China's state treasure, the holy Buddha Finger Sarira, arrived at the Xi'an Xianyang Airport of the northwestern Shaanxi Province Wednesday midnight from the Republic of Korea (ROK) after a successful 40-day display.

About 200 Buddhists from both China and the ROK held a simple receiving and signing ceremony at the airport. The holy Buddha Finger Sarira will return to its original host site, the pagoda of Famen Temple tomorrow morning, when a religious ceremony will be held there to welcome the return of the state treasure.

The holy Buddha Finger Sarira has been exhibited respectively in the South Korean capital of Seoul and the city of Busan since November 11th when ferried to the ROK. The precious relic has drawn 1,000,000 Koreans to come around paying respects and praying for good future.

During the display in ROK, many Chinese Buddhist groups came to escort the Buddhist treasure and paid friendly visit to the Korean Buddhist society, which provided a rare opportunity for Buddhists of the two countries to achieve better understanding and communication. The Buddhist society of ROK also sent a thirty-member group to escort the relic back to Shaanxi.

The Sarira has been confirmed by archeologists as the middle finger of the left hand of Sakyamuni, which was enshrined by the imperial families in Tang Dynasty (618-907). It was unearthed from an underground palace found in the Famen Temple in 1987.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2005)