We went to Fa Men Shi where the Buddha finger relic has been kept since the Tang dynasty. Historically, at the end of Tang Dynasty the last emperor sealed the underground palace that housed the relic. It has sealed for 1,000 years. Lots of beautiful Tang gold and silver and celadon artifacts were offered to the relic as if the Buddha himself was here. Through time, this fact became a story, and people kind of remember and kind of forgot. In the interest of preserving the relic, it was better this way. Although the palace was sealed, generation after generation, monks at this monastery all guarded this underground hidden palace.
During cultural revolution, the Red Guards wanted to break into the legendary palace to destroy everything. They didn’t know where it was but they were prepared to tear everything down to find it or not. The old abbot at this time tried to save the palace, the relic, and the monastery. He created diversion by pouring oil onto himself and lighting himself into flames. When the Red Guards saw this, they ran away in fear. Both the palace and the monastery were left unharmed. I was sad to learn of this story but happy to know the relic was unharmed and so were the beautiful offerings that survived wars, and the Cultural Revolution. That they were not destroyed or sold, that it has been here in its original home. I was happy to see the artifacts here in its original form, not a modern replica of an imagined lost item.
