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China's Underground Treasurehouse Opens to Public
In Dangyang of Hubei Province, thousands of visitors swarmed to view a local underground relic treasurehouse that was recently opened to the public.
According to local sources, the underground treasurehouse has 109 pieces of sariras -- fragments of the bone ashes of prominent Buddhist monks -- among a great number of other precious and valuable cultural and Buddhist relics.
The sariras were said to be presented to the nearby Yuquan Temple by Wu Zetian (624-705), a concubine who later became empress of Zhou State.
The underground palace was first excavated in October 1994.
Right above the palace is an iron tower that was made in 1061 during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). A total of 2,279 statues of Buddha are inlaid in the iron tower.
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