Buddha’s sacred remains go North

Stupas containing the sacred remains of Buddhism’s founder will be flown to Hanoi on a special flight Saturday as gifts to two major northern pagodas.

Two pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Thailand have donated sixteen relics, called sariras, to Quan Su Pagoda in Hanoi and Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh Province. Vietnam Airlines has organized a flight especially for the symbolic transfer.

Representatives of the Vietnam Buddhism Association Central Committee said a sendoff ceremony will be held at 5 a.m. on June 6 at Giac Quang Pagoda in HCMC’s District 8.

Quan Su Pagoda will hold a ceremony to receive the sariras at 1 p.m. today, which will be attended by representatives from the Thai Embassy in Vietnam.

Thousands of Buddhists are expected at the ceremony to receive the ten sariras of the Buddha and six from other venerated monks. The sariras, which are pearl-like objects purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters, are stored in gilded stupas that were made in Thailand.

Four Buddha sariras and three sariras of venerated monks will stay on at Quan Su Pagoda while the rest will be moved after the ceremony to Bai Dinh Pagoda.

The sariras were donated by Giac Quang Pagoda, Nguyen Thuy Zen Monastery in HCMC’s District 2 and a Thai temple.

Sariras, which are worshipped in pagodas and monasteries all over the world, are cherished in the Buddhist faith. They are believed to contain the essence of the masters and are considered proof of their enlightenment. They are usually displayed in a glass bowl inside small gold urns or stupas.

The most revered sariras were of the Buddha himself, who was said to have left thousands of the pearls in his ashes.

The other two temples had delivered their sariras to Giac Quang Pagoda over a week ago in preparation for the transfer.

Giac Quang’s deputy chief monk Thich Nguyen Ngoc said the temple had enshrined the Buddha’s sariras there when its founder Giac Quang (1895-1967) brought them from Myanmar in 1956.

The senior monk of Giac Quang Pagoda, Tinh Giac, initiated the donation after he visited Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh, which houses Southeast Asia’s largest bronze bell, weighing 36 tons. Tinh Giac is also serving as a Buddhism advisor for Thailand’s royal court.