As you go forward from these mountains, the
plants, trees, and fruits are all different from those of the land of
Han, excepting only the bamboo, pomegranate,[7] and sugar-cane.
NOTES
[1] See Eitel, p. 89. He describes the assembly as "an ecclesiastical
conference, first instituted by king Asoka for general confession of
sins and inculcation of morality."
[2] The text of this sentence is perplexing; and all translators,
including myself, have been puzzled by it.
[3] See what we are told of king Asoka's grant of all the Jambudvipa
to the monks in chapter xxvii. There are several other instances of
similar gifts in the Mahavansa.
[4] Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks of
K'eeh-ch'a had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers.
[5] The text here has {.} {.}, not {.} alone. I often found in
monasteries boys and lads who looked up to certain of the monks as
their preceptors.
[6] Compare what is said in chapter ii of the dress of the people of
Shen-shen.
[7] Giles thinks the fruit here was the guava, because the ordinary
name for "pomegranate" is preceded by gan {.}; but the pomegranate was
called at first Gan Shih-lau, as having been introduced into China
from Gan-seih by Chang-k'een, who is referred to in chapter vii.
CHAPTER VI
ON TOWARDS NORTH INDIA. DARADA. IMAGE OF MAITREYA BODHISATTVA.
From this (the travellers) went westwards towards North India, and
after being on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across
and through the range of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them
both winter and summer. There are also among them venomous dragons,
which, when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of
snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those
who encounter these dangers escapes with his life. The people of the
country call the range by the name of "The Snow mountains." When (the
travellers) had got through them, they were in North India, and
immediately on entering its borders, found themselves in a small
kingdom called T'o-leih,[1] where also there were many monks, all
students of the hinayana.
In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhan,[2] who by his
supernatural power[3] took a clever artificer up to the Tushita
heaven, to see the height, complexion, and appearance of Maitreya
Bodhisattva,[4] and then return and make an image of him in wood.
First and last, this was done three times, and then the image was
completed, eighty cubits in height, and eight cubits at the base from
knee to knee of the crossed legs. On fast-days it emits an effulgent
light. The kings of the (surrounding) countries vie with one another
in presenting offerings to it. Here it is, - to be seen now as of
old.[5]
