There is a single bone that is responsible for multiple self-immolations, and for changing the course of Chinese intellectual history. The Famen Buddhist Temple (in what is now Shaanxi Province) has been an important center for Buddhism since it was built almost 1,500 years ago. The temple is particularly famed for housing a finger bone of the Buddha. This religious relic has the reputation of producing miraculous cures, so several times during the Tang dynasty it was brought to the royal palace when the emperor or empress was ill. During one such procession, the bone was said to have restored sight and hearing to the blind and deaf along its route. (The veneration of body parts of saints and their supposed ability to produce miracles is also a part of the Catholic tradition in the West.)
The Bone that Changed China
The Bone that Changed China
The Bone that Changed China
There is a single bone that is responsible for multiple self-immolations, and for changing the course of Chinese intellectual history. The Famen Buddhist Temple (in what is now Shaanxi Province) has been an important center for Buddhism since it was built almost 1,500 years ago. The temple is particularly famed for housing a finger bone of the Buddha. This religious relic has the reputation of producing miraculous cures, so several times during the Tang dynasty it was brought to the royal palace when the emperor or empress was ill. During one such procession, the bone was said to have restored sight and hearing to the blind and deaf along its route. (The veneration of body parts of saints and their supposed ability to produce miracles is also a part of the Catholic tradition in the West.)