Representatives from the Buddhist circles of Chinese mainland and Taiwan agreed in Hong Kong Wednesday to let a Buddhist relic be taken to Taiwan to be enshrined and worshipped there for 37 days.

The relic, a finger bone of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, is a special sacred trace of the Buddha for the Buddhists. It will arrive in Taiwan late February.

The finger bone had been buried in the Famen Temple in Fufeng, western China's Shaanxi Province for 1,113 years until it happened to be uncovered in 1984 by archeologists.

Dao Shuren, vice chairman of the Buddhist Association of China, said that it would be a big event for the Buddhists of both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2002)