Buddha's Blessing Method: The Mystery of the Reincarnation of the Buddha's Finger in the of Famen Temple

Author: Shang Chengyong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-10
Features: In 240 BC, eighteen monks including Xiyu Shamen Shilifang walked eastward from the Western Regions, carrying a precious casket filled with nineteen pieces of the true relics of Sakyamuni Buddha. In 148 AD, the Buddhist relics were quickly sent to the capital Luoyang, where Emperor Huan of Han was greatly astonished and delighted upon seeing them. Soon after, he ordered the distribution of the Buddhist relics and the construction of pagodas and temples in various places. Famen Temple was born on the sacred mound of Zhouyuan. In 704 AD, Wu Zetian sent people to Famen Temple to retrieve the finger relic of the Buddha for imperial worship. When Wu Zetian passed away, the finger relic was still enshrined in the Ming Tang. On the night of August 24, 1981, a tremendous explosion occurred, and the thousand-year-old Famen Temple Pagoda in Fufeng County, Shaanxi, suddenly collapsed. On May 7, 1987, archaeologists discovered one finger relic of the Buddha in the underground palace of Famen Temple, followed by the discovery of a second, third, and fourth relic.