Underground Palace of Famen Temple

During the course of rebuilding the pagoda in 1987,an underground vault was discovered beneath the foundation of the pagoda. The palace is 21.2 meters long with an area of 31.84 square meters.A large amount of Buddhist relics were found including four finger sarira relics,121 gold and silver articles,17 glass articles,16 pieces of olive green porcelain,more than 700 pieces of silk fabrics,104 Buddhist figurines,hundreds of volumes of Buddhist scripture and many stone carvings and steles. They are national treasures.

The four finger bones discovered in the palace, but there is only one is real which was kept in a five-layered marble chest in a secret niche in the back room. It is tubular-like, 37millimeters long, white and yellow in colour. The other three are "shadow bones", imitations of identical colour and shape to protect the real one.

Xian Tour to Famen Temple
Xian seat in coach tour of Qianling, Maoling, and Famen Temple

The technique of gold brocade weaving developed in the Tang Dynasty was surprisingly exquisite.The gold thread used in weaving was only 0.1 millimeter thick, finer than a hair. 1 meter of thread could make 3,000 circles. It was revealed in the exquisite patterns on embroidered skirts consecrated by the Empress Wu Zetian.

The secret seladon is made of Chinese green porcelain. It is unique for its very complicated and fine process techniques.The court kept all of this information secret, which is indicated by its name, "secret seladon". Finding the secret seladon at Famen Temple was a breakthrough for the study of the history of Chinese porcelain craft.