Public Lecture on "Sri Lanka and the Globalization of Relics"

By Dr. Donald Stadtner
Associate Professor,
University of Texas, Austin
Ph.D., (University of California, Berkeley)

" No sooner had the cremation embers cooled but kingdoms in north India nearly (and
eagerly) waged war for possession of the Buddha’s corporal remains, a poignant reminder
of the central role that relics played from the faith’s inception. The simple tale about the
division of the relics and their disbursement told in the early Pali canon evolved over the
millennia into a veritable genre of literature throughout the Buddhist world.
This illustrated presentation looks at a handful of key relics exported from Sri Lanka to
Burma, from the 12th to the 20th centuries, and how each instance illuminates enduring
cultural themes."