Small Jade Casket Discovered in North China

News July 3, 2014

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HEBEI, CHINA—A small jade casket said to contain human relics of a prominent Hinayana Buddhist was discovered by a farmer plowing a field in the political, economic, and cultural center of Yecheng, a 2,500-year-old capital city. Hinayana Buddhism prevailed in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. The jade casket indicates that it had also been introduced to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. “Such as casket containing relics of a prominent Buddhist is often enshrined in an underground palace of a Buddhist temple,” archaeologist He Liqun of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told The Standard.

 

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