PATNA MUSEUM

Housed in one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, built in 1917, the Patna Museum is, as is often the case with comparable establishments, a joyful jumble of objects scattered in 12 different galleries: natural history, stone sculptures, terracotta objects, bronze objects, art and weapons gallery (!), etc. There are metal and stone sculptures from the Maurya and Gupta periods, terracotta miniatures, stuffed animals, Chinese paintings, Tibetan thangkas, statues of Avalokitesvara, various boddhisatvas, and even a 16 m fossilized tree!

However this museum contains a real jewel: an urn which contains (or would contain) a part of the ashes of Buddha himself! To access this room, you have to take, in addition to your entrance ticket at 250 Rs, a ticket at 500 Rs. It is really not cheap but it is a very popular room for Buddhists and archaeologists from all over the world! The reason? It would be the only and unique relics of Buddha... An information to be taken with pinches! This room is of course very supervised. The relics, discovered by the archaeologist AS Altekar in 1957 in the stupa of Vaishali, are in a very small urn which is enthroned in the middle of a large glass case.

Try to come at the end of the day, to avoid the crowd and to be alone with Buddha, or rather what is left of him, it is an amazing and memorable experience. Almost mystical.