Buddha's Piprahwa relics come to Tawang, Bomdila, Namsai from Oct 31

Holy relics of Lord Buddha kept at the National Museum in New Delhi will travel to Arunachal Pradesh for a three-week public exposition beginning on Saturday, October 31, covering three of the state's most important Buddhist centres: Tawang, Bomdila and Namsai.

The exposition is being organised by the Union Ministry of Culture with the Arunachal Pradesh government, the National Museum and the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC).

Schedule: where and when to see the relics

• Tawang Monastery (Gaden Namgyal Lhatse): October 31 to November 7
• Lower Gompa, Bomdila: November 8 to 13
• Golden Pagoda, Namsai: November 14 to 20
• Return to New Delhi: November 21

Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who is in the state for the International Tourism Mart in Tawang, is to attend the opening ceremony at Tawang Monastery on Saturday morning. Chief Minister Pema Khandu is scheduled to attend a separate inaugural programme, along with the opening of an associated exhibition, on Sunday, November 1.

How the relics are travelling

After ceremonial observances at the National Museum, the relics are to be taken to Air Force Station Palam and flown in a special Indian Air Force aircraft to Guwahati's Borjhar airport. From there they will be carried to Tawang by helicopter. Officials say the move has been planned around the relics' sanctity, security and conservation needs.

What the Piprahwa relics are

The relics come from Piprahwa in present-day Siddharthnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, a site linked with ancient Kapilavastu and the Shakya clan into which the Buddha was born.

In 1898, British engineer William Claxton Peppé excavated a stupa there and found reliquaries containing bone fragments and precious objects. Later Archaeological Survey of India excavations between 1971 and 1977, supervised by archaeologist K.M. Srivastava, found two more caskets at deeper levels holding 22 bone fragments in all, 12 in the larger casket and 10 in the smaller. Twenty of these are preserved at the National Museum in New Delhi and two at the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

Relics from this collection have earlier been taken abroad for veneration, including to Mongolia in 2022 and Thailand in 2024.

Timed with Lhabab Duchen

The opening coincides with Lhabab Duchen, a major festival in Tibetan Buddhism that marks the Buddha's descent from the heavenly realm. Officials said the timing would bring together religious observance, heritage and public participation.

The choice of venues reflects the state's two main Buddhist traditions: Tawang and Bomdila in the west are centres of Himalayan (Mahayana and Vajrayana) Buddhism, while Namsai in the east is an important seat of Theravada Buddhism.

Exhibition and conference

Alongside the exposition, the IBC will put up an exhibition titled "Unearthing the Sacred Piprahwa", tracing the discovery, history and return of the relics and related objects. The Piprahwa jewel collection linked to the 1898 find was brought back to India in 2025 after it was put up for international auction.

An international conference on "Buddhism: Dissemination in the Himalayan Region and Beyond" is planned at Tawang's Kalawangpo Convention Hall on November 2, with monks and scholars expected from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Germany.