Grand Ceremony Held to Welcome Enshrinement of Sakyamuni's Fingerbone in Taiwan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 25, 2002

Grand Ceremony Held to Welcome Enshrinement of Sakyamuni's Fingerbone in Taiwan

A grand Buddhist ceremony was held Sunday morning in the gymnasium of Taiwan University to welcome the enshrinement of Sakyamuni's Fingerbone in Taiwan.

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A grand Buddhist ceremony was held Sunday morning in the gymnasium of Taiwan University to welcome the enshrinement of Sakyamuni's Fingerbone in Taiwan.

The fingerbone, also known as sheli, has been enshrined in the Famen Temple in northwest China's Shaanxi Province before it was flown in Saturday.

As many as 5,000 Buddhists from across the straits attended this grand event.

After the ceremony, the sacred Buddhist relic started to be open to Buddhists and will be enshrined in different places in Taiwan for totally 37 days.

100,000 Taiwanese greet Buddha's finger relic

Some 100,000 Taiwanese Buddhists greeted a relic said to be the 2,500-year-old finger of Sakyamuni Buddha as it arrived from Chinese mainland on Saturday.

The arrival of the Buddhist treasure marked one of the most important cross-Straits religious exchanges.

The crowds chanted sutra and clasped hands to pay respect as the relic was moved from Taipei airport Taiwan University stadium, local television pictures showed.

The entourage was led by marching bands and police vehicles on its way to the stadium, which was decorated for worshippers.

Hundreds of Taiwanese Buddhists accompanied the finger on its journey from Xi'an, in northern Shaanxi province, to Taiwan via Hong Kong.

Sakyamuni Buddha died in 485 BC and the finger was brought to China from India some 200 years later, historical documents show.

A Tang Dynasty emperor ordered it to be sealed under the pagoda in the Famen Temple in Xi'an in 874 AD.

The finger was not seen in public until 1986, when the provincial government cleared the rubble of the temple's pagoda after heavy rains caused it to collapse in 1981.

In 1994, the fingerbone was sent to Thailand and being worshipped there for some 80 days.

The fingerbone, believed by experts to be the only one remainedof its kind in the world, was rediscovered at the Famen Temple in Shaanxi Province in 1987 after being sealed and stored in a underground palace for more than 1,000 years, and has long been worshipped by Buddhists.

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