As we all know, Buddhist culture occupies an important position in my country's history, and Buddhism exists in almost every period in my country's history.
Although Buddhism originated in India, this did not affect the widespread dissemination of Buddhist culture in our country and promoted our development.
After thousands of years of ups and downs, Buddhism has not only not declined, but has become more renewed over time, emitting more dazzling brilliance and a more moving light in our country.
When it comes to the roots and sprouts of Buddhism in our country, we have to mention the many temples that exist in every corner of our country.
These temples are of different sizes and are built in different ages, but the only thing that is the same is that they share common beliefs. These temples are not only witnesses of our country's Buddhist culture, but also witnesses of the integration of various cultures. They witness the spread, integration, exchange and evolution of this Buddhist culture in our country.
There is such a temple in Lingshou County, Hebei Province, called " Youju Temple ". Every day in the temple, people come to pray for the Buddha's blessing. Devotional prayer can cleanse people's hearts and face the Buddha with the purest heart.
But an incredible theft case occurred in , a Buddhist holy place in . In 1996, the head of the Buddha statue worshipped in Youju Temple disappeared! The temple was in chaos. This situation continued until 2014.
In 2014, in a temple on Foguang Mountain, Taiwan, the treasure island of our country, Kaishan Zongchang Master Hsingyun received a Buddha's head donated by believers.
According to believers, this Buddha's head was auctioned at an auction. After identification, this Buddha's head was the stolen Buddha's head in Youju Temple.
This news is a great news for Youju Temple. The Buddha's head, who had been missing for decades, was finally able to return to its original position. However, just as the two sides were preparing to sign a return agreement, the Taiwanese monk suddenly put forward a condition.
So what is this condition? What happened to the Buddha statue in the end?
glory years
Northern Qi is one of the regimes in my country during the Southern and Northern Dynasties . Perhaps for most people, this dynasty is very unfamiliar, and even our history books about the Southern and Northern Dynasties has almost been mentioned in one sentence.
But even so, Northern Qi is still a period worth our understanding.
Compared with other dynasties in our country, the Northern Qi Dynasty was very short, only twenty-seven years. This is a very short dynasty in the long history of our country.
In these twenty-seven years, the Northern Qi Dynasty experienced a total of six emperors. Although it existed very briefly, the economic level of Northern Qi far exceeded that of the other two countries at that time, the same as Chen and Northern Zhou .
In addition to economic development, Northern Qi also has a big feature: Buddhism is prevalent. Although Buddhism had been introduced to our country before this, the atmosphere of Northern Qi has created a good atmosphere for the spread of Buddhism. In such a society, Buddhism has been fully penetrated.
The people of the Northern Qi Dynasty believed in Buddhism very much, and both high-ranking officials and nobles and ordinary people regarded Buddhism as their belief without exception. They believe that as long as they believe in Buddha, good luck will one day favor them.
It is precisely because of this that temples were very popular during the Northern Qi Dynasty. The existence of temples can be seen all over the country. According to incomplete statistics, there were more than 40,000 temples in the Northern Qi Dynasty! This number makes people stunned. It is like seeing a temple in just a few steps.
Among these thousands of temples, there is a temple called "Youju Temple" that is very famous.
Youju Temple is located in the deep woods, surrounded by streams and lakes. People always feel extraordinary relaxed and happy when passing here, and Youju Temple is named for this.
In addition to the beautiful environment, the Youju Temple is more famous among the three Buddha statues worshipped in the temple: Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha and Aji Buddha . These three Buddha statues were also built during the Northern Qi Dynasty and have a special style from the Northern Qi Dynasty.
is different from the previous Buddha statue style. The Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty were softer and looked more kind and approachable.
Instead of making the Buddha statue stand tall, the Northern Qi engravers pay more attention to the basic structure of the Buddha statue. Such a unique style had a great influence on the carving style of later dynasties.
In order to make these three Buddha statues more majestic, Youju Temple has also expanded its scale. For a long time, the prosperity of Youju Temple was unprecedented. The endless stream of tourists and the initial expansion of monks all prove the prosperity of Youju Temple.
But this prosperity did not last until the end. After the decline of Northern Qi, Youju Temple also declined. Fortunately, for the temple, the most important thing is not the flow of people, but the devout faith. As long as faith remains unchanged, it will not disappear.
However, all this calm was broken on a day in 1992. Such an important Buddha statue was actually jealous and resentful from those who were interested, and they attacked the Buddha statue.
Heads separated
1992, a bad news came from Shazidong Village, Lingshou County, Hebei: The Buddha's heads of Amitabha Buddha and Ah Gu disappeared! The villagers who were vigilant at had discovered this and immediately reported it to the superior department.
After receiving the message, the local cultural relics department immediately came to Youju Temple to investigate the situation. According to the villagers who were watching the night, the Buddha's body was still intact when patrolling last night, but this morning, Buddha's hand suddenly disappeared without a trace. According to this, the Buddha's head must have been stolen late at night.
But this fact is strange, and even the cultural relics department has not solved it quickly and effectively. The Buddha statue is huge and it is impossible to transfer to another place. We can only send more people to guard the place to prevent the remaining Sakyamuni Buddha from being tragically killed.
The cultural relics department naturally knows that such regulatory effectiveness is nothing for superb thieves, but considering the reality and the characteristics of the Buddha God themselves, they can only do so with a tough eye.
But who could have expected that under heavy defense, the Buddha's head of Sakyamuni was still not spared.
One night in 1996, the patrol villagers were dragged aside by several black shadows and tied up. Just as lightning was so rapid that the Buddha's head of Sakyamuni was stolen by this group of people.
Fortunately, they left traces of crime this time and failed to escape like last time. After the murderer was caught, people were stunned. The murderer was actually a villager from the next village.
According to these villagers, they just collect money and do things for others, and they don’t know the true identity of the real murderer. Just when they were caught, the Buddha's hands had long been transported to where they were transported. The result of
made everyone present beat their chests and stamp their feet. Although he caught the murderer, he failed to follow the clues to find out the real murderer behind the scenes, and the Buddha's head was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the Buddha's head has been transported to a corner of the distant world, and it is as difficult to find a needle in a haystack.
After the Buddha's hand was lost, the cultural relics department of Lingshou County immediately transported the remaining Buddha body to the local museum for good preservation, hoping that the Buddha's head and Buddha body will merge for one day in the future. , but this has been waiting for more than twenty years.
Until 2014, good news came from across the strait.
At that time, a Buddhist believer walked into a temple in Fuguangshan . I thought he was like other people who came here to burn incense and worship Buddha. But no one expected that his appearance brought a huge "surprise" to the temple.
This believer donated his treasured Buddha head to the temple. According to him, this Buddha head was auctioned at a high price of 20 million at an auction.It is precisely because the Buddha's head is so precious that he donated it to the temple.
This Buddha's head is about 47 cm tall, with fine carvings and smooth lines. Even with the years, there is no trace of time. The Buddha statue has kind eyebrows and a kind expression, which makes people feel at ease at first sight.
Master Xingyun of the temple knew at a glance that the origin of this Buddha head was definitely different. For the Buddha statue, it was disrespectful to let the Buddha head separate from the Buddha's identity. As a monk, Master Xingyun felt that he had a responsibility and obligation to help the Buddha head find its matching Buddha body.
After checking the relevant information, Master Xingyun determined that this Buddha statue was the Buddha Sakyamuni built during the Northern Qi Dynasty. After learning about the history of this Buddha statue, Master Xingyun couldn't help but sigh. I wonder how many wanderings this Buddha statue has passed through and guessed it in his hands.
In order to find the supporting Buddha body of the Buddha's head, Master Xingyun contacted the National Cultural Relics Department, hoping that they could help find the whereabouts of the Buddha's body.
After learning about this, the state cultural relics department attached great importance to it and immediately investigated it. After investigation, they determined that this Buddha's hand was the Buddha statue that was stolen in Hebei twenty years ago. After years of wandering, the Buddha's head and the Buddha's body finally have the opportunity to merge into one!
Golden Body Combination
After finding the Buddha's body, Master Xingyun decided to donate the Buddha's head to Youju Temple for free. After the consent of both parties, it was decided to sign a donation agreement.
But just before signing the contract, Master Hsing Yun suddenly made a special request. Master Xingyun hopes to transport the Buddha's body to Taiwan first and complete the integration of the Buddha's head and the Buddha's body in Taiwan. After the
is combined, the complete Buddha statue of Sakyamuni is enshrined in Taiwan for a period of time for local people in Taiwan to worship, and then the complete Buddha statue is transported back to the mainland.
Master Xingyun made such a request, which is understandable. Although the combination of the Buddha's head and the Buddha's body sounds like a very simple thing, in fact, it contains a very deep meaning.
Cross-strait issue has always been a very sensitive issue. In 2002, the Buddha's finger relics entered Taiwan and caused an unprecedented sensation. People came to visit, which shows the Taiwanese people's yearning and love for the Buddhist culture.
The exchange of Buddhism between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is not only an exchange between cross-strait culture, but also an important event in promoting cross-strait relations. If the cross-strait relations can be deepened through this time and let the Taiwanese people appreciate the style of ancient Buddhism, it will definitely be a good thing that can kill multiple goals in one fell swoop.
But this matter is easy to say, but not so simple to do. What is waiting for everyone is a very important practical question: How should the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha be transported to Taiwan?
The Buddha's body is about 1.8 meters tall, and the weight reaches 1.5 tons, and its size is huge. In addition, the preciousness of the Buddha's body is self-evident. Therefore, its transportation method cannot be as simple and crude as other large objects, but requires careful protection.
Hibei to Taiwan is very far away, and it is difficult to ensure that the Buddha's body is intact during the long journey, so it is not easy to deal with its transportation problems. After brainstorming
, everyone finally came up with a complete solution: air transport.
They found a special plane, put the Buddha's body inside and carefully packaged it, so as to ensure that the Buddha's body does not bump or crack during transportation, and is transported from the mainland to Taiwan safely.
After solving the transportation problem, on May 15, 2015, the Buddha's body of Sakyamuni finally arrived in Foguang Mountain, Taiwan. This is the joint efforts of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the common aspiration of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and the common good day for the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Finally, the day when the Buddha statues merged was finally confirmed on May 23.
On this day, countless Taiwanese people came here spontaneously to watch the Buddha statues merged. Under the escort of many monks and under the eyes of the people, the Buddha's head and the Buddha's body finally successfully merged into one. When Sakyamuni Buddha appeared in front of people intact, everyone was attracted by it.The statue of Sakyamuni Buddha between
is exquisitely crafted and carved. There is a kind smile on the face of the statue, which makes people unable to take their eyes open. Buddhist believers were very excited and prayed and worshiped.
On February 21, 2016, after more than nine months of worship in Foguang Mountain, the statue of Sakyamuni finally returned to the National Museum in Beijing. After the return, the relevant staff carefully repaired the Buddha statue, and the Buddha statue of Sakyamuni was completely renewed from head to toe.
After so many years of separation of the Buddha's head and body, the pain of separation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and after years of wandering, the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha finally became a complete Buddha statue.
This fusion of the Buddha statue of Sakyamuni is of great significance to the improvement of cross-strait relations and is a major milestone.
Even if the mainland and Taiwan are separated by a strait, the bloodline will always connect us. Common culture and common customs are always evidence of our unity.
In fact, there are countless Buddha statues like Sakyamuni Buddha, with Buddha head and Buddha identity separated from each other in my country:
In many wars, some were stolen by invaders, some were treasured by private collectors, some were wandering among the people and becoming family heirlooms, and some disappeared without a trace...
It is fortunate that Buddha statues like Sakyamuni Buddha can be regained into completeness, but there are still more Buddha statues that have not yet been found.
This practice has also boosted our morale. I hope that in the days to come, more and more Buddha statues can find a real home.
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