Xinhua, August 6, 2006

Zhengzhou, China -- Cultural relic experts have retrieved the top piece for a 1100-year-old religious stone pillar inscribed with Buddha's incantation and inscriptions which were discovered earlier in central China's Henan Province.

The eight-square stone top is 24 centimeter thick, with the longest diagonal of the top surface 70 cm and Buddhist patterns including lotus petals, curtains, streamers and pearls carved on each side.

It fits the pillar trunk engraved during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and re-discovered in June in Anle town, Henan Province, the same town where the top was found, experts say.

The octahedral pyramid trunk, 142 cm high and 2,000 kilogram weight with the longest diagonal of bottom 54 cm, was collected by a local folklore museum.

Experts are repairing and studying the stone pillar, which will be shown to the public soon, a source with the local cultural relic bureau said.