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骨 (bone)

: “骨” (gu, bone) is a pictographic character in Chinese. In case of...

Sarira refers to the bones and a kind of pearl or bead-shaped objects that are found among the cremated ashes of the Supreme Buddha Sakyamuni. As the legend goes, when Sakyamuni passed away 2500 years ago, his disciples found one skull, two regular bones, four teeth, one section of his middle finger phalanx and 84,000 pearl-like sariras from the cremated ashes. The relics were treated as divine objects and worshipped by the Buddhists. As it is said, King Ashoka of India, to carry forward Buddhism, distributed many sariras to different cities and ordered each of them to build a pagoda for the sarira. The Famen Temple in Shaanxi Province of China is the largest of such temples with sariras. In the Tang Dynasty, a magnificent ceremony would be held every 30 years to exhibit the sariras preserved in the temple. The Famen Temple is considered to be the only place that preserves the sariras of Sakyamuni so far in the world.

: Gudi (the bone flute) is one of the earliest musical instruments. Animal bones served as important materials for the remote ancestors of the Chinese to make utensils for daily use. Its body is often made of wing bones obtained from the golden eagles. Sometimes the leg bones of white cranes are also used. The bone flutes are different in size, length and diameter.

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