In January 1898, a resident officer from Britain, William Peppe, discovered a pot of soapstone containing human bones when he was excavating a tumulus near the border of Nepal at Piprahwa.

[1] This lends support for the historicity of a traditional belief expressed in Buddhist text, which claim that after the Buddha's death, he was cremated and the ashes of his remains were divided into eight portions.

The government of India decided to keep the pot in the Indian Museum in Kolkata and gave the ashes of the Buddha to the royal family of Thailand.

King Chulalongkorn kept the ashes in Wat Saket and divided it into several portions as a gift to other Buddhist countries like Ceylon and Burma.

The king granted his request and presented a portion of the relics to Japan as a gift from the royal family of Thailand to the Japanese people.

The mission traveled to Thailand on June 15 of that year and received the holy ashes from King Chulalongkorn at the Grand Palace.

They promised King Chulalongkorn to build a new temple not belonging to any Buddhist sect at which to enshrine the holy ashes.

The Nagoya city government prepared 330,000 square meters of land to build the temple.

[1][2] The Stupa (奉安塔 Hōan-tō) is an important cultural property designated by Aichi Prefectural Government.

On the west side, there is calligraphy written by Otei Kaneko, which expresses the good friendship between Japan and Thailand.