The Buddha relic is the indestructible crystal-substance left after the Buddha's or hierarch’s body is burnt. There are two main kinds of Relics, including Segmental Relics, formed after the burning and Unbreakable Relics, formed without burning. Both of them are precious for that not every monk’s burnt body but only the hierarch’s can form the Buddha relic. Among all the Buddha relics, Sakyamuni’s relics are the most famous and precious one, which is formed by his mortal body without burning.
Buddha relics have various shapes and are hard enough to be destroyed, with the characters of crystal or bright. Anyway, why the hierarch’s body forms the hard substance still attracts many people’ interests. Some presume that the Buddha relic is the concretion in the hierarch’s body. Obviously this kind of view fails to stand its point, because the concretion will melt in high temperature and is easy to be crushed. Some other say the Buddha relic is formed by the hierarch’s special living habit, but people leading the same lifestyle with the hierarch still fail to produce the holy relics after their bodies burning.
Why only the holy hierarch’s body could forms the Buddha relic is still under discovered.
