Chinese archaeologists and Buddhist monks have found precious relics believed to be part of the skull of Gautama Buddha in a temple in China, state-owned news agency RSS reported Friday.

The relics have been found during excavation at Qixia Temple in Jiangsu province of China, around 1,500 km away from Beijing, RSS reported citing Chinese media. Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoting Master Chuan Yin, the president of the Buddhist Association of China, said the relics kept in a miniature gold coffin included the upper part of the skull of Lord Buddha.

The excavation was carried out amid a worshipping ceremony held in the temple, Xinhua said, adding that the bone, irregular and light brown,looked like a small rock. "It is full of cell-like cavities, just like a honeycomb," Xinhua quoted Hua Guorong, deputy head of Nanjing City Museum as saying.

"Our findings confirm with the descriptions of the parietal bone in historical records," said Master Xue Cheng, the vice president of the association, adding that the bone is very sacred for Buddhists.

Besides Buddha´s remains, 10 pieces of memorabilia were found in another gold and silver mini-coffin. All the relics had been enshrined at the temple by 108 eminent Buddhist monks from the Chinese mainland, Macao and Taiwan. The relics would be open to the faithful at the temple for one month, Xinhua quoted Hua as further saying.

The Buddha's parietal bone, allegedly recovered from his cremation ash, had been stored in a miniature pagoda named the Pagoda of King Asoka unearthed two years ago in an underground shrine built in 1011 under the former Changgan Temple of Nanjing. The palace was found when archaeologists began excavating the ruins of the Grand Bao´en Temple of Nanjing built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). nepalnews.com/RSS