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It is to our relief that at least some Buddhist relics do have been placed in this majestic pagoda. They were donated by Shi WuQian, a Chinese Indians from Xian Yang, Shaanxi Province who is the abbot of Xuan Zang Temple in India. Shi WuQian started his monkshood when he was still a child. In the 1940s, he followed the example of Master Xuan Zang and went to India to study Buddhism. At present he is over 70 years old. In June of 1998, he returned to his hometown and visited Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Ci'en Temple. When he was up there, he was filled with emotions, for he went away a little boy and he returned an old man with his unchanged accent of his hometown. Since this visit aimed to enhance the friendship between Chinese and Indians and to promote the cultural exchange in Buddhism, Shi Wuqian donated two pieces of Buddhist relics with diameters of 3.5 mm and 1.5 mm respectively. They were kept in a red paper bag with four characters meaning “Treasure of Buddhism?and some designs of lotus flower on the cover. When the news got around, a large number of Chinese people and foreign tourists came to worship them. |
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