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Tuesday, 25th November 2008 (1488 views)

A miniature pagoda inlaid with gold has been discovered by Chinese archaeologists.

Unearthed at the site of the former Changgan Temple in the city of Nanjing, the ancient artifact is around 1,000 years old.

Laid in the 1.1m-high pagoda is believed to be a piece of skull from Siddhartha Gautama, a spiritual teacher and the founder of Buddhism.

Indian emperor Asoka is thought to have commissioned 84,000 pagodas to be made in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha after the emperor converted to Buddhism.

The sacred relics were sent to different parts of the world and the find at Nanjing fits with the description of a pagoda believed to have been buried under the Changgan Temple.

Now on display at a museum, archaeologists are now looking into the possibility of opening the delicate case, which has attracted crowds of visitors since being put on show.

 

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