easily exploited by the ecclesiastic, institutional, and sec-
ular authorities who oversaw their dissemination.
15
There are obvious par-
allels with the well-documented manipulation and exploitation of relics by
the clergy in medieval Christendom.
16
Such functionalist accounts have their utility, but as answers to the
Why question they remain incomplete since they tend to presume,
rather than explain, the widespread and almost visceral fascination shown
toward relics in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist cultures. They do not, in
and of themselves, explain why masses of people throughout history were
willing, if not eager, to impute supernatural power to the remains of the
special dead.
At this point scholars tend to fall back, implicitly rather than explic-
itly, upon some version of animism, sympathetic magic, or even primitive
mentality. While few would publicly invoke the names of Tylor, Frazer, or
Lvy-Bruhl in their analyses of Buddhist relic veneration, we are still left
with the fact that Buddhists appear to ascribe intentionality to what we
view as inanimate objects. And this was, of course, precisely the issue
with which Tylor, Frazer, and Lvy-Bruhl were struggling.
One way to break the impasse might be to pause for a moment and
reflect on the nature of the current scholarly fascination with relics. As
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 167
mentioned earlier, the intellectual interests of contemporary scholars are
determined in part by historical circumstances and developments within
the discipline, just as was true of those who preceded them. Earlier gener-
ations of Buddhologists focused on putatively philosophical scriptures
and treatises for laudable reasons: they were battling the deeply
entrenched Eurocentrism that characterized the Western academic estab-
lishment. They sought to legitimize the study of Buddhism by establish-
ing its credentials as a high religion complete with its own sophisticated
philosophical and ethical teachings. These scholars realized considerable
success in rendering Buddhism a species of rational humanism worthy of
our attention and respect. Indeed, some scholars would now judge them
too successful, and they want to set the record straight. In their attempt to
redress the domesticated image of Buddhism bequeathed by their elders,
they have turned their attention to phenomena that resist rational appro-
priation. The more bizarre the phenomenon the better.
Of course, the bizarre is not altogether unfamiliar. Buddhism may no
longer resemble European humanism, mysticism (the perennial philoso-
phy), or enlightened rationalism, but it has come to bear an uncanny
resemblance to medieval Christianity: both were preoccupied, at some
level, with saints, relics, and miraculous images. This has been a signifi-
cant discovery, and has allowed Buddhologists to establish a new set of
conversation partners in the academy. But parallels with medieval Europe
in and of themselves do not provide a theoretical foundation that renders
the alterity of the phenomena, whether Buddhist or Christian, intelligible.
Does the current interest in relics emerge from the call of scholarly duty
alone? Are scholars merely trying to enlarge and ameliorate our collective
understanding of Buddhism, or does it spring from something deeper?
The fascination with relics is clearly overdetermined. For one thing,
the discovery of the significant role played by relics in Buddhism raises
the intellectual stakes. It is one thing to argue the provenance of the
Madhyamakaka\rika\, to decipher the logic of Dharmakrti, or to wax sub-
lime over the ethical and environmental implications of codependent orig-
ination. It is another thing altogether to come to terms with belief in mir-
acles, magic, and the supernatural power of bits of human flesh and bone.
Thus some may be drawn to the study of relics in part by the intellectual
challenge of offering a rational interpretation of a phenomenon that
appears, at least at first glance, decidedly irrational. At the same time,
scholars may take comfort in the realization that certain phenomena stead-
fastly resist all efforts at explanation. As professional intellectuals we tend
to be acutely aware of the limitations of our craft. We may suspect that our
ROBERT H. SHARF 168
discursive hold over reality is ephemeral at best and that our scholarly
endeavors are ultimately of little or no significance. Some of us may find
the thought that we do not have sole purchase on realitythat critical
analysis is merely one of several ways of engaging the worldoddly reas-
suring. (This is, of course, in keeping with the current zeitgeist in the
humanities, in which undermining our confidence in the foundations of
our own knowledge is construed as the only authentic game in town.)
But this may be making too much of the otherness of relics. Our
attraction is not, I suspect, of a purely intellectual nature; relics evoke a
more visceral response. Our interest in a sacred finger bone, a skull, a des-
iccated tongue, or a lacquered mummy does not seem to be of the same
order as our interest in a stone stupa or icon. While the stupa or icon may
possess considerable aesthetic appeal, the allure of a relic lies elsewhere.
I sense that there is something almost voyeuristic or prurient in our fasci-
nation with relics. Is it possible that we are drawn to the Buddhist obses-
sion with relics because it resonates with something close to home? (I
clearly recall my own childhood fascination with the macabre Egyptian
mummypartially unwrapped, decayed toes, contorted face, and wisps of
hair clearly visibleon permanent display in the Royal Ontario Museum.)
But here we must be cautious. The corporeal remains of the dead may
elicit a powerful response in the living, but in and of itself this may not
reveal much about Asian Buddhist beliefs or attitudes; it may be little
more than yet another projection of contemporary needs and concerns
onto the complex ink blot that is Buddhism. Except that this time, instead
of projecting our own rationality as did a previous generation of scholars,
we now project our irrationality.
However, in ignoring our personal response altogether we may be for-
feiting a singular opportunity to illuminate the enigma of relic veneration.
It might thus be useful to reflect upon our own response to the corporeal
remains of the dead. While this may well land us in a hermeneutic mud-
dlehow can I be sure that my own visceral response has anything to
tell us about the response of a medieval Buddhist?my hope is that the
muddle will ultimately prove a fruitful one.
THE SEMIOTIC LOGIC OF IMAGES, ICONS, AND RELICS
My first task, however, will be to delineate the meaning of the term relic. As
mentioned earlier, images, stupas, and even scriptures have typically been
conflated, insofar as they all denote or signify the Buddha. This conflation
has served a purpose, in that it underscores the pietistic and devotional
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 169
aspects of Buddhist praxis. Scholars now appreciate the wide range of
objects that were deemed bearers of supernatural power, that served as the
focus of veneration, and that were thought to literally embody the essence
of Buddhahood.
Nevertheless, we should not lose sight of the features that distinguish
relics proper from objects such as Buddha images and stupas that are
unambiguously representational. In many respects the differences could
not be more obvious: whereas corporeal relics are procured or discov-
ered, images and stupas are manufactured, modeled by human hands
after established prototypes.
17
Abuddha image or stupa is, with few excep-
tions, clearly recognizable as such, even when removed from its original
religious setting or ritual context. A relic, however, requires a frame in
space and time that explicitly signals its status as sacred object. Removed
from their gilded and jewel-studded reliquaries most relics resemble so
much dirt.
While the term image can refer to a wide range of material objects,
here I am concerned primarily with representations of humans and deities
in sculpted or painted form. We can then further distinguish images in
general from icons in particular. By icon I mean a specific sort of religious
image that is believed to partake or participate in the substance of that
which it represents.
18
In other words, an icon does not merely bear the like-
ness of the divine but shares in its very nature. This rubric is, of course,
Western in origin; it developed out of certain Judeo-Christian issues
entailed in rendering a likeness of God. Clearly, it was impossible to
authorize an image of the divine on the basis of the veracity of the por-
trayal itself. The notion of shared substance allowed the church to cir-
cumvent the problem of likeness by focusing on a rather rarefied concep-
tion of substance or essential nature.
19
Despite its Western pedigree, this technical understanding of icon
can be used to illuminate the structural relationships among images, icons,
and relics, across religious traditions. Note that any representation of the
divine, the holy, the absolute, must grapple with the ontological problem
of reference. That is to say, whether the divine or absolute is construed in
transcendent or immanent terms, in either case it must remain essentially
noncontingent and nonrelational and thus cannot properly be the ostensive
referent or signified of a word, symbol, or image. Denotation is always
mediation, since the noncontingent object of reference is kept one step
removed from the sign through which it is made known. Thus any attempt
to manifest the divine through contingent forms is both theologically and
existentially problematic.
ROBERT H. SHARF 170
Broadly speaking, one can contend with this problem in one of two
ways. First, one can simply prohibit the direct signification of the divine;
the numerous Jewish and Muslim prohibitions against uttering the name
of God or rendering his image come immediately to mind. Second, one
can eliminate, by fiat if necessary, the distance between signifier and sig-
nified, such that pure substancethat which is devoid of all representa-
tional or contingent qualitiesis held to be immanent within the sign
itself. This is the road taken by certain Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and
Buddhist traditions.
Buddhists employ a variety of means to eliminate the distance
between manifest form and divine essence. As is well known, Buddhist
images are consecrated through elaborate eye-opening ceremonies
believed to transform a mere likeness into a divine presence.
20
The initial
consecration is reiterated through regular invocation rituals that compel
the deitys presence within the image. (Buddhist pu\ja\ or rites of offering
typically include an invocation sequence, however brief, prior to the offer-
ings proper.) The rites of offering can include feedings, ritual baths, and
entertainments, all of which imaginatively reinforce the identity of image
and god. But perhaps the most striking example of the effort to collapse
form and substance is the installation of charismatic objects in general,
and relics in particular, within the body of the image itself.
Buddhist relics are construed as the distilled essence of human corpo-
reality; they are what remains after the human form has been destroyed
and the material substrate purified by the funeral pyre. Note that one of the
two common terms for relics, dha\tu, is also used to refer to the funda-
mental or constituent element(s) of the universe itself. Insofar as relics are
devoid of discernible representational qualities, they were well situated to
serve as instances of purified essence or vital substance, and as such they
came to play a significant role in the transformation of a mere image into
a living icon. Incorporated relics literally vitalize a sacred likeness.
There are a variety of ways in which Buddhists could incorporate a
relic into an image. The most common was to simply wrap the relic in
cloth or ensconce it in a small reliquary and insert it in an opening in the
base or back of the image. In East Asia relics were sometimes mixed
together with clay and the clay then used to fashion an image creating an
ash icon thoroughly infused with relics.
21
But the most striking example
of the incorporation of a relic into an image is mummification, in which
the entire corpse of an eminent master was desiccated, wrapped in layers
of lacquer-impregnated cloth, fitted with robes and other adornments, and
installed on an altar in the same manner as any other icon.
22
In some cases
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 171
the resulting image so closely resembled a dry-lacquer sculpture that it
was difficult to tell the difference.
23
In the case of a Buddhist mummy the
identity of relic and imagesubstance and formhas been fully realized.
Mummies aside, Buddhists do make a terminological distinction
between images and relics. In China, for example, a relic or sheli (Sanskrit
arra, Japanese shari) would not be confused with a xiang (image, sym-
bol, and so on) and vice versa. The same is true of the other terms used for
Buddhist images and portraits, including zhen and dingxiang; each is used
to denote a visual representation or likeness and thus is not applicable to
a relic proper.
24
But what about the formal distinction I am suggesting
between image and icon? At first glance one might assume that the dis-
tinction does not hold in medieval China, since the rendering of an indi-
viduals likeness was always a potentially magical act. One thinks of the
celebrated portraitist Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345406) who sought to animate por-
traits of secular subjects by dotting the eyes,
25
or the widespread use of
portraits in ancestral rites as resting places for the soul of the deceased
(ling, shen).
26
Nevertheless, East Asian Buddhists do have a term that corresponds
rather well to icon in the restricted sense stipulated earlier, namely, in
Japanese pronunciation, honzon (Chinese benzun) or fundamental deity,
the principal object of worship in a Buddhist ritual setting.
27
The honzon is
not some unseen transcendent deity, much less an abstract conception of
Buddhahood, but rather the sculpted or painted image enshrined on an altar
in a place of worship. Which is to say that the vast majority of Buddhist
practitioners in East Asia, like their counterparts in India, do not make a
distinction between the consecrated visible image of the deity and the deity
itself. Thus multiple icons of one and the same Buddha or bodhisattva are
regarded in some sense as separate individuals with unique identities. Take,
for example, the particular manifestation of Avalokitevara Bodhisattva
known as Amoghapa\ a Avalokitevara, or, as he is known in Japan,
Fuku\ kenjaku-kannon. There are a number of images of Fuku\ kenjaku situ-
ated throughout Japan, each bearing roughly the same iconographic attrib-
utes. But each is embedded within a specific historical/mythical narrative,
often tied to a particular temple or locale, that gives it its personality. The
image of Fuku\ kenjaku-kannon enshrined in the Nanendo\ at Ko\ fukuji in
Nara, for example, is considered the fundamental ground (honji) of
Kasuga Myo\ jin, the main deity of the Kasuga Shrine complex. In other
words, the native Japanese god Kasuga is regarded as an avatar or incarna-
tion (suijaku) of the Fuku\ kenjaku enshrined in the Nanendo\ .
28
Other
Fuku\ kenjakus do not enjoy this relationship with Kasuga, but they too may
ROBERT H. SHARF 172
be tied to their own local traditions and religious narratives. This individu-
ation extends to the powers associated with specific icons; each may have
its own area of competence. One image of Yakushi may be renowned for
its power to cure emphysema, for example, while another might be known
for success in treating arthritis or heart disease.
29
There are also cases in which an icon effectively reproduces, giving
rise to multiple replicas that partake in the spirit of the original. One
classic example is the cult of the Seiryo\ji Shaka, a Chinese sandalwood
image of S:a\kyamuni brought to Japan by the pilgrim Cho\nen (9381016)
in 986 and now enshrined at Seiryo\ji in Kyoto. According to local tradi-
tion this magnificent sculpture is the original Udayana image of S:a\kya-
muni, so called because it is believed to have been produced at the behest
of King Udayana during the Buddhas lifetime.
30
As the center of a major
cult in Japan it has served as the prototype for over a hundred replicas,
replicas that are viewed not so much as images of the historical Buddha,
but rather as offspring or doppelgngers (even though they are rarely exact
copies) of the deity enshrined at Seiryo\ji. The same is true of the Zenko\ji
Amida triad, as documented in Donald McCallums recent study of the
subject.
31
The Zenko\ji triad, which is kept hidden from public view, is
explicitly regarded as a living Buddha (sho\jin no hotoke), and as such
has been the center of an influential cult since the Heian period. The cult
proliferated throughout Japan via the medium of over two hundred repro-
ductions, each of which was believed to partake in the vitality of the orig-
inal. Like the Seiryo\ji Shaka, the focus of the Zenko\ji Amida cult is not so
much an august Amida abiding in his distant Pure Land, but rather the spe-
cific deity ensconced at Zenko\ji.
Honzon is thus a functional approximation of the English icon
it is not merely a representation of a god but the god itself. This exalted
status is reaffirmed through the use of various artistic and architectural
conventions, some of which manifest cross-culturally. For example, icons
are typically constructed and displayed so as to engage the viewer directly.
To quote Wu Hung, [The icons] significance relies on the presence of a
viewer or worshiper outside it. In fact, the openness of the composition is
based on the assumption that there is a worshiper who is engaged in direct
relationship with the icon. It is based on this assumption that the iconic
composition has become universal in various religious art traditions
around the world.
32
In East Asia the status of the honzon is also marked by its altar setting,
which will include a small table placed in front of the image upon which
are arrayed various ritual paraphernalia and offerings such as candles,
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 173
food, incense, and flowers. A raised seat for the ritual officiant is set in
front of the offering table, and additional implements are often arrayed to
either side. This setting is part of the icons frameit is present even when
never usedand signals not only the presence of a supernatural being but
also the authority and technical mastery of the institutionally sanctioned
priests who are able to muster and direct the divine forces.
33
Insofar as an icon is a living presence, I would propose a further ter-
minological distinction between icon and sacralized sign. I would
reserve the latter term for objects that are sometimes called icons, but
only in a metaphorical sense. Thus some might call the American flag an
icon on the basis of the rituals that surround its use and the powerful emo-
tions that the flag elicits. Some Americans go so far as to regard the inten-
tional desecration of the flag as a sacrilege. But to speak of the flag as an
icon is to speak metaphorically; the flag is surely only a symbol of the
nation, albeit a powerful one. Insofar as flag burning is a profanation, the
transgression lies in the ritual and symbolic significance of the act, rather
than in the loss of the material object itself.
34
This is not the case with an
icon, however, the destruction of which is a far more serious concern.
Each icon is in a certain sense unique and irreplaceable, much like an indi-
vidual person.
While these terminological distinctions may strike the reader as unnec-
essarily abstract or scholastic, they do serve to draw attention to a class of
sacred objects that are not regarded as mere signs or signifiers but rather as
vital forces or animate entities. This point has been made repeatedly before,
most forcefully, perhaps, by David Freedberg in his tome The Power of
Images.
35
Freedberg documents the tendency to impute intentionality to
images, sacred and otherwise, and in the process exposes the impotence of
many of the theories proffered to explain the phenomena. He notes that vir-
tually all such theories, from Frazers laws of similarity and contagion to
more contemporary notions of sympathy, identification, symbolic linkage,
association of ideas, evocative resonance of symbols, or what have you,
assume the disjunction between the symbol and the symbolizedbetween
representation and reality. But this is precisely what is not given at the level
of our emotional and cognitive response to images. We will only come to
understand response if we acknowledge more fully the ways in which the
disjunction [between the reality of the art object and reality itself] lapses
when we stand in the presence of images.
36
Any account of envotement
or image magic that presumes the disjunction between representation
and reality is already at a level of abstraction so removed from the phe-
nomena it seeks to explain that it is unable to find its way back.
ROBERT H. SHARF 174
Freedbergs point is well taken, but while he wants to distance himself
from the traditional aesthetic concerns that preoccupy art historians, he can-
not escape the issue of representation, or more precisely, figuration. Freed-
berg documents a seemingly innate human tendency to search all variety of
images for the human form, and in the process to reconstitute the material
object as living.
37
While this may tell us something about the mystique of
Buddhist images, it does not get us very far with Buddhist relics, which are,
for all intents and purposes, formless. It is not primarily what relics look like
that we find arresting, at least not initially, nor is it what they represent or
signify. Rather, it is what they are. It is their unabashed yet impenetrable
corporeality that evokes such a powerful response.
PRIMITIVE MENTALITY OR EXISTENTIAL BEFUDDLEMENT?
The veneration of corporeal relics and manufactured icons would seem
to violate the law of noncontradiction (as Lvy-Bruhl would put it), as
it entails a host of conceptual conundrums. If the deity is indistinguish-
able from the image, what is the relationship between different images
of the same deity? When the corporeal remains of a saint are trans-
formed into relics and disseminated, what happens to the integrity of the
saints spirit? How, in other words, can a single being be in several
places at one and the same time? And more basically, how could anyone
seriously believe that an image fashioned by human hands of wood,
stone, or clay is alive?
Such problems are not the concern of modern rationalists alone.
Scholastic theories of multiple buddhaka\ya or bodies of the Buddha
appear to be addressing similar issues of identity and particularity.
According to buddhaka\ya doctrine, a single Buddha or bodhisattva can
have multiple nirma\naka\ya, transformation or manifest bodies, each of
which is the local instantiation of a more rarefied prototype. In China
these localized avatars were called response bodies (yingshen) or trans-
formation bodies (bianshen, huashen), in part because they were
believed to appear and function purely in response to the needs of those
who invoked them. The response body was thus somewhat autonomous
from the relatively immutable true body (zhenshen) or Buddha body
(foshen), a fact that would have allowed multiple incarnations of the same
proto-deity to assume their own unique identities. Such doctrines
evolved, in China at least, in connection with reflections on invocation
rites, which suggests that medieval commentators were grappling with
some of the same issues that perplex us today.
38
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 175
Nevertheless, it is doubtful that such scholastic formulations ever had
much purchase on the ground. Nor did they need to. There is little indica-
tion in either the textual or ethnographic record that the vast majority of
practitioners were cognizant of a problem at all. Individual icons and
relics were powerful forces to be approached not conceptually or philo-
sophically, but rather through the medium of worship and ritual. But
before we rush to the conclusion that these forms of Buddhist piety
bespeak a prereflective, uncritical, or primitive relationship to sacred
objects, it would be prudent to consider our own understanding of the rela-
tionship between manifest form or embodiment on the one hand, and ani-
mating life force on the other.
And it takes but a moments reflection to realize that there is, in fact,
no single coherent, rational, or scientific perspective on the issue.
Most of us would allow, I suspect, that we are our bodies and that at the
same time we are something more. This is, at least, the way many in the
West learn to conceptualize death: something is there one moment and
gone the next, leaving behind a lifeless cadaver. Occidentals tend to think
of this something in immaterial terms, as the mind, consciousness, ego,
soul, and so on. Whatever it may be, it is not something that reveals itself
to the probing of a surgeon.
The notion that we are comprised in part of an immaterial or at least
a highly rarefied animating constituent has a long heritage in the West,
going back to Greek views of the psyche. The notion of an independent
psyche or soul continued to play an important role in medieval Christian
thought, although, as Caroline Bynum has shown, the doctrine of the res-
urrection of the body, and the need to maintain social and gender distinc-
tions in the afterlife, led some theologians to reject theories of a fully dis-
embodied soul.
39
And despite developments in behavioral psychology,
molecular biology, genetics, and neuroscience, many North Americans
today continue to resist scientific or philosophical theories that reduce the
individual to mere physical, biological, or electrochemical processes.
At the same time, we have made little progress in our understanding
of how a nonphysical process could interact with physical ones. The mind-
body problem is as intractable as ever, as seen in the recent interdiscipli-
nary debates over the nature of consciousness. There are, of course, many
who insist that the mind-body problem is the result of a conceptual mud-
dle, and that we are on the verge of a comprehensive physicalist account
of consciousness.
40
But for every committed materialist there is a diehard
dualist who insists that, try as we might, consciousness will never yield
itself to a strictly biochemical account.
41
ROBERT H. SHARF 176
It would appear that several thousand years of reflection have not
brought about anything approaching a consensus on the seminal issue of
whether our essential nature is material, immaterial, or something in
between.
42
One thing, however, is certain: the concept of an immaterial
soul, psyche, or mind has occasioned a panoply of ontological and ethical
problems. The abortion issue is a case in point. Both the prolifers and the
prochoicers tacitly accept the notion that life must begin at some point at
or following conception; the issue is when. Yet at the same time we know
full well that life must be present before conception for conception to take
place. (Both sperm and egg must be living for anything resembling a per-
son to emerge.) Thus, as many ethicists have duly noted, the issue is not
so much the point at which life begins, but rather the point at which we
emerge as persons. While the notion of a person may provide a toehold for
medical ethicists, social scientists, or legal theorists, it yields little in the
way of clarity on the fundamental ontological issue. We are still not sure
to what exactly we refer when we use the first-person pronoun I.
While we may concede our confusion as to the precise moment at
which the self or soul or even person comes into existence, we
might think ourselves on firmer ground when we contemplate its end. In
the West the moment of death, however defined by the medical or legal
communities, is generally understood as the point when the person is no
longer present in the body. Whether or not one holds that the self contin-
ues to exist, the physical remains are viewed as an inanimate or lifeless
lump of organic matter to be disposed of posthaste, albeit in a suitably
decorous manner. Most Americans thus attribute little significance to the
metamorphosis of the body after death. This view of death is, of course,
culturally determined, and it is by no means the norm in other societies.
What we view as the decomposition of a lifeless cadaver is viewed by
many others as the final stage in the evolution of a still vital being. In other
words, in many cultures death is not a moment, but a process that stretches
out over a considerable period of time, continuing until the physical trans-
formation of the body has resulted in a state of changelessness. This ter-
minal point in the life cycle is marked by the secondary treatment of the
corpse, in which the dried bones or fully desiccated corpse are moved to
their final resting place.
43
The fact that North Americans pay relatively lit-
tle heed to the transformation of the corpse after death bespeaks the endur-
ing influence of the notion of a soulour sense that the once living per-
son is no longer present in his or her physical remains.
Yet our cultural attitudes in this area are surely not so simple. Witness
the crash of the TWA flight 800 off the coast of Long Island on July 17,
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 177
1996. The loss of the plane in over a hundred feet of murky ocean posed
considerable problems for the recovery team. Despite the technical diffi-
culties, compounded by bad weather, the authorities in charge repeatedly
assured the public that every effort would be made to recover the remains,
that no expense would be spared, and that the search would take prece-
dence over the investigation into the cause of the crash. Why this empha-
sis on the recovery of the bodies, even at the risk of the safety of the
divers? Is it merely to provide the remains with a proper burial? Or do we
feel that there are still people down there?
Caroline Bynum has pondered similar issues in the context of her
extensive work on the Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection.
44
Bynum
demonstrates that, despite the continued belief in some form of body-soul
dualism, by the early fifth century Christian thinkers had come to view the
self in decidedly materialistic terms. The self was by definition an embod-
ied self, such that individual salvation and life in the hereafter necessitated
the physical resurrection and reassembly, if necessary, of the corpse. The
doctrine of the resurrection of the whole body, which quickly became
church orthodoxy, gave rise to a number of conceptual puzzles that were
to task the best minds of medieval Christendom: What age and sex is the
resurrected body? Are foreskins, umbilical cords, fingernail and hair clip-
pings resurrected as well? Are aborted fetuses resurrected? What about
cannibalism: if one person eats another, in which resurrected body would
the shared matter reside? Bynum argues that while these topics may strike
us as outr or jejune, we too resort to the fantastic and bizarre as we con-
template the nature of personal identity and selfhood. American analytic
philosophers hone their positions on the nature of mind, consciousness,
and personal identity through thought experiments on artificial intelli-
gence, brain transplants, and even teletransportation (Beam me up
Scotty). Like the medieval Christian scholastics, we too ponder the
meaning of self through reflecting on the nature and constraints of our
physical embodiment; we too resort to delimiting and oftentimes bizarre
scenarios as we probe the enigma of our own corporeality.
Have we made progress in our search for the nature of consciousness,
of the self, of the referent of the pronoun I? Is progress indeed possible?
Or does the fact that embodiment precedes essence, to take liberties
with the existentialist credo, doom any and all attempts to conceptualize
the corporeal self? We seem to have returned to the problem of reference:
signification entails mediation, a fact that continually frustrates our
attempts to adequately denote or ostend the immediacy, not of having, but
of being a body. The body that constitutes the epistemological object of
ROBERT H. SHARF 178
medical science, of biology, of genetics, or of neuroscience, is never quite
that immanent body that is me. Thus our discursive ruminations seem des-
tined to remain forever a step removed from the existential and psycho-
logical weight of our physicality. And yet I suspect that the clue to the sin-
gular allure of relics lies precisely here, in the confusions and anxieties
that attend our somatic identity.
RELICS AND THE HERMENEUTIC CONUNDRUM
We began with Lvy-Bruhls notion of primitive mentality, a distinguish-
ing feature of which was the inability to distinguish between the animate
and the inanimate, between conscious beings and mere things. We have
seen that, once freed from the rationalizing gloss of earlier apologetic
accounts, the Buddhist treatment of icons and relics indicates that such
objects were treated as animate entities capable of intentional acts. If we
failed to fully appreciate this before, it was due to our tendency to think of
icons and relics as mere signs or representationswhether of a divine
presence, a divine absence, a transcendent truth, or what have you. Yet the
ethnographic record suggests that icons and relics were not regarded as
representations of the divine or ultimate, any more than a persons body is
regarded as a representation of that person.
But we should be wary of concluding that Buddhists are any more
primitive in their thinking than are we. We too are far from clear as to the
distinguishing marks of consciousness, of intentionality, of the self. We
too are not quite sure what, if anything, animates us, what it is that con-
stitutes our personhood, our subjectivity. We too are perplexed as to
whether consciousness and matter are ultimately one thing or two, and if
two, what their interrelationship might be.
To acknowledge the limits of our understanding is to provide grounds
for a reconsideration of the Buddhist case. While there is considerable evi-
dence suggesting that Buddhists regard relics and icons as presences, it is
equally evident that Buddhists are able to distinguish between bones or
images on the one hand, and walking, talking human beings on the other.
The fact that inert objects are regarded not merely as animate entities,
but as charismatic objects of ritual veneration, is tacit acknowledgment of
difference in kind. That is, if bits of bone, images of wood or stone, are
alive, they are alive in a rather special way.
I have suggested that the allure of relics lies in what they aretheir
corporeal essencerather than in their representational or iconic qualities.
At the same time it is clear that, unlike sentient beings, relics are what they
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 179
are by virtue of how they are physically and/or ritually framed. In other
words, if it is true that the recognition of a relic as an instance of unmiti-
gated corporeality is actually abetted by the relics absence of representa-
tional features, then the lions share of the denotative work must be borne
by the frame. And such framing suggests a more complex attitude toward
charismatic objects than that evoked by notions such as animism, sympa-
thetic magic, or mystical participation.
Gregory Bateson introduced the notion of framing in his analysis of
primate communication, which, he argued, entails the ability to distin-
guish map from territory. This follows from the simple recognition
that a message, of whatever kind, does not consist of those objects which
it denotes (the word cat cannot scratch us).
45
While an explicit or
implicit frame of some sort is necessary to discriminate signified from
signifier, or figure from ground, the status of the frame itself remains
couched in logical ambiguity, if not paradox. This is because the frame
must (1) straddle both realmsmap and territoryyet belong to neither;
and (2) draw attention to itself, and yet remain hidden at the same time.
(While spoken words must be heard to be understood, understanding
becomes difficult if we attend too closely to their phonetic or acoustic
qualities.) As Bateson notes, many forms of religious art, ritual, and dis-
course exploit this very ambiguity: In the dim region where art, magic,
and religion meet and overlap, human beings have evolved the metaphor
that is meant, the flag which men will die to save, and the sacrament that
is felt to be more than an outward and visible sign, given unto us. Here
we can recognize an attempt to deny the difference between map and ter-
ritory, and to get back to the absolute innocence of communication by
means of pure mood-signs.
46
There may be no more ambiguous an object in this regard than the
human body. Anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, and literary theorists
all attest to the manner in which the body is implacably inscribed with a
host of significations and values. Somatic metaphors and images structure
our conceptions of everything from the natural world, to the political,
social, psychological, and religious domains, and those conceptions are in
turn reflected back upon the body. To put it simply, the body, as modern
cultural theorists are so fond of pointing out, is a cultural construct.
And yet the immanence or raw physicality of the body, my body, me,
is more than a shifting field of significations. My immanent and primor-
dial somatic being antecedes and frustrates all attempts at discursive
appropriation. This, I would suggest, is one of the reasons that corpses,
mummies, and relics seem so compelling: they confront us in the starkest
ROBERT H. SHARF 180
possible way with our irreducible thingness and at the same time with
the puzzle of life itself. This point has been made most eloquently by
Georges Bataille:
The spirit is so closely linked to the body as a thing that the body never
ceases to be haunted, is never a thing except virtually, so much so that if
death reduces it to the condition of a thing, the spirit is more present than
ever: the body that has betrayed it reveals it more clearly than when it
served it. In a sense the corpse is the most complete affirmation of the
spirit. What deaths definitive impotence and absence reveals is the very
essence of the spirit, just as the scream of the one that is killed is the
supreme affirmation of life.
47
The relic is framed as a singular specimen of pure corporeality unencum-
bered by discernible formthe logical terminus in the reduction of the
person to his or her material essence. Relics are the delimiting instance of
our somatic existence stripped of all signification, that final and insensi-
ble scream that is the supreme affirmation of life.

In the so-called virgin birth debate of the 1960s, anthropologists returned

to a long-standing controversy about whether certain primitive peoples,
notably the Australian aborigines and the Trobrianders, were or were not
ignorant of the facts of physiological paternity when first encountered by
early ethnographers, as James Frazer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Ashley
Montagu, and others had claimed.
48
E. R. Leach, waving the banner of
positivism, argued that it was highly improbable on common-sense
grounds that anyone should be ignorant of the male role in conception;
native claims to the contrary must be understood as a species of religious
dogma.
49
Leach went on to accuse anthropologists who believed otherwise
of crude ethnocentrism. Melford Spiro disagreed. Leachs assumption that
what is obvious to us must be obvious to the Trobrianders constitutes,
according to Spiro, the more pernicious form of ethnocentrism, since it
equates difference with irrationality. To Spiro, anthropologists have an
obligation to take the Trobrianders at their word, and besides, the issue is
not one of ignorance versus rationality but of ignorance versus knowl-
edge. There is nothing irrational in the Trobrianders apparent ignorance
of certain biological facts.
50
The methodological issues that animated the virgin birth debate are
recapitulated in the more recent exchange between Obeyesekere and
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 181
Sahlins.
51
This time the debate concerns the Hawaiians and whether they
did in fact mistake Captain Cook for a god, as historians and anthropolo-
gists have claimed, or whether this is merely a seductive but historically
untenable Western myth. While the players have changed, the underlying
theoretical question remains the same: given the fact that we must begin
somewhere, and that where we begin may well determine where we end
up, should we begin by presuming cross-cultural similarity or difference?
Should we assume that the Hawaiians, the Trobriand Islanders, or
medieval Chinese Buddhists for that matter, so resemble ourselves that we
may aver to our own experience in deciphering theirs? Or is the intellec-
tually and ethically prudent course to presume differenceto historicize
and contextualize rigorously, and thereby avoid emasculating the others
otherness, even at the risk of incomprehension? Spiro and Sahlins (like
Lvy-Bruhl before them) believe that the principle of charity demands that
we take the natives at their word. Leach and Obeyesekere, on the other
hand, fear that such an approach infantilizes the native. For them, the prin-
ciple of charity requires us to grant the native the same rationality we
grant to ourselves. This anthropological struggle with the hermeneutic cir-
cle shows no immediate sign of abating.
In this analysis I may seem to be guilty of projecting a set of specifi-
cally North American cultural assumptions onto Asian Buddhists in an
attempt to render intelligible the phenomenon of relic veneration. Insofar
as I suggest that medieval Buddhists may have experienced similar con-
fusions and anxieties as ourselves concerning matters of life, death, and
corporeal embodiment, I might be seen to be siding with Leach and
Obeyesekere. But it should be clear that I have no intention of turning
Buddhists into bourgeois rationalists. If my own analysis is agenda driven,
the agenda is not to render the other like us but rather to render us more
like the otherto expose the discursive fissures, the ignorance, the exis-
tential confusions and anxieties, indeed the irrationality, that mark our
own collective representations.
52
I am certainly not the first to try to split the difference between pre-
suming commonality and presuming radical difference. As mentioned
above, Lvy-Bruhl insisted that primitive mentality is not the mark of oth-
ers alone, but is rather a universal mode of relating to the world that exists
alongside the rational superstructure characteristic of modern Western cul-
ture. In a different context Paul Veyne talks of the phenomena of mental
balkanization as a way to explain the Greek ability to maintain several
disparate and even irreconcilable views of the world at one and the same
time.
53
And in his meditation on religion, Georges Bataille invokes an ear-
ROBERT H. SHARF 182
lier state in which we did not imagine ourselves as objects in the world, in
which we did not distinguish between subject and object. Batailles vision
of a primordial state of intimacy and immanence, in which we are in the
world like water in water,
54
is all too reminiscent of Lvy-Bruhls
notions of primitive mentality and mystical participation in the world. (In
this regard we might also mention Freud and his theories of primary
process thinking and the id.)
But of course, finding myself in good company may simply exacer-
bate the hermeneutic muddle. The recurring theme that connects Lvy-
Bruhl to Bataillethe tendency to emphasize a primordial or primitive
mode of existence in which the distinction between self and world is
blurred or nonexistent, a mentality less beholden to rationality or inter-
nal conceptual coherencemay ultimately tell us more about our own
romantic yearnings than it tells us about anyone else. There may be no
room for compromise when it comes to the question of cultural incom-
mensurability, no way to render others intelligible without at once domes-
ticating or emasculating them, no way to split the difference. But the
immediate lesson vis--vis ourselves still holds. For just as there may be
areas in which the otherness of peoples culturally and temporally removed
from ourselves may remain forever beyond our reach, utterly irreconcil-
able with our modes of rational comprehension, there are aspects of our
own world, our own personal and cultural experience, that are equally
ungraspable (Sanskrit anupalabdhi, Chinese bu ke de). The puzzle of self-
hood and our corporeal embodiment, which is precisely the enigma that
confronts us as we ponder the veneration of relics, may be such an area.
NOTES
This chapter was originally prepared for the Seminar on Buddhist Relic Venera-
tion, American Academy of Religion, New Orleans, November 23, 1996, and was
first published in Representations 66 (Spring 1999): 7599. It is reprinted here
with only minor stylistic changes. Special thanks to Susan Blum, Steven Collins,
Donald Lopez, Elizabeth Horton Sharf, and Randolph Starn for their comments
and suggestions on earlier drafts.
1. Lucien Lvy-Bruhl, How Natives Think, trans. Lilian A. Clare (1926;
reprint ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
2. Ibid., 40.
3. See, for example, the following passage from How Natives Think: [W]e
are allowed to think that [Edward] Tylors dictum that spirits are personified
causes does not suffice to account for the place held by spirits in the collective
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 183
representations of primitives. To us however, interested first of all in analysing
these representations without any preconceived ideas about the mental processes
upon which they depend, it may possibly be the spirits, on the contrary, which
will help us to understand what certain causes are. Perhaps we shall find that the
effect of the efficient causevexata qustio to the philosophersis a sort of
abstract precipitate of the mystic power attributed to spirits (ibid., 26).
4. Ibid., 44.
5. On the intellectual legacy of Lvy-Bruhl see Scott C. Littleton, Introduc-
tion: Lucien Lvy-Bruhl and the Concept of Cognitive Relativity, in Lvy-Bruhl,
How Natives Think, vlviii. For a succinct study of the evolution of the category
culture see Tomoko Masuzawa, Culture, in Critical Terms for Religious Stud-
ies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
6. See Gananath Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis of James Cook: European Myth-
making in the Pacific (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), and Marshall
David Sahlins, How Natives Think: About Captain Cook, for Example (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995). Note that Sahlins has borrowed the English title
of Lvy-Bruhls original work (How Natives Think) for his own recent study.
7. This presentation of Buddhism, with its attempt to distance Buddhism from
primitive religion, is aptly captured in Henry Olcott, The Buddhist Catechism,
44th ed. (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1947), 4345; see,
for example, the discussion of relics and images:
Q. Did the Buddha hold to idol-worship?
A. He did not; he opposed it. The worship of gods, demons, trees, etc., was
condemned by the Buddha. External worship is a fetter that one has to
break if he is to advance higher.
Q. But do not Buddhists make reverence before the statue to the Buddha, his
relics, and the monuments enshrining them?
A. Yes, but not with the sentiment of the idolator.
Q. What is the difference?
A. Our Pagan Brother not only takes his images as visible representations of
his unseen God or gods, but the refined idolator, in worshipping, consid-
ers that the idol contains in its substance a portion of the all-pervading
divinity.
Q. What does the Buddhist think?
A. The Buddhist reverences the Buddhas statue and the other things you
have mentioned, only as mementos of the greatest, wisest, most benevo-
lent and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa). . . .
Q. Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours, and devil-danc-
ing a part of Buddhism?
A. They are positively repugnant to its fundamental principles. They are the
surviving relics of fetishism and pantheistic and other foreign religions.
On the historical development of the field of Buddhist studies, see Guy Richard
Welbon, The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters (Chicago: University
ROBERT H. SHARF 184
of Chicago Press, 1968); J. W. de Jong, A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in
Europe and America, 2nd ed. (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1987); Philip C.
Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988); Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed., Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Bud-
dhism under Colonialism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).
8. Gregory Schopen, The Phrase sa pr thivpradea caityabhu\ to bhavet in
the Vajracchedika\ : Notes on the Cult of the Book in the Maha\ ya\ na, Indo-Iranian
Journal 17, no. 34 (1975): 14781. Schopen has been responsible for much of the
attention paid to the role of relics in medieval Indian Buddhism; see idem, Burial
Ad Sanctos and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism:
AStudy in the Archeology of Religions, Religion 17 (July 1987): 193225; idem,
On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of a Relic in the Inscriptions of
Na\ ga\ rjunikonda, Journal of the American Oriental Society 108, no. 4 (1988):
52737; idem, Monks and the Relic Cult in the Maha\ parinibba\ nasutta: An Old
Misunderstanding in Regard to Monastic Buddhism, in From Benares to Beijing:
Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religions in Honour of Prof. Jan Yn-hua, ed.
Gregory Schopen and Koichi Shinohara (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1991),
187201; idem, The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal
Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas, Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies 17, no. 2 (1994): 14573; idem, The Suppression
of Nuns and the Ritual Murder of Their Special Dead in Two Buddhist Monastic
Texts, Journal of Indian Philosophy 24, no. 6 (1996): 56392.
9. The fascination with relics reached a watershed with the American Acad-
emy of Religion Seminar on Buddhist Relic Veneration, which met annually over
a four-year period (19941997), and culminated in the present volume. The par-
ticipants, who were working with a wide variety of materials representing diverse
historical periods and geographical spheres, unanimously attested to the impor-
tance of relics at every level of the social and clerical hierarchy since the dawn of
Buddhism.
10. The notion that relics are somehow ill suited as objects of veneration is not
merely a contemporary Western conceit; the story of Trapusa and Bhallika sug-
gests that the early Buddhists had to overcome a considerable degree of resistance
to the cult of relics in India as well. (The two merchants are initially shocked at
the Buddhas suggestion that they venerate specimens of his hair and nail clip-
pings; the Buddha has to talk them into it! See Andr Bareau, Recherches sur la
biographie du Bouddha dans les Su\trapiaka et les Vinayapiaka anciens: De la
qute de lveil la conversion de S:a\riputra et de Maudgalya\yana [Paris: cole
Franaise dExtrme-Orient, 1963], 109; and John S. Strongs chapter, Buddhist
Relics in Comparative Perspective: Beyond the Parallels, in this volume.)
11. I am using grace as an approximate equivalent for Sanskrit adhis ha\na
(Chinese jiachi, Japanese kaji).
12. David Eckel, The Power of the Buddhas Absence: On the Foundations of
Maha\ya\na Buddhist Ritual, Journal of Ritual Studies 4, no. 2 (1990): 6195;
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 185
John S. Strong, Images, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, 16
vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 5:97104; idem, Buddhist Relics in Com-
parative Perspective; Robert H. Sharf, The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the
Mummification of Chan Masters in Medieval China, History of Religions 32,
no. 1 (1992): 2647; T. Griffith Foulk and Robert H. Sharf, On the Ritual Use of
Chan Portraiture in Medieval China, Cahiers dExtrme-Asie 7 (1993/94): 204.
13. The one exception of which I am aware might be the sophisticated com-
mentary on image worship found in the recorded sayings of Chan masters, in
which they attempt to deconstruct the practice in the very act of engaging in it.
However, such an attitude was not directed to images and relics alone, but rather
to every aspect of Buddhist monastic life, including the study of scripture, the
practice of meditation, and the aspiration for enlightenment. See Bernard Faure,
The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1991), and Foulk and Sharf, On the Ritual Use
of Chan Portraiture.
14. Note, for example, the manner in which configurations of Buddhist holy
mountains, such as the si da mingshan, came to dominate the sacred geography of
China; see Chn-fang Y, Pu-to Shan: Pilgrimage and the Creation of the Chi-
nese Potalaka, in Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China, ed. Susan Naquin and
Chn-fang Y (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992),
190245.
15. See, for example, Bernard Faure, Relics and Flesh Bodies: The Creation
of Chan Pilgrimage Sites, in Naquin and Y, eds., Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in
China, 15089, where Faure documents the use of relics in the Buddhist con-
quest of Song Shan and the establishment of Caoqi as a major pilgrimage site.
16. See esp. Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin
Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); and Patrick J. Geary,
Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1978).
17. There are, of course, marginal cases, such as lacquered mummies, which
are both relic and image. I will discuss the attempt to fuse relic and image later in
this chapter.
18. On the term icon see esp. Moshe Barasch, Icon: Studies in the History of
an Idea (New York and London: New York University Press, 1992), 68; and
Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of
Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
19. Barasch, Icon, 67.
20. On Buddhist image consecration ceremonies see Yael Bentor, Consecra-
tion of Images and Stupas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1996); Richard F. Gombrich, The Consecration of a Buddhist Image, Journal of
Asian Studies 26, no. 1 (1966): 2336; and Donald K. Swearer, Hypostasizing
the Buddha: Buddha Image Consecration in Northern Thailand, History of Reli-
gions 34, no. 3 (1995): 26380.
ROBERT H. SHARF 186
21. See Kosugi, Nikushinzo\ oyobi yuikaizo\ no kenkyu\, To\yo\ gakuho\ 24, no.
3 (1937): 40536; and Faure, Rhetoric of Immediacy, 159.
22. On Chinese mummies see Kosugi Kazuo, Nikushinzo\ ; Paul Demiville,
Momies dExtrme-Orient, Journal des Savants, Troisieme centenaire (Paris,
1965), 14470; Doris Croissant, Der Unsterbliche Leib: Ahneneffigies und
Reliquienportrt in der Portrtplastik Chinas und Japans, in Das Bildnis in der
Kunst des Orients, ed. Martin Kraatz, Jrg Meyer Zur Capellen, and Dietrich Seckel
(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990), 23650; Faure, Rhetoric of Immediacy, 15056;
Faure, Relics and Flesh Bodies; and Sharf, Idolization of Enlightenment.
23. In John Blofelds autobiographical account of his visit to Huinengs
mummy, he notes his uncertainty as to whether the image he saw was a mummy
or a skillfully executed fake; John Blofeld, The Wheel of Life: The Autobiography
of a Western Buddhist, 2nd. ed. (London: Rider, 1972), 9091.
24. On the significance of the terms xiang, zhen, and dingxiang in China, see
Foulk and Sharf, On the Ritual Use of Chan Portraiture, 15863.
25. Gu Kaizhi described his task as one of transmitting the spirit (chuan
shen) or using form to depict the spirit (yi xing xie shen). He is said to have
placed particular emphasis on dotting the eyes, sometimes refraining from
doing so for several years. Audrey Spiro argues that for Gu Kaizhi, dotting the
eyes transmits the spirit and pours forth [xie] the shining [zhao]. It permits the
spirit to take up its abode in the image. . . . Which is to say that dotting the eyes
animates the image, literally infusing it with life (Audrey Spiro, New Light on
Gu Kaizhi, Journal of Chinese Religions 16 [Fall 1988]: 1213). See also Chen
Shih-hsiang, Biography of Ku Kai-chih (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1961), 1415; Richard B. Mather, trans., Shih-shuo Hsin-y: A New Account of
Tales of the World, by Liu I-ching with commentary by Liu Chn (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 368; Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, eds.,
Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985),
14; and Foulk and Sharf, On the Ritual Use of Chan Portraiture, 160, n. 14.
26. Foulk and Sharf, On the Ritual Use of Chan Portraiture.
27. The term is apparently derived from translations of Tantric scriptures, and
modern lexical works cite the Maha\vairocana su\tra as the locus classicus (see
esp. the section entitled Benzun sanmei, T.848: 18.44ab). The term seems to have
lost its explicitly Tantric overtones rather quickly and is now used by all sects,
especially in Japan; see Mikkyo\ Jiten Hensankai, ed., Mikkyo\ daijiten, rev. ed.
(1970; reprint, Kyoto: Ho\zo\kan, 1983), 2068bc (where the reconstructed San-
skrit is given as Sayadhidevatah); Mochizuki Shinko\, Mochizuki Bukkyo\ daijiten,
10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai seiten kanjo\ kyo\kai, 193336), 5:4697b4698a; Ding
Fubao, Foxue dacidian (1919; reprint, Beijing: Wenwu, 1984), 427a; Komazawa
Daigakunai Zengaku Daijiten Hensanjo, ed., Zengaku daijiten (1978; reprint,
Tokyo: Daishu\kan, 1985), 1166ab; and Roger Goepper, Some Thoughts on the
Icon in Esoteric Buddhism of East Asia, in Studia Sino-Mongolica, Festschrift
fr Herbert Franke (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1979), 24554.
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 187
28. More specifically, this image was associated with Takemikatsuchi-no-
mikoto of the Kasuga First Sanctuary, but the various Kasuga deities are com-
monly approached as a single entity under the rubric of Kasuga Myo\jin. To make
matters more complex, there was also a tradition within some Fujiwara circles that
the honji of Kasuga was actually Shaka Nyorai (S:a\kyamuni) enshrined in both
Ko\fukujis Central Golden Hall (Chu\kondo\) and Western Golden Hall
(Saikondo\). See Susan Tyler, The Cult of Kasuga Seen through Its Art (Ann Arbor:
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1992), 13744; Royall
Tyler, The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity (New York: Columbia University Press,
1990), 8687; and Allan G. Grapard, The Protocol of the Gods: A Study of the
Kasuga Cult in Japanese History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1992), 8283.
29. Needless to say, this sort of individuation would have been fostered in part
by the economic interests of the local temple.
30. When the image was opened for the first time in 1954 it was found to con-
tain manufactured relicsa miniature set of internal organs fashioned out of
silkin addition to various valuable coins, crystals, scriptures, and historical doc-
uments relating to the history of the image; see Gregory Henderson and Leon
Hurvitz, The Buddha of Seiryo\ji: New Finds and New Theory, Artibus Asiae 19,
no. 1 (1956): 555. On the legends of the Udayana image see esp. Martha L.
Carter, The Mystery of the Udayana Buddha (Naples: Istituto Universitario Ori-
entale, 1990); and Alexander Soper, Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in
China (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1959).
31. Donald F. McCallum, Zenko\ji and Its Icon: A Study in Medieval Japanese
Religious Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
32. Wu Hung, What Is Bianxiang?On the Relationship between Dunhuang
Art and Dunhuang Literature, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52, no. 1
(1992): 130. According to Wu Hung, this compositional feature allows us to dis-
tinguish images of deities in narrative paintings from icons proper, even when the
latter are set within a landscape. In a narrative scene the attention of the deity will
be focused within the landscape itself, whereas the gaze of the icon extends out
beyond the painted scenery to encompass the viewer. Aclassic example of a land-
scape painting exhibiting such iconic characteristics is the three-panel frontal
depiction of the descent of Amida (Amida raigo\) dating to the Kamakura period
and now housed at Konkaiko\myo\-ji. Such paintings of Amida rising over an
earthly landscape were placed by the bed of the dying. The expiring worshiper
would grasp strands of thread that were affixed directly to the hands of Amida and
then gaze at a reassuring scene of Amida and company coming to welcome him
or her; Okazaki Jo\ji, Pure Land Buddhist Painting, trans. Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
(Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1977), 14042.
33. I would note as an aside that there has been much criticism of the orien-
talist penchant for removing holy images from their religious settings in Asian
temples and sacred caves, and reinstalling them in museums. The dislocation, we
ROBERT H. SHARF 188
are told, emasculates the power of the image, reducing it to a mere object of art
to be appreciated for its aesthetic or exotic qualities alone. While I would not want
to condone the pilfering of sacred images, I would note that the critique is some-
what misguided. If the museum acts to curtail or restrain the power of sacred
icons, so too does the temple. The mistake lies in viewing the icon as a sublime
representation of the divine, rather than as a powerful supernatural presence that
must be assuaged lest it unleash its power in unforeseen ways.
34. Should a warehouse holding hundreds of flags accidentally burn to the
ground, few besides those with a financial interest in the enterprise would be trou-
bled.
35. David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory
of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
36. Ibid., 436.
37. Freedbergs book is frustrating in part precisely because of the manner in
which he elides the distinction between lifelike images (i.e., anthropomorphic
or zoomorphic representations) as opposed to images and objects that lack phys-
iognomic references: Almost every image provides its beholders with clues to
the organic presences registered upon it. When those clues are so abundant and
exact that they combine to form what is regarded as an unusually lifelike image,
then responses to it are predicated on a sense of its living reality. But when the
clues are less exact and less abundant, we still seek to reconstitute the reality of
the signified in the sign. Sign fuses with signified to become the only present real-
ity. The smallest number of clues suffices to precipitate the search for more.
Response to all images, and not only ones perceived as being more or less realis-
tic, is predicated on the progressive reconstitution of material object as living
(ibid., 245). In other words, Freedberg explains the power of images in terms of
(1) our (natural?) tendency to impute intentionality to things that look, however
obliquely, sentient or lifelike. But he immediately moves on to state that (2) we
also imaginatively project sentience onto things that do not possess such qualities.
He does not offer any evidence, however, for his claim that the second phenome-
non is derivative of the first. Thus, it seems to me that the evidence he adduces to
support proposition (2) can only compromise the explanatory value of proposition
(1). For a similar critique see the review by E. H. Gombrich, The Edge of Delu-
sion, New York Review of Books (February 14, 1990): 69.
38. On the Chinese adaptation of buddhaka\ya doctrine see Robert H. Sharf,
Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Trea-
tise (Honolulu, 2002), 10011.
39. See Caroline Walker Bynum, Bodily Miracles and the Resurrection of the
Body in the High Middle Ages, in Belief in History: Innovative Approaches to
European and American Religion, ed. Thomas Kselman (Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 68106; idem, Material Continuity, Personal Sur-
vival and the Resurrection of the Body: A Scholastic Discussion in Its Medieval
and Modern Contexts, in Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 189
the Human Body in Medieval Religion (Cambridge: Zone Books, 1991), 23997;
idem, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 2001336 (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1995).
40. Recent attempts to explain conscious awareness without appealing to
immaterial forces often rely on computational models in general, and neural-net-
work modeling in particular. For an overview of the neuropsychological research
in the area see Stephen M. Kosslyn and O. Koenig, Wet Mind: The New Cognitive
Neuroscience (New York: Free Press, 1992). Many analytic philosophers influ-
enced both by the neuropsychological evidence and by Wittgensteinian decon-
structions of mind-body dualism have enthusiastically jumped on the physicalist
bandwagon; see, for example, Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1991). But not all physicalists subscribe to the computa-
tional approach; Roger Penrose, for example, argues that the mechanism for con-
sciousness is located at the level of subatomic physics, in gravitational phenom-
ena acting through microtubules in neurons (Roger Penrose, Shadows of the
Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness [New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994]). And the neurobiologists Francis Crick and Christof
Koch have put forward an alternative theory that sees consciousness arising as the
result of the synchronized firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex with rhythms in
the range of 40 Hertz. See Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scien-
tific Search for the Soul (New York: Scribner, 1994); Christof Koch and Francis
Crick, Some Further Ideas Regarding the Neuronal Basis of Awareness, in
Large-Scale Neuronal Theories of the Brain, ed. Christof Koch and Joel L. Davis
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994), 93109. For an overview of the diversity of work
in this area, see the papers in the series of special issues of Journal of Conscious-
ness Studies entitled Explaining ConsciousnessThe Hard Problem, 2, no. 3
(1995), and 3, nos. 1, 3, and 4 (1996).
41. See, for example, the work of Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a
Bat? Philosophical Review 83 (October 1974): 43550; and idem, The View from
Nowhere (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), who insists on the irreducibil-
ity of the subjective point of view; or that of David J. Chalmers, The Conscious
Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996), who believes that consciousness is a fundamental feature of the universe
irreducible to anything more basic.
42. One candidate for something in-between might be accounts of con-
sciousness based on nonlinear dynamics and emergent properties. See, for exam-
ple, Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch, The Embodied
Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991);
and Alwyn Scott, Stairway to the Mind: The Controversial New Science of Con-
sciousness (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995).
43. On secondary treatment see esp. Robert Hertz, Death, and The Right Hand,
trans. Rodney Needham and Claudia Needham (Aberdeen: Cohen and West,
1960); Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf, Celebrations of Death: The Anthro-
pology of Mortuary Ritual (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979); and
ROBERT H. SHARF 190
Loring M. Danforth, The Death Rituals of Rural Greece (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1982).
44. See note 39 in this chapter.
45. Gregory Bateson, ATheory of Play and Fantasy, in Steps to an Ecology
of Mind (New York: Ballantine Books, 1972), 180; on the notion of framing see
also Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experi-
ence (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986).
46. Bateson, ATheory of Play and Fantasy, 183. See also the analysis of the
parergon in Jacques Derrida, The Truth in Painting, trans. Geoff Bennington and
Ian McLeod (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 54 ff.
47. Georges Bataille, Theory of Religion, trans. Robert Hurley (New York:
Zone Books, 1992), 40.
48. E. R. Leach, Virgin Birth (The Henry Myers Lecture), Proceedings of the
Royal Anthropology Institute for 1966 (1966): 39. For the background to the
debate see the references mentioned in Virgin Birth (46 n. 1). For the revived
debate of the 1960s, in addition to Virgin Birth by Leach see Melford E. Spiro,
Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation, in Anthropological
Approaches to the Study of Religion, ed. Michael P. Banton (London: Tavistock,
1966); idem, Virgin Birth, Parthenogenesis, and Physiological Paternity, an
Essay in Cultural Interpretation, Man 3, no. 2 (1968): 24261; and the corre-
spondence in the 1968 and 1969 volumes of Man.
49. Leach, Virgin Birth, 41 and 45. On the latter page Leach states: An
alternative way of explaining a belief which is factually untrue is to say that it is
a species of religious dogma; the truth which it expresses does not relate to the
ordinary matter-of-fact world of everyday things but to metaphysics. Of course,
everything hinges on who wields the authority to declare a belief factually
untrue.
50. Spiro, Virgin Birth, Parthenogenesis, and Physiological Paternity.
51. See note 6 in this chapter.
52. This is a well-established rhetorical strategy in American anthropology,
which Clifford Geertz calls self-nativising; see the analysis in Geertz, Us/Not-
Us: Benedicts Travels, in Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (Stan-
ford: Stanford University Press, 1988), 107.
53. Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? An Essay on the Con-
stitutive Imagination, trans. Paula Wissing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1988).
54. Bataille, Theory of Religion, 19 and 28.
ON THE ALLURE OF BUDDHIST RELICS 191
BERNARD FAURE is George Edwin Burnell Professor of religious studies at
Stanford University. His research centers on religion in China and Japan,
especially Chan and Zen traditions. His publications include The Power of
Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, The Red Thread: Buddhist
Approaches to Sexuality, and Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval
Japanese Buddhism.
DAVID GERMANO is associate professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies
at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on the history of
Tibetan religion, especially among the Nyingma and Bon traditions. His
is the co-editor of The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism and the
founder and director of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library
(www.thdl.org).
JACOB N. KINNARD is assistant professor at the Iliff School of Theology.
His research centers on ritual and art in Indian Buddhism. He is the author
of Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism
and a co-editor of Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and
the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia.
ROBERT H. SHARF is D. H. Chen Professor of Buddhist studies in the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of
California, Berkeley. His areas of research include religion in medieval
China and modern Japan and critical theory in the study of religion. He is
the author of Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the
Treasure Store Treatise and co-editor of Living Images: Japanese Buddhist
Icons in Context.
193
CONTRIBUTORS
JOHN S. STRONG is professor of religion at Bates College. His research is
focused on Buddhist legendary and cultic traditions in South Asia. His
publications include The Legend of King Asoka, The Legend and Cult of
Upagupta, and The Buddha: A Short Biography.
DONALD K. SWEARER is Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of
religion at Swarthmore College. His research centers on religion in
Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand. His publications include The
Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, The Legend of Queen Cama (with
Sommai Premchit), and Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Con-
secration in Thailand.
KEVIN TRAINOR is associate professor of religion at the University of Ver-
mont. His areas of research include Indian Buddhism and Theravada Bud-
dhism in Sri Lanka. His publications include Relics, Ritual, and Represen-
tation in Buddhism and Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide (general editor).
CONTRIBUTORS 194
Adittara\ja, King, 149
Aizen myoo\, 101, 102
All-Creating King, The, 5455
Amaterasu, 96
Amida, 188n32
Amoghapa\a Avalokitevara. See
Fuku\kenjaku-kannon
amulets, 155
A|nanda, 122, 146, 155
Ana\thapindika, 139n43
aniconic period in early Buddhism,
1011, 121
Anura\dhapura, 35
anussati, 128
arahant (arhat), 7, 10, 15, 34, 148n36,
15253, 155, 156
arahantship (arhatship), 123, 124
art, 12021
Aoka, King, 4142, 148, 152, 153,
158
As amaha\pra\tiha\rya, 119, 13234
Avalokitevara Bodhisattva. See
Fuku\kenjaku-kannon; Nyoirin
Kannon
Bataille, Georges, 181, 18283
Bateson, Gregory, 180
Benichi, Mount, 97
biography, 14, 3436
bioramas, 35, 36
Blazing Relics Tantra, The, 5761, 64,
66, 71, 74, 75, 7779, 81
bodhi tree, 35, 125
bodhicitta, 55
Bodhiramsi, Bhikkhu, 148
bodily relics, 11. See also under
Buddha
alternatives to, 3638
bones, 5455, 6974
vs. precious (relic) spheres, 5455,
71, 7374. See also relic spheres
Bourdieu, Pierre, 120, 121, 134
Brown, Peter, 41, 126
Buddha
body of, 911, 14, 15
on his own identity and nature,
5152, 146
iconographic thought about, 127
past lives, 35
presence of. See presence
reasons for recollecting, 129
between sa\la trees at Kusina\ra\, 9
sculptures and paintings of, 16
seeing the, 12125. See also bud-
dhadarana; images, Buddha;
imagining the Buddha
state of, after death, 911, 3132
three Bodies of, 52
Buddha Gotama, 14, 35, 145
Buddha-nature, 53, 61, 70, 71
relics and, 8086
Buddha Tamna\n, 160n20
buddhadarana, 125, 137n31. See also
Buddha, seeing the
195
INDEX
Buddhada\sa bhikkhu, 145
buddhaka\ya, 175
buddha\nusmrti, 121, 12729
Buddhas
figure of, 51
past and future, 14
Buddhas Tooth Relic Pagoda, 27. See
also tooth of the Buddha
Buddhism, 119, 16465, 16768
compared with other religions,
46
history, 14752
Buddhist Relic Traditions Web site,
2223
Buddhist relics. See also specific top-
ics
beyond superstition, 123
semiotic logic of, 16975
types of, 52
Buddhist revival in Asia, 5
Busshar so\jo\ shidai, 104, 105
Bynum, Caroline, 43, 176, 178
Byo\do\-in, 102
Ca\ma, Queen, 14849
Carus, Paul, 68
Cave of the Buddhas Shadow, 3031,
3334
cetiya, 9, 16, 24n22, 26n33, 49n78,
12526, 131, 139n43, 150, 161n29.
See also thu\pa
Ceylon, 57
Chao Luang Kham Daeng, 156, 158
Chapel of the Holy Cross, 28
charisma, 38
Charnvit Kasetsiri, 14748
Chiang Dao, 15051
Chiang Mai, 15254
Christian and Buddhist relics, 2829
stories about, 4243
approaching and touching,
2932
collecting and counting, 3940
dioramas and biography, 3436
patterns of distribution, 4042
routinization and mass-produc-
tion, 3638
seeing and experiencing, 3234
Christianity, 178
Buddhism compared with, 56, 28
chronicle, 148. See also phongsa;
tamna\n; vamsa
chronicle genre, the, 14752
Chrysostom, St. John, 30
cinta\mani (wish-fulfilling jewel),
93, 95102, 104, 105, 108
Collins, Steven, 119, 126
communion, 3637
consciousness, explanations of, 190n40
contemplative practices, 5859, 67,
86. See also direct transcendence
contemplation
contradictory negations, 3132
Conze, Edward, 128
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, 121
Crick, Francis, 190n40
Dainichi, 9697
Dainichi No\nin, 106
Dalada Maligawa, 27
Daoxuan, 103, 107
Darumashu\, 106
Davids, T. W. Rhys, 46, 8,
2324nn1213
death
of the Buddha, 911, 3132, 34
signs of saintly, 6163
descendants, 69
devotionalism, 31, 34, 123
dhamma, 145, 146, 155. See also
Dharma
Dharma, 3738. See also dhamma
embodying the, 16
hearing it directly from the
Buddha, 122
dharmaka\ya, 38, 55, 80
Dharmodgata, 131
dioramas, 3436
direct transcendence contemplation,
64, 66, 81
INDEX 196
distribution, patterns of, 4042
Doniger, Wendy, 29
dragon holes, 96, 97
dragon offering, 95
Duhaga\man, King, 35, 36
earthquakes, 7880
Eckel, David, 122
Emanational Spiritual Bodies, 6869,
77
embodying the Dharma, 16
emperors. See also specific individuals
relics and cloistered, 1016
Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind,
6061. See also bodhicitta
enlightened nucleus. See Buddha-
nature
enlightening mind. See dharmaka\ya
enlightenment, 57
Ennin, 101
enshrinement procession, 11, 12
Entering Uji, 100
eschatologies, 4243
eternal vs. impermanent bodies, 4243
Eucharist, 3638
Faxian, 3031, 12627
field, concept of the, 12021. See
also under presence
floating signifiers, 110
Foucault, Michel, 120
Foucher, Alfred, 121, 136n24
Frederick the Wise, 39, 40
Freedberg, David, 17475, 189n37
Frolow, Anatole, 41
Fujiwara, 100101
Fujiwara no Muneyori, 104
Fuku\kenjaku-kannon, 172
funeral pyre, 9, 10
funerary Buddhism, 53
future. See past and future
gdung, 54, 69. See also bones
Geary, Patrick, 41
Gion Consort, 1034, 106, 11415n45
Gishin, 103, 107
gnosis, primordial, 55, 8081
Go-Daigo, Emperor, 94, 10710
Go-ko\gon, 107
Go-Shirakawa-in, 104
Go-Toba, Emperor, 99
gojiso\ (protecting monk), 98
Gopa\la, 31
Great Perfection, 53, 58, 63, 84
disembodied relics in the early,
5356
transformation into Seminal Heart,
53
growth, by addition vs. multiplication,
3940
Gu Kaizhi, 172, 187n25
Gyokuyo\, 101
Hanjun, 97, 105
Harrison, Paul, 12830, 142nn6768
Head, Thomas, 32
Heian period, 98
heritage, 69
hermeneutic conundrum, relics and
the, 17983
Hinduism compared with Buddhism,
45
historical consciousness, 1314. See
also chronicle genre
honzon, 108, 109, 173
Hoori no Mikoto, 104
Hugh of Lincoln, Saint, 3637
Hume, David, 34
Huntington, John, 119, 134
Ichiji Kinrin, 99
icons, 17075
images, 174, 189n37
Buddha, 11819, 155, 16667. See
also paima\; viggaha; vision
and visualization
compared with relics, 1617,
170
seeing, 12527. See also
Buddha, seeing the
INDEX 197
semiotic logic of icons, relics, and,
16975
imagining the Buddha
image talk, 12127
image thought, 12732
imminent realization, 6061
incarnation, 34, 37
jade-woman, 99, 100
Jagannatha, 45
Japanese regalia, Buddhist relics and,
9395, 10910
cloistered emperors, 1016
Emperor Go-Daigo and the
cinta\mani, 108
relics and the regents, 100101
relics and the sho\gun, 1068
relics and the tenno\, 95100
rituals of power, 109
ja\takas, 123, 150
Jerome, St., 30
Jerusalem, 30
Jesus Christ, 28, 32, 34, 36, 37
jewels. See cinta\mani
jha\nas, 128
Jien, 99
Jikme Phuntshok, Khenpo, 63
Kamakura period, 94, 99
Kanezane, 101
karma, 14, 16, 55, 61
Karmalingpa, 5657
Kasuga Myo\jin, 172, 188n28
King, Winston, 128
kissing relics, 30, 37
Koch, Christof, 190n40
Ku\kai, 9598, 101, 104, 105
Ku\tai, 112n14
Lamotte, tienne, 123, 125
Leach, E. R., 181, 191nn4849
Lvy-Bruhl, Lucien, 16364, 167,
179, 182, 183
lights, 7476
Longchenpa, 60, 81
on relics, 61
Seminal Heart and, 53, 81
on signs of saintly death, 61
on tantra, 70
writings, 56
The Treasury of the Supreme
Vehicle, 7175, 79
The Treasury of Words and
Meanings, 56, 58, 61, 6667,
70, 78, 80
MacCulloch, J. A., 12
Maha\na\ma, 35
Maha\parinibba\na-sutta, 810
Maha\vairocana. See Dainichi
Maha\vamsa, 35
mandalization, 42
mani jewel. See cinta\mani
Mary Magdalene, 36
memory-sites, 14, 16
Minamoto no Sanetomo, 1067
Minamoto no Yoritomo, 106
Minamoto Tamenori, 99
mirage, 31, 32
Monkan, 108
Muro\zan, 96, 97
Muro\zan goshari so\den engi, 96
Mus, Paul, 32
Muso\ Soseki, 107, 108
Myo\an Eisai, 106, 107
na\ga, 9597, 104, 154
na\ga palace, 106, 108, 110
Nagaraha\ra, 3031
Na\ga\rjuna, 31, 127
Nakatada, 11314n35
Narai, King, 148
Narutaki Myo\jin, 100
Nazha, 103
negations, contradictory, 3132
Ngakchung, Khenpo, 63
Ningai, 97
nirvana, Buddha in, 3132, 166
Nyoirin Kannon, 99
INDEX 198
images (continued)
Obeyesekere, Gananath, 181, 182
offering, 9, 54, 126, 139n43, 156, 171,
173, 174. See also dragon offer-
ing; pu\ja\; arra-pu\ja\
Olcott, Henry Steel, 5, 184n7
Olschki, Leonardo, 28
Pa\li Canon, 120, 122
parinibba\na legacy, 146
parinirvana, passing into, 32, 3436, 43
past and future, relationships to,
1314
pastness, persistence of, 131, 13334
paima\, 125, 140n44
Paula (Roman Christian noblewoman),
2930, 36
Penor Rinpoche, 6364
phongsa, 147
phongsa\wada\n, 147, 148
Phra Chao Liap Lok (PCLP), 149,
160n20
Pingiya, 141n64
power
rituals of, 109
royal, 1023
pramukha, 131
Prasenajit story, 12627
Pratyutpanna-buddha-
sammukhavasthita-sama\dhi-su\tra
(PraS), 130
presence, 126, 133, 134
absence and, 3132, 36, 82, 8486,
118, 12627, 131
field of, 11922, 133
persistence of, 11719
presence talk, 117
primitive peoples and primitive men-
tality, 16364, 179, 18182, 184n7
primitive rationality, 163
Prince Bodhi Sutta, 146
progeny, 69
pu\ja\, 123, 171. See also arra-pu\ja\
Radegund, Saint, 3234, 39
rain rituals, 95
rationality and reason, 5, 8
Rawlinson, Andrew, 137n31
Ray, Reginald, 12425
regents, relics and the, 100101
relic cults, 9, 10, 173
relic spheres, 5455, 6364, 71,
7374. See also ring brsel
relic veneration, 16568. See also
Buddhist relics, beyond super-
stition
prohibitions against, 1011
relics. See also Buddhist relics; specif-
ic topics
importance, 32
meaning and scope of the term, 61,
69, 169, 170
nature of, 93, 16667, 16970
religious practitioners, attention to
bodies of, 11
religious traditions
Buddhism compared with other,
46
similarity between different, 13
Rengeo\-in, 103
resurrection, bodily, 4243, 175
Ries, Julien, 136n22
ring brsel, 54, 63. See also relic
spheres
ritual and ritualism, 8, 9, 14, 32, 133
Ryo\shin, 107
Sada\prarudita, Bodhisattva, 131
sadha\tuka, 125
Sahlins, David, 181, 182
saints, 32
S:a\kyamuni, 119, 130, 173
Salzman, Michele, 2, 3
sama\dhi, 130
Samantabhadra, 106
Samantapa\sa\dika\, 125, 131
sangha, and relic veneration, 10
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, basilica
of, 28
arra, 69, 70, 93, 95, 96, 100103,
108. See also relics
INDEX 199
arra-pu\ja, 10, 25n25
sa\sana, 9, 147, 151, 153, 155, 157
Schopen, Gregory, 28, 32, 131,
138n35, 165
science and religion, 6, 8
Seelakkhandha, Alutgama, 6, 7
Seiryo\ji Shaka, cult of, 173
self, 17779
Self-Arisen, The, 73
Seminal Heart, 53, 74, 75, 80, 81, 85,
86
Senko\, 107
Sennyu\-ji temple, 28
sexuality, 99100
shadow, Buddhas. See Cave of the
Buddhas Shadow
sheli, 38, 40, 48n60, 172
Shingon, 97, 98, 102
Shinto\, 111n7
Shinzenen, 96
Shirakawa, 1013, 106, 114n45
Shirakawa-in, 1025, 110, 114n45
sho\gun, relics and the, 1068
Sho\ken, 104
Sho\ko\myo\-in, 102, 104, 105
Shubin, 96, 112n17
Shukseb Jetsunma, 65
Siddhattha (Siddhartha), Prince, 119,
152
signs, 158n1
sacralized, 174
Smith, Adam, 3
Smith, Jonathan, 133
Smith, Vincent, 12
sounds, 75, 7778
Sox, David, 4041
Spiro, Audrey, 187n25
Spiro, Melford, 181
Sri Lanka, 14, 15. See also Ceylon;
Maha\vamsa
stupa, 11, 3738, 41, 42, 65, 11719,
166, 170. See also thu\pa
superstitio, 23
superstition, 24
emotional excess and, 45
Supreme Vehicle, The, 66, 7475, 77
Suzuki, D. T., 24n18
Taira no Kiyomori, 1026, 11415n45
Taira no Tadamori, 104, 114n45
Taksaila\, 42
Tamayorihime, 104
Tambiah, Stanley, 37
tamna\n, 159n17, 16061n25
categories of, 149
history of, 14752
Tamna\n Ang Salung, 15052
signs of the Buddha in, 15256
interpretation of, 15758
Tanaka Takako, 104
tantra, 5657, 70, 75, 187n27. See
also Blazing Relics Tantra; Great
Perfection
Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness, The,
8485
tenno\, relics and the, 95100, 111n6
textualizations, 3738
thu\pa, 9, 26n31. See also stupa
time and timelessness, 1314
Toba-in, 103, 105
To\ji, 97, 98, 113n24
Tomb of the Resurrection, 30
tooth of the Buddha, 2728, 42, 103,
105, 1078, 114n42, 115n59
touching relics, 2932
Toyotamahime, 104
transcendence, 59, 75, 84
transubstantiation, 3638
Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle, The
(Longchenpa), 7175, 79
Treasury of Words and Meanings, The
(Longchenpa), 56, 58, 61, 6667,
70, 78, 80
Udayana Buddha image, 127, 173,
188n30
Uji Treasure House, 100103
Vajrabodhi, 95
Vakkali, 124, 138n38
INDEX 200
vamsa, 41, 14748
Veyne, Paul, 182
viggaha, 125
Vimuttimagga, 129
vision and visualization, 3233. See
also imagining the Buddha
visionary appearances of the Buddhas,
6667
visual culture, 11
Wendi, Emperor, 39, 40, 42
Wilkinson, John, 30
wish-fulfilling jewel. See cinta\mani
worship of relics. See relic venera-
tion
Wu Hung, 173, 188n32
Wyatt, David K., 149
Xuanzang, 3334, 37, 99, 103
yakkhas, 156
Yakushi, 173
Yorimichi, 100, 101
Zenko\ji Amida cult, 173
Zentatsu, 96
INDEX 201