The Buddhists and the Hindus share the idea of the land becoming sacred, when it is connected with the body of a holy being. Let us first hear the Buddhist story.

We are told that when Buddha died, his body was cremated, and after the cremation, his ashes were supposed to go to his birth tribe: the Shakya tribe. However, seven kings of the Gangetic plains attacked the city of Kushinagara, where the cremation took place, demanding a share of the relics. They surrounded the city and threatened a great war, until finally a sage known as Drauna divided Buddha’s relics into about eight caskets and distributed them among the kings, who took it to their respective kingdoms and placed it in sacred mounds. This is how stupas originated. Stupas basically contain the relic of the Buddha, either a piece of a bone or teeth or hair or ash.