Holy relic - a business opportunity:
In Shaanxi, China, a province famous for its terracota soldiers which draws millions RMB from the inflex of tourists had made holy relic another tourist attraction:
A two-hour drive away from Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province, the Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Area covers a spacious nine square kilometers. Opened in 2009, the park cost over 2.5 billion yuan to build.
A 1.23-kilometer-long and 108-meter-wide concrete boulevard with five giant golden Buddha statues on each side leads to a concrete square that is large enough to hold 100,000 people. At the end of the square stands the 148-meter tower built in the shape of praying hands that houses the finger bone relics.
An ancient royal temple, Famen Temple only became famous in modern China after hidden treasures were discovered in an underground palace in 1987.
Among the numerous cultural and Buddhist relics believed to date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) were four finger bone relics. One of them is believed to be the real finger bone relic of Sakyamuni, the holiest object in Buddhism, and the three others are called "shadow bones," which some allege are fakes.
The ownership of the relics is not clear. According to the monks in charge of Famen Temple, Zhao Puchu, the late former chairman of the China Buddhism Association, helped reach an understanding with the authorities back in the 1980s that Buddhist relics, such as Buddhist statues, bone relics and scriptures, should belong to the Buddhist community while the other relics belong to the government.
The international Buddhist community was excited by the news of the finger bone relics. Many followers came to worship it. At the invitation of the Thai government, the relics were sent to be displayed in Thailand for over 80 days in 1994. When the relics came back to China, over 2 million yuan in offerings were made by followers, according to the monks.
That's when the government saw the appeal and economic potential of the relics. Everywhere the relics went, tens of thousands of people came to worship and make offerings.
The government then moved the bone relics from the temple for safety reasons and kept them first in a vault of a branch of the People's Bank of China, and later in a heavily guarded museum, although the monks believe the government is taking the relics away from the Buddhist community for its own gain.
The government recognized the significance of the finger bone relics to Buddhist followers. Since 2009, the relics have been housed in the newly-built tower and only shown to the public on special occasions.
One one hand, making the holy relic accessible to general public is a positive move; I wonder if this 'money making' idea is in sync with Buddha's teaching?
