Two mates who unearthed a centuries-old rare Buddha statue in Western Australia's remote Shark Bay region are calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to diplomatically return the Ming Dynasty figurine "home" to China.

Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thompson want the Buddha repatriated as a symbol of peace and goodwill, and for Shark Bay to be publicly acknowledged as the birthplace of WA's pearling industry.

Seven years ago, the pair stumbled upon a 15-centimetre bronze Buddha, buried beneath 20cm of topsoil near a roadside.

"When I first lifted the statue from the ground, its weight struck me, and as I turned it over in the late afternoon sun, the worn gold shimmered," Mr Thompson said.

The discovery has seen them spend considerable time and money investigating theories about how the sm

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