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March 23, 2015

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Buddha statue stolen from Fujian village, experts say

Source: Xinhua | March 23, 2015, Monday | Print Edition

CHINESE experts have said that a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue containing a mummified monk, in the possession of a Dutch private collector, is a relic stolen from an east China village in 1995.

The Cultural Relic Bureau in Fujian Province said yesterday that judging from research and media reports, experts have confirmed that the statue on show in the Hungarian Natural History Museum is a relic stolen from Yangchun Village in Fujian.

The bureau will continue its relic investigation and search for more information while reporting to the national cultural authorities in order to identify and trace the stolen relic in compliance with normal procedures, said a bureau spokesman.

The statue was in a “Mummy World” exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum that opened in October last year and was originally due to be on display until May 17, but was pulled from the exhibition on Friday as the museum said “the Dutch owner withdrew the statue without giving any reason.”

Villagers in Yangchun burst into tears while others lit fireworks after seeing the statue on Chinese TV news earlier this month.

The bureau immediately sent experts to the village to investigate.

They found a large number of photographs, relics and historical records including papers tha suggested the mummy was a former ancestor of the local clan.

The statue, which was formerly housed in the village temple, was reported stolen in 1995. It wore a hat and clothes when sitting in the temple, and was worshiped as an ancestor.

According to Yangchun archives, the Buddha, named Zhanggong Zushi, was a local man who became a monk in his 20s and won fame for helping people treat disease and spreading Buddhist beliefs.

When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified and local people made a statue with the mummy inside at around the time in China’s Song Dynasty (960-1279).

The statue had been worshipped in the village temple ever since.

In the temple, local people still preserve the statue’s hat and clothes and other relics.

Nation


 

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