This casket, shaped like a 'lota' (a small, spherical water vessel), is covered with a wide lid.Relics were placed inside stupas to commemorate the demise of important Buddhist teachers and 'bhikhus' (monks). Buddha's relics were placed inside several such caskets. After the cremation, bones, teeth and hair are saved and honoured by erecting a stupa over it and placing the relics inside them. People go round it and worship it by chanting the sutras. After the spread of Buddhism to South India and the northwest provinces, Sri Lanka, Central Asia and the Far East, this tradition grew stronger roots and led to worship of Buddha first in symbolic form and later in human form.