Hundreds cheer abbot's efforts to return Buddha head

Abbot Hsing Yun's recent visit to Beijing is probably among his most significant cross-Straits trips.

On March 1, the abbot, 89, who established the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Kaohsiung city in 1967, escorted a 1,500-year-old Buddha head to the National Museum of China in Beijing.

The Buddha was carved following a royal family edict during the Northern Qi Dynasty (AD 550-577), but its head was stolen from the Youju Temple in Lingshou county, Hebei province, in 1996.