World Tibet Network News Tuesday, April 28, 1998 (II)

BEIJING, April 28 (AFP) - A 1,200 year old Buddha stolen from a Tibetan monastery has been returned by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after a five-year search, the People's Daily said Tuesday.

The Buddha, from the Zholma Lhakham Lamasery in Lhasa, was stolen on April 9, 1993 by two men with a minivan and immediately sold on to smugglers in the city of Chengdu for 300,000 dollars.

It then disappeared without trace and nothing came of a nationwide search until 1996 when Lhasa customs discovered it had been shipped to the United States where a buyer with eight million dollars was waiting, the newspaper said.

The FBI seized the Buddha on arrival, but then requested photographic evidence it had come from the lamasery -- which the Tibetans didn't have.

After two years of wrangling, Lhasa Customs got hold of a photograph taken by a foreign tourist and the FBI returned the "Golden Buddha" in late 1997.

The newspaper did not explain the delay in reporting the incident.