India-linked Buddha relics to be enshrined in 108 chortens in Bhutan

GELEPHU Buddhist relics of Indian origin will be enshrined in most of the 108 jangchub chortens (stupas of enlightenment) that monks and volunteers are scheduled to build simultaneously along a 12 km stretch of the Mau Chhu River in the Bhutanese town of Gelephu on Sunday (November 1, 2026). https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/buddha-relics-reach-bhutan-as-indias-gift-for-global-peace-prayer-festival/article70256508.ece The event will mark the spiritual foundation of the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), which Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk envisions as a spirituality-driven global economic hub. About 240 km south-southeast of Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, the city borders Assam’s Chirang district. The Central Monastic Body of Bhutan, the country’s principal institutional carrier of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, said that Buddhists in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Bhutan had donated hundreds of relics, mostly bones and hair. Stupas of enlightenment “Malaysia sent three sets of 108 relics of the Buddha, enlightened saints and revered lamas.