Gems supposedly buried with Buddha are to be sold at auction – it’s a symptom of Buddhism’s ongoing commercialisation

By Lee Clarke, Lecturer in Philosophy, Nottingham Trent University

Almost 2,000 years ago in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India, someone deposited a cache of gems inside a reliquary (a container for holy relics), along with some bone fragments and ash. The gems were precious, but the bones and ash even more so, for according to an inscription on the reliquary, they belonged to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

The Piprahwa gems were placed along with the Buddha’s bodily relics (śarīra) as an offering inside a stūpa (A Buddhist funerary structure that contains relics and acts…

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