A team of
archaeologists may have attained enlightenment inside a 1,000-year-old Chinese
chest.
Researchers believe
that a chunk of skull, mixed with a collection of remains of Buddhist saints,
which were uncovered within the gold chest, belonged to Siddhartha Gautama.
Archaeologists made
the find during excavations at a Buddhist temple in Nanjing China in 2010. When
they opened a stone chest in a crypt underneath the temple, they found an
ornate shrine called a stupa, used for meditation.
Live Science
described the shrine that contains the bone inside as a 117 cm tall and 45 cm
wide box made from sandalwood, gold and is covered with gemstones made of
crystal, glass, agate and lapis lazuli. This was stored within an iron box,
which, in turn, was stored within a stone chest.
The bones were found
within a tiny gold chest less than 8 cm tall, which itself was stored in a
larger silver casket 20 cm tall. This casket was locked within the stupa,
before the entire nest of boxes was stored safely within the stone chest.
Inscriptions carved
into the protective stone chest tell the story of how Buddha's skull bone came
to lie within. The inscriptions indicated that it was constructed during the
time of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, 997-1022 A.D.
The names of the
people who donated money and material for the construction of the model and
those who were involved in the construction are also inscribed on the stupa.
According to the
archaeologists, while the inscriptions say that the skull belonged to the Buddha, it was not
confirmed whether the bone really belonged to him.
An inscription on the
stone chest, which was written by a man named Deming 1,000 years ago, indicated
that after the Buddha died his body was cremated at the
Hirannavati River, before the ruling king divided the remains into thousands of
portions, 19 of which found their way to China.
The study appears in
the journal of Chinese Cultural Relics.
Representative
Image
Source:
ANI
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