611 (the seventh year of the Daye reign period of the Sui dynasty): A statue of the Akshobhya Buddha is completed in the Four Gates Pagoda in the Shen Tong Monastery, near modern-day Jinan, Shandong.

1961: The PRC State Council announces that the Four Gates Pagoda is one of the "key cultural preservation units" in the first group of such units created by the state.

1996: Scars are left from a failed attempt to steal the head of the statue.

1997: The head is stolen and, after circulating abroad, ends up in Taiwan.

2002: The Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation returns the head to the Four Gates Pagoda, asking nothing in return.

In sum, after more than 1300 years in place, the head of a statue of the Akshobhya Buddha was taken from its body, ended up in Taiwan, and, through a process that began with avaricious thievery and ended in selfless giving, became, for the faithful, a special example of the dharma in action.

The Shen Tong Monastery was built during the early Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420), by a high-ranking monk named Lang Gong. A center of the Buddhist faith in the Shandong area, it survived the suppression of Buddhism in the Northern Zhou dynasty (557-581), and was renovated by the Emperor Wen Di of the Sui dynasty (581-617). The Four Gates Pagoda was added to the monastery in 611.

The Four Gates Pagoda is the oldest single-story, pavilion-style stone structure of its kind in China. It shows no signs of erosion even after well over a millennium. The structure has a classic simplicity, with a single large hall; it is a superior example of Sui dynasty architecture.

In the center of the Four Gates Pagoda is a raised platform on which rests a square central pillar. The four sides of the pillar are carved with Buddhist deities, including the Akshobhya Buddha (facing east). The statues are exquisitely carved and evince a powerful spirituality.

After more than 1000 years in place, the dignified simplicity of these statues attracted the attention of thieves. The Akshobhya Buddha head alone has an estimated market value of US$1.5 million. Since mainland China has opened up to the outside world, a busy trade in stolen artifacts has sprung up, and the head of the Akshobhya Buddha was eventually removed and sold abroad.

As a result of a chance encounter, a Taiwan collector purchased the piece abroad and donated it to the museum of Buddhist history currently being planned by Dharma Drum Mountain. When Master Sheng Yen learned that a millennium-old Buddha head had been brought to his temple, he immediately ordered an investigation: Where did it come from? Does the body still exist? "If we can return this Buddha head to its place of origin and restore an ancient Buddhist image to its original form," he declared, "not only will the Buddhist spirit of selflessness be extolled, but it will be far more meaningful than keeping it at Dharma Drum Mountain."

Professor Lin Pao-yao of Taipei National University of the Arts was then recruited to assess the find, and after half a year of research reached the preliminary conclusion that the head was the one missing from the Four Gates Pagoda statue. The Dharma Drum Mountain group then quickly brought over two experts from mainland China: Liu Fengjun, dean of the institute of arts and archeology at the University of Shandong, and Liu Jiwen, vice-director of the Four Gates Pagoda Scenic Area Management Committee. After examining the nature of the stone, the sculpting technique, the degree of wear, and the scars left by the thieves' tools, they confirmed that it was indeed the head stolen in 1997.

Dharma Drum Mountain thus decided to return the piece. Since according to Taiwan law the import or export of important historic artifacts must be approved by the government, the relevant authorities in Taiwan (including the Straits Exchange Foundation, the Mainland Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Council for Cultural Affairs) convened a special meeting, at which they agreed to assist in the return of the Shen Tong sculpture.

Before the return of the Buddha's head to Shandong, Dharma Drum Mountain held a special 15-day exhibition in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall celebrating the "resurrection" of the Four Gates Pagoda Buddha. To emphasize the importance of the return of the piece to its historic home, exhibition curator Kung Shu-ping placed an enormous photo of Shen Tong Temple on the wall of the exhibit room, and made a scale model of Four Gates Pagoda with pictures of the four Buddha statues attached to the central pillar, to give visitors a sense of the actual site. The exhibition also included a calendar of major events in the transfer of the piece, an introduction to the history and geographical setting of the Pagoda, and boxes containing slips of paper on which people could record their prayers and best wishes.

On December 17, Dharma Drum Mountain and Shen Tong Temple signed a joint agreement covering the gift. Master Sheng Yen then personally brought the piece to the Four Gates Pagoda. In addition, he carried 23 of the boxes of prayers and good wishes collected at the exhibition, to represent the 23 million people of Taiwan. (The remaining 20,000 boxes were also sent to the PRC.) Restoration of the severed head was completed on December 21, and after its reconsecration, the stone deity carried on the work, which it had done for 1300 years before, of benevolently looking out for people and spreading the dharma.

The return of the Buddha head is not only of local interest, but touches upon the larger problem of stolen historic artifacts. In 1970, UNESCO drafted the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and more than 90 countries have signed the convention. The mainland acceded to the document in 1989, and has since been actively working for the return of Chinese cultural artifacts smuggled abroad.

Though the issue remains controversial, some countries have begun to return cultural properties. For example, in 2001 the National Gallery of Canada returned a sculpture of an arhat (a monk who has attained Nirvana) taken from the Longmen Grottoes. Japan's Miho Museum has agreed that in four years it will return a stone boddhisattva from Shandong, which it purchased for 100 million yen. And as early as four years ago, Chen Shih-tai, the founder of the Aurora Group, returned 16 sculpted arhats and two sculptures of children to the Zishou Temple in Shanxi.

Most people might think of the Buddha head as a valuable work of art. "The value?" Master Sheng Yen asks quizzically. "The Dharma cannot be bought, so the Buddha head is beyond price."

In Sanskrit, Akshobhya means "the unwavering" or "the imperturbable." According to The Golden Light Sutra, when Aksobhya was still a bodhisattva, he vowed to pass through all life forms but not be altered by them. Perhaps the theft and passage of the Buddha head between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is a special way of getting the message of the dharma across, of calling on people in the mundane world to put aside selfishness and create an atmosphere of benevolence between the people on the two sides.

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The head of a statue of the Akshobhya Buddha stolen from the Four Gates Pagoda in China in 1997 has been escorted back to its home. (photo by Jimmy Lin)