istory does not stop surprising us for even a second. The moment you think you have heard everything something new is discovered. In this article, I want to present to you a very interesting finding from 2011 about a golden statue that is considered to be from the 9th century which, surprisingly, has been hiding a monk for over 1000 years!
Master Ci Xian
The corpse within the statue itself is of Master Ci Xian, a Buddhist monk that is believed to have lived between the 9th and 10th century, in China. This was actually quite a renowned monk in Asia as he traveled a lot, especially in India, trying to get people to convert to Buddhism. There are records saying that he visited the Khitan kingdom within India during the 10th century.
The reason why this is recorded is that he was named by the King of Khitan as a national master of Buddhism within that region of India. At some point in time, during the 10th century, he passed away, the location not being exact but presumingly within China. It is said that the monk tried to preserve his body, but it seemed that his corpse had “disappeared” from history.
Only in 1970 was his corpse found in a cave in north China. In 2011, Master Du from Dinghui temple affirmed that master Ci Xian’s corpse was preserved inside the temple. However, in 2014 some researchers from the Netherlands found an interesting gold Buddhist statue that was said to be over 1000 years old and, to their surprise, in amazing condition for such a long period of time.
Using technology to uncover history
What seemed strange to them is that the details on this statue seemed very fine, so fine that you could say that it was actually molded on a person. Therefore, the researchers decided to give this statue a CT (computerized tomography) scan to see if there was actually a corpse inside. What made the story and the whole mystery even more interesting is that we already knew that Ci Xian’s corpse was preserved elsewhere, but the statue had a very good resemblance to master Ci Xian.
Following the CT scan, the researchers, medics, and other monks that were witnessing this event remained absolutely shocked to find out that the corpse of master Ci Xian was actually hidden within the gold statue and well preserved for over 1000 years. It was simply a shocking discovery that changed the way we view history.
It is not just about the fact that a secret of over 1000 years was uncovered, but also the fact that we have reached a point in time where technology can help us uncover the missing pages from history books. This will help us better understand humanity as a whole. What is even more mindblowing is how many mysteries still lay covered within many ancient and archeological discoveries that have been made. It is all like a puzzle that needs to be put together.
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