BEIJING (AFP) - A relic believed to be the sacred finger of the Buddha left China for South Korea, where it will be on public display for just over one month, state media said. The bone, said to be 2,500 years old and normally kept at the Famen Temple in the northwest Chinese city of Xi'an, will stay in South Korea until December 20, the Xinhua news agency reported. It was previously loaned to Thailand in 1994, Taiwan in 2002 and Hong Kong in 2004, attracting massive crowds of worshippers in each location. Millions are also expected to turn out in South Korea to see the priceless relic, according to Xinhua. "This is an important event in the 1,600-year history of friendly relations between the two countries," said Master Monk Sheng Hui, who is in charge of the finger's escort while in South Korea. The bone had been lying in obscurity in a secret underground chamber of the Famen Temple for more than 1,000 years until it was rediscovered in 1987, Xinhua said. The bone was found when a pagoda at the temple collapsed, revealing a previously unknown basement. Archaeologists entered the basement and found a grave stone explaining that the bone was the finger of the Sakyamuni Buddha and that it was buried in 874 AD during the Tang Dynasty. Tang Dynasty emperors worshipped the bone. They later buried it under the pagoda, along with several other cultural relics which were meant as tributes to the Buddha's finger.
I believe i saw this Buddha finger in the summer going on vacation to China........ and if it was a penis, it would not look that nice
do you have a pictrue of it? and if they ship it to so many places wont the finger be broken eventually?
I can't imagine someone chopped of the finger of Buddha and took it back to China. This guy must be mad. Why not the head? Could be more valuable.
