Buddhist relic's trip to Thailand symbolizes deepening China-Thailand exchanges

China

Buddhist relic's trip to Thailand symbolizes deepening China-Thailand exchanges

2025-06-30 21:27 Last Updated At：22:07

Earlier this year's sacred Buddhist relic's trip from China to Thailand symbolizes the deepening spiritual and cultural exchanges between the two countries, according to a Chinese abbot.

At the end of 2024, the relic, a tooth of the Buddha, embarked on a 4,500-kilometer journey that took it to Bangkok from Beijing's Lingguang Temple, where it was enshrined for 73 days until mid-February.

This highly symbolic trip marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, as well as the 72nd birthday of the Thai king.

The tooth was accompanied by Venerable Chang Zang, the abbot of Lingguang Temple, home of one of the world's only two tooth relics of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

"This journey to Thailand by the Buddha's tooth relic, since it coincides with the Thai king's 72nd birthday and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Thailand diplomatic relations, will serve to further deepen our bilateral friendship," said the abbot.

In 2002, the abbot escorted the Buddha's tooth relic on a previous journey to Thailand.

The abbot said that the relic's journey symbolizes the deepening of spiritual and cultural exchanges between China and Thailand.

Buddhist ritual must be scrupulously observed at every step of the relic's journey, from its departure from Lingguang Temple to its arrival in Thailand and the procession to its enshrinement, according to the abbot.

"We've been rehearsing for over a month. We've practiced every pose, step and pressed-palm gesture. The timing is precise to the second," said the abbot.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.