The Famen Temple is located in Famen Town 120 kilometers west of Xi'an. It is a famous temple in China. It was built in ancient times to house the bones of the fingers of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism.

Famen means the initial approach to become a Buddhist believer. The Famen Temple was constructed in the Eastern Han Dynasty because of the stupa there. The Famen Temple stupa also known as "the Real Spirit Pagoda", is famous for the fact that it houses a finger bone of Sakyamuni, and the Famen Temple and its stupa enjoyed the reputation of being the "forefather of pagodas and temples in Central Shaanxi".

The Famen Temple was originally called Asoka Stupa. During the years of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty it was reconstructed into a wooden four-storey structure. After 1,502 years of existence, the wooden stupa, in1569, fell down due to an earthquake. In 1579, Buddhists in Fufeng County collected alms and donations to rebuild the stupa into an exquisite and splendid brick octagon of 13 storeys, 47 meters in height. It took 30 years to complete the whole project. Because of the massive weight of the stupa and relatively small underground palace, a problem developed due to the great weight above ground and the small foundation underground. Fifty-four years after its completion, the stupa began to tilt toward the southwest. In 1976, because of constant rain in Fufeng County and the impact of the Songpan earthquake that occurred in Sichuan , the tilt of the stupa increased toward the southwest. In 1981, the western side of this tilted stupa fell off after being subjected to constantly rainy season. Most of the body of the stupa collapsed shortly thereafter. Only part of the body remained on an incomplete platform of broken bricks.

In 1985, the Shaanxi Provincial Government decided to rebuild the stupa imitating the brick one from the Ming Dynasty. While clearing the stupa foundation, the underground palace was accidentally discovered. For more than 1,000 years, the palace had housed the remains of the finger bones of Sakyamuni and other valuable relics that enshrined these precious bones.