Famen Temple

Famen Temple lies in Fufeng County southwest of Xi'an, near Baoji, on a site with Buddhist activity traced back to the Eastern Han dynasty, though the temple's fame rests on a 20th-century discovery. In 1981 the temple's Ming dynasty pagoda partially collapsed after heavy rain, and reconstruction work in 1987 uncovered a sealed underground crypt beneath the pagoda's foundation, untouched since Tang Emperor Xizong closed it in 874 CE. The crypt contained four finger-bone relics identified in accompanying inscriptions as belonging to the Buddha, along with one of the richest caches of Tang imperial treasure ever found: gold and silver ritual vessels, glassware imported along the Silk Road, silk textiles, and a stone inventory tablet listing the donated items, which allowed archaeologists to identify each object's origin and date with unusual precision. The relics and treasures are now displayed in the Famen Temple Museum, built adjacent to the original temple grounds. In 2009 a new landmark, the 148-meter Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Area, was constructed around the older temple complex, featuring a modern pagoda-shaped hall (the Hall of the Buddha's Palm) that now houses the relics for public veneration on a rotating schedule, while the museum retains the bulk of the excavated Tang treasures. The older temple halls and rebuilt pagoda remain on the original site as a functioning monastery.