Village awaits return of Buddha statue with monk inside

(From left to right) Chinese delegates Lai Shuilian, Chen Yueping, Fu Bin,Liu Wenjian, Li Zhen, You Dengta, Wu Liujin and Lin Guozhang appeal for the return of the mummified Buddha in front of the Dutch Embassy in Hungary on April 13. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"The Dutch collector now disputes that the statue is the one that comes from Yangchun village - he said that a larger temple also has the Chinese characters '普照'(puzhao), and that the statue couldn't have belonged to a small village like Yangchun," said Lin Yongtuan, who first discovered that the statue on display in Europe is the statue of Patiach Zhanggong.

Lin Yongtuan said the characters '普照'are a common expression in Buddhism, yet on the cushion of Patriach Zhanggong's statue, it is written clearly that the Puzhao temple is in Yangchun village.

As an intellectual, Lin Jianfei has studied the statue's history and that of the Puzhao temple, and according to him, "evidence, no matter those from villagers or those from Chinese officials, all say that the statue on display in Europe several months ago is the statue of Patriach Zhanggong from Yangchun village that went missing in 1995."

"The Dutch collector's claim that the statue belongs somewhere else in China is just ridiculous," Lin said.

Lin Yongtuan said that China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage has sent staff to investigate, and made sure that the statue collected by the Dutch collector is the one that was stolen from Yangchun village.