In 1981, a thousand-year-old pagoda in Xi'an Famen Temple was split in half vertically in a storm, half of which collapsed violently, and half of which did not fall.
In 1987, when the government decided to rebuild its construction, archaeologists inadvertently discovered a deep black hole under the base of the tower.
Descending down the 19 steps, a stone gate appeared, blocking the way. With a faint flashlight light, the expert saw that the stone door was engraved with mysterious and strange characters, because it was not a Chinese character, and the expert did not recognize it.
Pushing open the stone door, a corridor stretched out to the second stone door, which was covered with a thick layer of coins.
After cleaning, the number of these coins is actually more than 20,000, and 13 of them are commemorative coins made of tortoiseshell (a rare turtle shell), which is a surprising discovery in the history of numismatic archaeology!
At the end of the Yongdao Road, a second stone gate stands, and in front of the stone gate stands two Chinese character stone tablets:
One piece records the grand occasion of Ashoka's distribution of relics to Famen Temple and the worship of the Tang Dynasty at that time;
The other piece records the number of treasures donated by the Buddha in the underground palace, totaling more than 2,000 pieces.
When the archaeologists opened the second stone door, they saw that the ground was piled with countless gold and silver treasures and silk fabrics, and the archaeologists had almost nowhere to get their feet! And these items are from the royal family of the Tang Dynasty.
The discovery shocked experts on the spot, because no one had ever seen Tang Dynasty royal silk before.
Through the records on the stone tablets, experts determined that the number of exquisite silk fabrics of the Tang Dynasty collected in the underground palace was as many as 700 pieces, including the things offered by Wu Zetian, Tang Yizong, Tang Yizong and others.
Unfortunately, silk fabrics such as the splendid dress worn by Empress Wu Zetian have been corroded over thousands of years and almost all carbonized, except for the five "mini versions" of tufted gold embroidery that have been completely preserved.
Why is it called a "mini version"? For example, one of the short-sleeved tops of a Tang Dynasty lady has only 6.5 cm long half sleeves and 4.1 cm long sleeves.
The reason why these five pieces of gold embroidered fabric can be preserved, in addition to the fabric is the precious crimson luo, the large ornamentation on it is woven with gold thread, and more than 3,000 rings of gold leaf are wrapped around each meter of gold thread, and the finest gold leaf is only 0.06 mm, which is thinner than hair, so the process is simply incredible!
In addition to silk fabrics, experts also cleared out a large number of gold and silver utensils, jewelry and jade, as well as early Islamic glassware, as well as a small number of Eastern Roman glassware in the second floor of the underground chamber.
At the end of the second floor chamber, there stands a white jade pagoda about 80 centimeters high, with a beautiful relief of the tower, which is the legendary "Ashoka Stone Pagoda" dedicated to the Buddha.
Behind the tower is the third stone door, pushing open the stone door, the ground is also piled with countless gold and silver utensils, and as the cleaning work progresses, the mystery of the three unique pieces and shakyamuni Buddha's finger relics is gradually unveiled.
One is the "EightFold Letter", from the outside to the inside, in order, the sandalwood letter, three silver treasure letters, two gold treasure letters, a jade treasure letter and a single-eaves four-door pure gold pagoda. Inside the Golden Pagoda is a jade imitation Buddha finger bone relic.
There is also a group of "secret color porcelain", a total of 13 pieces. The craftsmanship of this porcelain has been lost for thousands of years, so it has remained in the history books.
The excavation of the "secret color porcelain" of Famen Temple provides a standard physical object for identifying the era and characteristics of the secret color porcelain, and the earliest and most exquisite court porcelain found in the world is confirmed by inscription records.
In addition, there is a set of Datang series tea utensils. This set of tea utensils is enshrined by the Tang Dynasty, in addition to tea mills, Luohe, as well as silver rules, long-handled spoons and other "seven things", there are salt tables, cages, tea bowls, tea saucers and other utensils, noble texture, exquisite workmanship, can be called the national treasure of tea utensils.
Moreover, the discovery of this set of tea utensils also proves that tea culture originated in China, breaking the fallacy that tea culture originated in Japan.
Finally, the experts also cleared out four Buddha bone relics from the underground palace of Famen Temple, which caused the experts to be puzzled.
According to Buddhist texts, there were a total of 84,000 relics after Shakyamuni's death, of which 19 were introduced to China, but in the Tang Dynasty, only this true body relic in Famen Temple remained.
Subsequently, according to historical records, experts said: Shakyamuni finger bone relics are one inch and two minutes high, up and down, high and low, white as jade, slightly green, two corners have stripes, the lines are not thorough, there are hidden traces.
It was finally determined that three of them were "shadow bones", and the so-called "shadow bones" were actually imitated by the Buddha's disciples using jade stones according to the shape and size of the real bones.
The other is the true body relic, which is the only Buddha finger bone relic found in the world so far, and is the highest holy relic in the Buddhist world!
According to statistics, more than 30,000 coins, more than 700 pieces of silk fabrics, 121 pieces of gold and silverware, 20 pieces of glassware, 14 pieces of porcelain, 400 pieces of jewelry and jade, 19 pieces of miscellaneous utensils were unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple, and there were also relics of the true body of the Buddha who was enshrined as the immortal holy bone of the world.
In view of this, some people call the Famen Temple Underground Palace the "Ninth Wonder of the World", which is true, because the Famen Temple Underground Palace is undoubtedly the largest discovery of Buddhist archaeology at the end of the 20th century, reproducing the historical picture of the Buddhist holy land.
Some people also say that "as soon as famen temple is opened, it is half a sheng tang", which is not false, because a large number of rare treasures of the Tang Dynasty unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple, as well as the exquisite level of craftsmanship they display, undoubtedly show the world the prosperous Tang Dynasty in a thousand turns in dreams!
It is worth mentioning that in order to preserve the Relics of the Buddha Finger, the Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Spot has specially spent a lot of money to build a Heshi Stupa, which is specially used to treasure the Buddha Finger Relic, so that the world can pay homage to the Buddha and face the Buddha!