Discovery of the Buddha's relics In January 1898, a resident officer from
Britain, William Peppe, discovered a pot of soapstone containing human bones when he was excavating a
tumulus near the border of
Nepal at
Piprahwa. Some ancient lettering written on the side of the pot are thought to be dated around the 3rd century B.C. The script reads, “The pot of the holy remains of Buddha is enshrined with a heart of trust by wife, children, brothers and sisters, together with a
Sakya clan in India, Sakya”. Some of the portion given to the Sakya clan was kept at
Kapilavastu. In the 19th century, many researchers believed the Buddha to be a product of legend. This discovery provided evidence for the Buddha as a historical person. The government of India decided to keep the pot in the
Indian Museum in
Kolkata and gave the ashes of the Buddha to the royal family of Thailand.
King Chulalongkorn kept the ashes in
Wat Saket and divided it into several portions as a gift to other Buddhist countries like
Ceylon and
Burma. When the minister of Japan,
Manjiro Inagaki, heard the news, he requested that the king offer a portion of ashes to Japan. The king granted his request and presented a portion of the relics to Japan as a gift from the royal family of Thailand to the Japanese people.
Founding Nittai-ji Inagaki sent a letter about receiving the ashes of the Buddha to the foreign minister,
Shuzo Aoki. Aoki immediately commanded all of the chiefs of Buddhist sects (13 sects and 56 sub sects) to prepare to receive the holy ashes. They held a conference and decided to receive the holy ashes. In June 1900, a mission was organized in order to receive the holy ashes. The mission traveled to Thailand on June 15 of that year and received the holy ashes from King Chulalongkorn at the
Grand Palace. They promised King Chulalongkorn to build a new temple not belonging to any Buddhist sect at which to enshrine the holy ashes. King Chulalongkorn also gave a one thousand year old gold-bronze statue of the Buddha, a national treasure in Thailand, to function as the main statue of the Buddha in the new temple. The mission brought the holy ashes back to Japan and the holy ashes were temporarily kept at
Myōhō-in temple in
Kyoto. Representatives from each Buddhist sect in Japan conferred about the new temple that would keep the holy ashes. After many conferences, they decided to build the temple in
Nagoya. The Nagoya city government prepared 330,000 square meters of land to build the temple. Finally, in 1904, Nissen-ji (now, Nittai-ji) was built in commemoration of the friendship between Japan and Thailand. == Architecture==