The three saris, which are 10m long each and made from precious silk, are from the recumbent statue of Gautama Buddha at Kushinagar relic site, one of the main four Buddhist pilgrimage sites where the Lord Buddha attained Nirvana.

They then will be put on the under-work jade statue of the Lord Buddha, which is expected to be the world’s biggest ever of its kind with a weight of 16 tonnes, and measurements of 3m high and 2m wide once it is completed in 2011.

The statue is made from a 35-tonne block of jade bought by the Than Chau Ngoc Viet Company at a rare gemstones fair in Myanmar.