This study examines the phenomenon of relic veneration in the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Sri Lanka, drawing upon Pali canonical texts, traditional commentaries and the Pali chronicle (vamsa) tradition. This material is supplemented by a consideration of relevant archeological and inscriptional evidence. This material clearly reveals that the cult of venerating the Buddha's corporeal remains played a significant role in the historical development of the Buddhist tradition in India, and in the establishment of the Buddhist sasana in Sri Lanka. The study examines the nature of this cult as a distinctive religious phenomenon, and clarifies the relationship between the particular ritual activity centered on the Buddha's relics, and the broader religious ideals of the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
Toward this end, the study explores the religious significance of relics as a means of localizing the sacred, and demonstrates the complex symbolism of relics in the Theravada Buddhist context. In addition the study identifies the relation of the relic cult to the fundamental Buddhist religious ideal of producing beneficial mental states, and clarifies the way in which the rituals of venerating the Buddha's relics orient the devotee to the person of the Buddha who serves as the preeminent exemplification of the Theravada Buddhist religious ideal. As the Pali literature on the tradition of relics demonstrates, the experience of "seeing" the Buddha has played a central role in this strategy of orientation. It is through the cult of relics that Theravada Buddhists have continued to experience the externalized presence of the Buddha as an object of devotion, in spite of the fact that the Buddha has utterly passed away from the realm of samsara.
