Buddhist Heritage and India's Soft Power Diplomacy

Core Concept

India is the birthplace of Buddhism, and its surviving monastic, monumental and relic heritage (Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Sanchi, Nalanda and the wider "Buddhist Circuit") gives it a unique civilisational claim that South, Southeast and East Asian nations with large Buddhist populations recognise and respect. New Delhi has increasingly converted this heritage into an instrument of soft power: hosting Buddhist-leader summits, sending sacred relics abroad for public veneration, and positioning itself as the custodian of the faith's sacred geography, partly to deepen ties with the Buddhist-majority neighbourhood and partly to balance China's own Buddhist-diplomacy outreach in the region.

Key Points

• The Buddhist Circuit: anchored by the four principal sites of the Buddha's life: Lumbini (birth, in Nepal), Bodh Gaya (enlightenment), Sarnath (first sermon) and Kushinagar (Mahaparinirvana, i.e. death). Within India the circuit also includes sites such as Rajgir, Vaishali and Sravasti. Kushinagar International Airport (inaugurated 2021) and repeated Union Budget allocations are meant to draw pilgrims and tourists from Buddhist-majority countries.

• Institutional anchor, the IBC: the International Buddhist Confederation, headquartered in Delhi and supported by the Ministry of Culture, co-organised both the first Global Buddhist Summit (April 2023) and the second (New Delhi, January 2026), drawing monks, scholars and ministers from across Asia.

• Relic diplomacy: India periodically sends sacred Buddha relics on exposition tours to Buddhist-majority states. In February 2026 the Devnimori relics (from Gujarat) were sent to Sri Lanka for public veneration at Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo (4-11 February). The exposition had been announced by the Indian Prime Minister during his April 2025 State Visit to Sri Lanka, and both governments described it as a reflection of the two countries' deep civilisational and spiritual bonds.

• Piprahwa gems episode (2025): when Sotheby's Hong Kong scheduled an auction (7 May 2025) of the Piprahwa gems (relics linked to the Buddha's remains, excavated in 1898 by William Claxton Peppé at Piprahwa in present-day Uttar Pradesh, near the India-Nepal border), the Culture Ministry invoked India's antiquities law and the relics' sacred status, and the auction was postponed. The gems were brought back to India on 30 July 2025 through a public-private partnership with the Godrej Industries Group, a rare case of successful relic repatriation that reinforced India's custodial claim.

• Contested management at Bodh Gaya: the Mahabodhi Temple (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002) is run under the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, which provides for an eight-member management committee with equal Hindu and Buddhist members, chaired by the District Magistrate. Renewed monk-led protests in 2025 demanded full Buddhist control, keeping religious-site governance in the news.

Memory Trick

Remember "R-E-L-I-C": Route (the Buddhist Circuit), Exposition tours (relics sent abroad, e.g. Sri Lanka 2026), Leadership summits (Global Buddhist Summit, IBC), India-vs-China heritage rivalry (the strategic rationale), and Contested Bodh Gaya control (the 1949 Act dispute). These are the five pillars of India's Buddhist soft power, and together they spell RELIC, the very object around which much of this diplomacy revolves.

Current Relevance (2025-2026)

Four dated developments anchor this topic firmly in the present cycle: in April 2025, Buddhist monks marched in Bodh Gaya and to Patna demanding repeal of the 1949 Bodh Gaya Temple Act and full Buddhist control of the Mahabodhi Temple; in May 2025, India's Culture Ministry pressed Sotheby's Hong Kong to postpone its auction of the sacred Piprahwa gems, which were repatriated in July 2025; in January 2026, India hosted the second Global Buddhist Summit in New Delhi; and in February 2026, the Devnimori relics were sent to Sri Lanka for public veneration. Together they show Buddhist heritage diplomacy operating on legal, religious-governance, summit and relic tracks simultaneously.