For many scholars who found themselves disenchanted with the romantisized and/or rationalized versions of Buddhism that once dominated the field, the discovery of relic and image worship was the smoking gun that provided irrefutable evidence that Buddhists are not bourgeois rationalists after all. The worship of relics exemplified the newfound otherness of Buddhism, for it would seem to involve the sanctification of that which is utterly profane and loathsome—the corporeal remains of the dead.

The allure of Buddhist relics is not limited to the faithful but extends also to Western academics with their own beliefs to demonstrate.