Relic

relic_toothposter
Originally uploaded by williamnyk.

I may not be a Buddhist, but I recently visited the Buddha's and His Disciples' Relics World Tour held at the Mines International Convention Center. It's organized by the Gelugpa Buddhist Association. I thought it was a walk-in affair, but boy, was I wrong. Had to queue (lines made up of strung up mantras to keep out the vampires?), had to wait. Prior to registration, we were given an electronic counter to keep track of the number of times we chanted Om Mani Padme Hung (dont know what it means). They want to keep track of the number to achieve a mass chanting record. If you chant 5,000 times or more, you get a gift. My poor thumb was exhausted after clicking up to 1,000 (itchy fingers), so I can't imagine actually chanting 5,000 or more times. Upon entry, we got to see many religious paintings painstakingly done by lamas. Kinda like illuminated manuscripts. At the relics section, we saw the relics up close (with a magnification of 22X). The brain and blood relics all looked like little multi-couloured sago pebbles. Up close, they're really transparent, with a crystal-like quality to them. On to the main exhibits, there were mostly brain, blood and bone relics of Sakyamuni Buddha and arahants kept in glass and bronze stupas. Much repetition. We were herded along with little time to oogle. Among the weirder exhibits were the finger, saliva and flower relics. According to the explanation by one of the guides, the relics' colour has denotes the completeness of attaining compassion, wisdom, dhamma and etc. The last exhibit was of Sakyamuni Buddha's tooth. I also learned that the relics do not necessarily originate after death (cremation). Some are actually from time when they walked the earth, like the Saliva Relic (spontaneously-solidified spit. :P). They also claim that given the right devotion and prayer, the relics actually multiply! And if not taken care of correctly, it just dissipates. To me, it wasn't a really spectacular exhibit, but if it's genuine, it's pretty darn mysterious. Concentrated spirituality in an easy-to-swallow form. :D

PS: On walking out of the exhibition, I wanted to fill up a Mines Resort lucky draw form. The woman who was in charge of the booth asked whether I was above 18! I guess she left her glasses or contacts at home, but oh JOY!