Tooth Relic

In 543 BCE, after the Buddha passed into final nirvana and was cremated, it is recorded that only three Buddha's tooth relics remained in the world. One is in Sri Lanka, and one is in Mainland China. but the third tooth drifted about on a long, winding journey.
Originally, this particular Buddha's tooth relice was carefully stored in India for more than a thousand years. During the Muslim invasion of India during the 13th century, the relice was secretly taken from the great Buddhist college of Nalanda in India and brought to Tibet, where it was enshrined in the Sakya Namgyal Monastery. That monastery was destroyed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution, and the whereabouts of the Buddha's tooth relic were unknown. But it turned out that the relic was obtained by the Tibetan Lama Kunga Dorje Rinpoche. In order to protect the Buddha's tooth relic, Kunga Dorje Rinpoche crossed over the Himalayas at great risk to his own life. After an arduous journey, he was finally able to send the Buddha's tooth relic back to India. In India, the tooth's authenticity was confirmed by the rinpoche's teacher and several other eminent Buddhist teachers from Tibet. Kunga Dorje Rinpoche would keep and protect the relic in secret for the next thirty years.
As the years went by and Kunga Dorje Rinpoche grew older, he feared that he did not have the ability to build a temple to enshrine the Buddha's tooth relic. He hoped that he might be able to find someone to whom he could entrust it. In February of 1998, Venerable Master Hsing Yun went to India to officiate at the Triple Platform Full Ordination Ceremony. Kunga Dorje Rinpoche was moved by Venerable Master Hsing Yun's efforts to promote international Buddhist dialog, and, along with a document jointly signed by tvelve other rimpoches, he presented the Buddha's tooth relic to Venerable
Master Hsing Yun. In April of the same year, the relic was brought to Taiwan.