"Exciting" Finds in Pagoda Ruins

Palace under Leifeng Pagoda Disclosed in Hangzhou

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A group of Chinese archaeologists unearthed some cultural relics from beneath the ruins of an over-1, 000-year-old stupa Sunday, saying that the finds are exciting.

The finds include a large number of coins, a locked casket, two bronze mirrors, a statue pedestal and a 68-cm-tall bronze figure of the Buddha, which experts believed is a cultural relic of great value.

The archaeologists believe that the basement of the pagoda has never been broken into.

They said they will try to unlock the casket later, and make public their findings.


Palace under Leifeng Pagoda disclosed in Hangzhou

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The excavation work was done under the famous Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, which was first built in A.D. 975 by a king to celebrate the birth of his son.

The pagoda collapsed in 1924, and the State Administration of Cultural Relics decided to excavate it last February, and stones with inscriptions of Buddhist scripture and gold and silver wares were found in the ruins.