Lord Buddha’s saris welcomed in Vietnam

A procession of three precious saris, taken from Kushinagar relic site in India , arrived in the Noi Bai International Airport , Hanoi , on Nov. 9.
A procession of three precious saris, taken from Kushinagar relic site in India , arrived in the Noi Bai International Airport , Hanoi , on Nov. 9.

Earlier, after solemn ceremonies at the Indian site, the three saris were handed over by Indian Buddhist representatives to Dao Trong Cuong, General Director of the Than Chau Ngoc Viet Gemstones and Jewellery Company, that is sculpting the world’s biggest jade statue of Great Buddha Shakyamuni.

The three saris, which are 10m long each and made from precious silk, are from the recumbent statue of Gautama Buddha at Kushinagar relic site, one of the main four Buddhist pilgrimage sites where the Lord Buddha attained Nirvana.

They then will be put on the under-work jade statue of the Lord Buddha, which is expected to be the world’s biggest ever of its kind with a weight of 16 tonnes, and measurements of 3m high and 2m wide once it is completed in 2011.

The statue is made from a 35-tonne block of jade bought by the Than Chau Ngoc Viet Company at a rare gemstones fair in Myanmar .

The world’s current biggest Buddha statue is 2.5m high and weighs 3.9 tonnes./.

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