More than 2,000 people took part Wednesday in a procession to escort a relic of the Buddha lent by China to a shrine in the Thai capital Bangkok to honor the birthday of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and to celebrate half a century of diplomatic relations between Thailand and China.
The tooth relic, considered sacred by Buddhists, was flown in earlier in the day from the Lingguang Temple in Beijing, which normally houses it. Loans of the tooth as a show of friendship have been an effective form of soft diplomacy by China, even though competing claims from various countries on possessing the Buddha’s tooth raise questions about its provenance.
