The Buddha's parietal-bone relic is placed inside the Ashoka pagoda at Qixia Temple in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, April 25, 2012. A Grand Blessing Ceremony for worshipping Buddha's parietal-bone relic will be held in Hong Kong from April 25 to 30. The relic is being moved out of China's mainland for a public worship for the first time after it was unearthed in June 2010 in Nanjing. It will be send back to Nanjing on May 4. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
A rare piece of the parietal bone of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was flown to Hong Kong from East China's Jiangsu Province on Wednesday for public worship.
The Buddha's remains, or sarira, left the Lukou Airport in the provincial capital of Nanjing by a chartered plane at 12:30 p.m., marking the first time the sacred remains will be worshipped outside the Chinese mainland since being unearthed in June 2010 in Nanjing.
The remains are scheduled to be enshrined in Hong Kong from April 25 to 30, and will then be sent to Macao for public worship until May 4.
On Wednesday morning, a grand ceremony was held in Nanjing's Qixia Temple where the remains had been enshrined prior to being flown to Hong Kong. Over 1,000 people attended the ceremony, including eminent Buddhist monks from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.
The third World Buddhist Forum will be held in Hong Kong from Wednesday to Friday.
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