The Manikiala Stupa and Buddha Tooth Relics

၂။ မဂ္ဂီဠ(Manikala Stupa)( ကနိသျှကမင်းကြီး)

မဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်မြတ်ကြီးသည် ပါကစ္စတန်နိုင်ငံ ပန်ဂျပ်ပြည်နယ်၏ Pothohar ဒေသရှိ Tope Mankiala ရွာအနီးရှိ ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာစေတီတော်မြတ်တဆူဖြစ်သည်။  ဇာတ်တော် ဇာတကတို့အရ မြတ်စွာဘုရားသခင်၏အလောင်းတော်  သတ္တဝမင်းသားသည် ဤမဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်ကြီးနေရာတွင် အလွန်ဆာလောင်လျက်ရှိသော ကျားမကြီးသည် သူ့၏ကျားပေါက်လေး၆ကောင်စားသောက်တော့မည်ကို တွေ့ရသဖြင့် အလောင်းတော်မင်းသားသည် ကျားသားပေါက်လေး၆ကောင်၏ အသက်တို့အတွက် ကယ်တင်ရန်အတွက် ကျားမကြီး၏ရှေ့သို့သွားကာ မိမိ၏ အသက်နှင့်ခန္ဓာကို သူတပါး၏အဟာရနှင့် ကျားသားပေါက်လေးများ၏အသက်ကိုကယ်တင်ရရန် စွန့်လွှတ်ပေးလှူခဲ့သော ဒါနပရမတ္ထပါရမီတော်နယ်မြေဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုဇာတက၏ အထိမ်းအမှတ်ဖြစ် ကနိသျှကမင်းကြီးသည် မဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်ကို ခရစ်နှစ် ၁၂၈ နှင့် ၁၅၁ ကြားတွင် တည်ထားခဲ့သည်ဟု ဆိုပါသည်။  ဒဏ္ဍရီတစ်ခုအရ စေတီတော်သည် အသောကမင်းကြီး၏ စေတီတော် ၈၄ဆူ(မြန်မာတို့အခေါ် စေတီပေါင်း ၈၄၀၀၀)အနက်မှ တစ်ခုဖြစ်ကြောင်း ကနိသျှကမင်းကြီးသည် တိုင်းခန်းလှည့်လည်စဥ် ကျားဟိန်းသံကြားသဖြင့် ရှာဖွေရမှ စေတီပျက်တဆူကိုငုံပြီး မဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်ကိုတည်ထားကိုးကွယ်သည်ဟုဆိုထားပါသေးသည်။

ကနိသျှကမင်းကြီးသည် မဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်ကြီးသို့ အမြဲတမ်းလာရောက် ဖူးမြှော်လေ့ရှိပြီး

အရေးကြီးကိစ္စများဆုံးဖြတ်ရတွင်လည်း ဤမဂ္ဂီဠစေတီကြီးတွင်ပင်ဆုံးဖြတ်အတည်ပြုလေ့ရှိသည်ဟုဆိုပါသည်။မဂ္ဂီဠစေတီတော်မြတ်ကြီးကို ၁၈၀၈ ခုနှစ်တွင် အာဖဂန်နစ္စတန်သို့လာရောက်သော ပထမဆုံးဗြိတိသျှသံအမတ်ကြီး Mountstuart Elphinstone မှ ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့တာဖြစ်ပြီး စေတီတော်တွေ့ရှိပုံကို 'Kingdom of Caubul' (1815) တွင်အပြည့်အစုံပါရှိပါသည်။

                                                       The Buddha Tooth Relics picture 

စေတီတော်ကို ၁၈၉၁ ခုနှစ်တွင် ဝိတိုရိယဘုရင်မကြီး၏ အမိန့်ပြန်လည်ပြုပြင်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရပါသည်။ ဋ္ဌာပနာတော် ပစ္စည်းအများအပြားကို Jean-Baptiste Venturaက 1830 ခုနှစ်တွင် ပုထိုးတော်ကြီး၏အောက် 10 နှင့် 20 မီတာကြားတွင်တွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည်။ သွားတော်မြတ်ပါ ဋ္ဌာပနာတော်များ ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနပညာရှင် James Prinsep ပိုင်ဆိုင်ခဲ့ပြီး ယခုအခါ ဗြိတိသျှပြတိုက် သတ္တမမြောက်အက်ဒွပ်ဘုရင်ပြခန်းတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်ထားလေသည်။ရှေးယခင်က ရတနာသိုက်မုဆိုးများ၏ တူးဖော်မှုကြောင့် စေတီတော်၏ သည် အပေါက်တစ်ခုရှိသည်။  ယခုအခါ ၎င်းတွင် ဘေးကင်းရေး အကြောင်းပြချက်ဖြင့် ၎င်းအနီးတစ်ဝိုက်တွင် အတားအဆီးတစ်ခု ရှိနေပါသည်။

The Manikiala Stupa and Buddha Tooth Relic

Abstract

The Manikiala Stupa, located in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan, is an enduring monument of ancient Buddhist heritage. Constructed during the reign of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka, the stupa embodies the philosophical and spiritual ethos of Buddhism. Its origins are steeped in the Jataka tales, with narratives of altruistic self-sacrifice forming the cornerstone of its significance. This paper explores the historical development, religious importance, and archaeological significance of the Manikiala Stupa, highlighting its connections to Buddhist history and its continued relevance today. Moreover, this work examines the relocation of tooth relics from the site to Myanmar, where they are preserved Mr Thura Kyaw Fomer senior member  of the Hswagata Buddha Tooth Relics Preservation Museum, thus bridging the historical legacy of Gandhara with the contemporary Buddhist world.

Introduction

The Manikiala Stupa is an iconic Buddhist relic site located in present-day Pakistan. As a structure commemorating the Buddha’s teachings and the Bodhisattva's altruism, it is both a historical landmark and a spiritual destination. This stupa is deeply connected to the legends of the Bodhisattva prince who offered his body to save starving tigress cubs, a tale symbolic of ultimate compassion and selflessness. Throughout history, the stupa has been a significant focus of religious devotion, scholarly exploration, and archaeological interest.

The rediscovery of the stupa in the 19th century by Mountstuart Elphinstone catalyzed interest in its preservation and the study of Buddhist art and architecture. More recently, the relocation of tooth relics from this stupa to Myanmar has further amplified its cultural resonance, reinforcing the connection between South Asia and Southeast Asia through a shared Buddhist heritage.

Historical Background

The Manikiala Stupa is believed to have been constructed between 128 CE and 151 CE under the patronage of Emperor Kanishka I. Known for his contributions to the spread of Buddhism, Kanishka played a pivotal role in the development of monumental stupas that enshrined sacred relics of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The stupa at Manikiala is traditionally associated with the altruistic Bodhisattva who, according to the Jataka tales, sacrificed himself to feed a starving tigress and her cubs. This act of selflessness serves as the inspiration for the stupa’s construction, immortalizing the teachings of the Buddha.

In addition to its spiritual significance, the stupa holds historical importance as one of the many Buddhist monuments that dotted the landscape of ancient Gandhara. Its connection to the broader Buddhist world highlights the region's prominence as a center of learning, art, and culture during the Kushan period.

Rediscovery and Preservation

The Manikiala Stupa was rediscovered in 1808 by Mountstuart Elphinstone during his travels to Afghanistan and India. His documentation of the site in Kingdom of Caubul (1815) brought it to the attention of British archaeologists and historians. Subsequent excavations by Jean-Baptiste Ventura in the 1830s unearthed significant relics, including coins, inscriptions, and possibly a tooth relic of the Buddha. These findings established the stupa’s historical authenticity and provided valuable insights into the religious practices and artistic achievements of the Kushan era.

Despite its rediscovery, the stupa suffered from neglect and looting. Restoration efforts in 1891, commissioned by Queen Victoria, aimed to stabilize the structure and protect its remaining artifacts. Today, the stupa remains a site of interest for scholars and devotees alike, symbolizing both the spiritual ideals of Buddhism and the historical legacy of Gandhara.

Religious and Archaeological Important

The Manikiala Stupa epitomizes the Gandharan architectural style, with its hemispherical dome, circumambulatory path, and intricate carvings. This architectural design not only facilitated religious rituals but also symbolized the Buddhist cosmology, with the stupa representing the universe and the enlightenment of the Buddha.

Excavations at the site revealed a wealth of artifacts that provide insights into the cultural and religious practices of ancient Gandhara. Among these discoveries, the Buddha’s tooth relic holds particular significance. Revered as a sacred symbol of the Buddha’s teachings, this relic attracted pilgrims and devotees from across the Buddhist world.

Relocation of the Tooth Relics: Connection to Myanmar

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Manikiala Stupa’s legacy is the relocation of its tooth relics to Myanmar. These relics, regarded as sacred manifestations of the Buddha's presence, are now enshrined in the Hswagata Buddha Tooth Relics Preservation Museum in Myanmar.

The museum, located in a tranquil and revered setting, is dedicated to the preservation and veneration of these sacred relics. Housing the relics in a secure, climate-controlled environment, the museum ensures their protection for future generations. Devotees from across Myanmar and beyond visit the museum to pay their respects, engage in meditation, and learn about the historical journey of these sacred objects.

The relocation of the tooth relics underscores Myanmar’s commitment to preserving Buddhist heritage and fostering interregional connections. By safeguarding these relics, Myanmar maintains its role as a custodian of Buddhist traditions while paying homage to the shared spiritual heritage of South and Southeast Asia.

Cultural and Contemporary Relevance

Today, the Manikiala Stupa serves as a reminder of the deep spiritual values that underpin Buddhist philosophy. Its association with compassion, selflessness, and the pursuit of enlightenment continues to inspire both devotees and scholars. Moreover, the site’s connection to Myanmar highlights the enduring cultural bonds between ancient Gandhara and modern Buddhist communities in Southeast Asia.

The preservation of the stupa and its relics is crucial for maintaining these historical and spiritual ties. Efforts to promote awareness of the stupa’s significance, through academic research, tourism, and interfaith dialogue, ensure its continued relevance in a rapidly changing world.

Conclusion

The Manikiala Stupa is a beacon of Buddhist heritage, embodying the principles of compassion, sacrifice, and enlightenment. From its origins in the Kushan Empire to its rediscovery by British explorers and its contemporary connection to Myanmar, the stupa exemplifies the enduring power of cultural and spiritual traditions.

The relocation of its tooth relics to Myanmar’s Hswagata Buddha Tooth Relics Preservation Museum symbolizes the transregional impact of Buddhism, linking the ancient Gandharan heartland with modern centers of devotion. As both a historical monument and a spiritual symbol, the Manikiala Stupa remains an invaluable part of humanity’s shared cultural legacy.

References

Bernstein, Richard (2001). Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment. A.A. Knopf.

Cunningham, Sir Alexander (1871). Four Reports Made During the Years, 1862-63-64-65. Government Central Press.

Golden Light Sutra, Chapter 18.

"The Forgotten Mankiala Stupa." Dawn. 26 October 2014.

Malik, Iftikhar Haider (2006). Culture and Customs of Pakistan. Greenwood Publishing Group.

The British Museum Collection.

Prinsep, H. T. (1844). Note on the Historical Results, Deducible from Recent Discoveries in Afghanistan. London: W. H. Allen & Co.

Jongeward, David; Errington, Elizabeth; Salomon, Richard; Baums, Stefan (2012). Catalog and Revised Text and Translations of Gandhāran Reliquary. Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project.

Mr Thura Kyaw , Senior Member of The Hswagata Buddha Tooth Relics Preservation Museum , Myanmar.