Buddha's Blessing Dharma -- The Mystery of the Reincarnation of the Buddha's Finger in the of Famen Temple

Author: Shang Chengyong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: In 240 BC, eighteen monks from the Western Regions, including Shanjie Sifang, walked eastward to China 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. Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed upon seeing them and soon ordered the distribution of the relics and the construction of pagodas and temples in various places. Famen Temple was born on the sacred mound of Zhouyuan. In 704 AD, Empress Wu Zetian sent someone to Famen Temple to retrieve the finger relic of the Buddha for worship in the palace. When Empress 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.