February 10, 2002	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 26, 1422

TAIPEI, Feb 9: China will send a piece of Buddha’s finger bone for exhibition in Taiwan next week, in the largest religious exchange with the breakaway island to date, a Taiwan Buddhist temple said Saturday.

The Buddha’s bone, called “She Li” in Chinese, is about 2,500 years old. After Buddha died and was cremated, the bone was preserved by Indian monks who took it to Famen Temple in Xian, north China.

Master Hsinyun, head of Taiwan’s Fokuang Mountain Temple, will lead 300 faithful to Xian on February 21 to collect the relic.

“The 300 Taiwan faithful and 100 mainland faithful will escort the Buddha’s finger bone relic from Xian to Taipei,” Fokuang Mountain Temple press officer Shao Shou-chun said. The group will travel aboard two aircraft of Hong Kong’s Dragonair airline on February 23.

“Since Taiwan bans air link with China, the Dragonair planes will touch down at the Hong Kong airport and change flight number,” he said.

The Buddha’s finger bone will be worshipped by the faithful in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung before returning to Xian on March 31.

Many pieces of Buddha’s bones were preserved, but only three teeth and a few bones are still known. The three existing Buddha’s teeth are kept in China, Taiwan and Sri Lanka respectively.—dpa