It is easy for us to dismiss any similarities between Buddhist and Christian relics considering the diversity in their contributions to the world of art history. Aquinas’ integration of Aristotelian philosophy allowed for a Hellenistic Influence on Christian medieval art, whilst Buddhist art values symbolism over realism, through the involvement of bells and vajras (or the Diamonds of the Truth).
This is rarely the case though. The relics of these religions both hold key thematic similarities. Buddha’s teeth (Śarīra) and pieces of bone from the top of his skull are dispersed across Asia from Afghanistan to Cambodia. Similarly, people pay particular interest in the death of Christ with the Crown of Thorns and crucifixion nails remaining important relics today.
Just as we are drawn to what is finite, we also want to know how things came to be. For this reason, the birthplaces of key figures remain sacred pilgrimage sites. Siddhartha Gautama’s birthplace, Lumbini, in Western Nepal, is just as popular a pilgrimage site for Buddhists as Nazareth is for Christians. The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome even claims to be the home of Christ’s cradle. The Bodhi (or Mahabodhi) Tree in Bodh Gaya, where Buddha attained enlightenment also serves as a key site symbolising the origins of a religion focussed on striving for Nirvana. Perhaps most interestingly, both Buddhist and Christian relics are surrounding by an air of mysticism. As recorded in the Lokapannatti, Buddhist relics collected by Ashoka are supposedly protected by spirit-powered mechanics. Similarly, as we see in modern media’s exploration of the Holy Grail and Tablets of Stone through both Indiana Jones and Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, it is uncertainty which draws people to such relics. We want to know something about that which we can inevitably know nothing. We cannot be certain that the Kanishka Casket does contain the bones of Buddha or that the wood presented to us truly did make part of the cross on which Christ was crucified. We are left clueless and we are left curious.
Particularly in the context of today, both for the sake of the community and conflict, the placement of these relics continues to hold political importance. We cannot neglect the importance of Biblical references to key sites in Jerusalem such as Hezekiah’s Tunnels and the City of David, just as we cannot also ignore the fact that the location of various stupas (structures containing Buddhist relics) shapes the geopolitics of each area.
Religious relics, in both Christianity and Buddhism, indeed in all religions, are not objects but indications of faith. They are both what unites the members of each faith and what unites the local communities. Perhaps therefore, they are less religious relics and more signposts of our human community, or lack of.
“Couronne d’epines – Crown of Thorns Notre Dame Paris” by No machine-readable author provided. Gavigan assumed (based on copyright claims). is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
