Statue of Buddha with a thousand hands and eyes was stolen

The statue with 1,113 arms and 1,113 eyes was stolen by thieves who broke into Me So Pagoda (Van Giang, Hung Yen) on the morning of September 29.

The ancient statue of the thousand-armed, thousand-eyed Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara at Me So Pagoda has been stolen. Photo: Document

Van Giang District Police (Hung Yen) are searching for a group of people who stole an ancient statue of the Buddha with a thousand hands and eyes at Me So Pagoda on the morning of September 29.

The district police representative said that on September 29,Monk Thich Dam Lan, abbot of Me So pagoda, and a nun discovered that the statue placed solemnly on the second floor of the pagoda had disappeared and the gate lock had been broken, so they reported it to the authorities.

Extracting images from the temple's security camera and information reported by Monk Lan, the police determined that the incident occurred at around 1am on September 29. The group of 4-5 thieves acted very professionally and had planned in advance. To avoid being recorded by the camera, one of them used a pole to cover the lens; the rest pried open the temple door, went upstairs, and approached the statue.

Because the statue was large and heavy, the group of thieves carried it out the front door, lowered it down to the yard, and took it to a car waiting outside the gate. Afterwards, one of the group, masked and wearing gloves, returned to the scene to erase all traces.

Me So PagodaThe statue was just broken into by a group of thieves.The Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva. Photo: Document

Me So Pagoda, now in Me So Commune, Van Giang District, was built during the Le Dynasty. After hundreds of years, the pagoda has deteriorated, but only the statue of the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara remains relatively intact.

The statue has 1,113 arms and 1,113 eyes, is made of jackfruit wood, and is 2.8 m high, of which the Buddha statue alone is 1.4 m.In 1988, the statue was stolen. Police in Hai Hung province (now divided into Hai Duong and Hung Yen) and police in Hanoi and Hai Phong found the statue at the house of an artisan in Hanoi.

According to VNE