The sacred finger of Buddha from the Famen Temple in Xi'an, capital of western China's Shaanxi Province, will be displayed and worshipped in Hong Kong this May.

Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, met a Hong Kong Buddhist delegation headed by the Rev.Kok-kwong, president of Hong Kong Federation of Buddhists, last week for talks on preparations for the display.

It will be the first appearance of the Buddha relic in Hong Kong, although it was taken to Thailand in 1994 and Taiwan in 2002 for worship.

The relic, believed to be a finger bone of Sakyamuni, was unearthed in 1987 from a secret underground cell after lying in obscurity for more than 1,100 years.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2004)