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"Historical records indicate that the Sakyamuni clan were granted custody of these relics, as the Buddha emanated from their community. Their wish was for these relics to be preserved alongside adornments, such as these gems, so that they may be venerated in perpetuity by the Buddha's followers."

The Jokhang chapel houses many Tibetan cultural treasures, including the Jowo Sakyamuni, a life-sized statue of the 12-year-old Buddha.

They put their faith in wood, as did the monks at the Sakyamuni Pagoda in Yingxian, China.

Hanging from a string were thangkas showing popular aspects of the pantheon: the seated Sakyamuni Buddha, the fingers of one hand touching the earth; Medicine Buddha, holding a bowl; Mahakala, the fierce protector deity that appears in paintings as a blue, multiarmed, fanged demon.

The exhibition includes pictures of the country’s oldest one, Fairbanks House in Massachusetts, built in 1641, and the world’s most venerable wooden pagoda, China’s Sakyamuni, which dates to 1056.