Now The Image Was Set Up Rather More Than 300 Years After The Nirvana[7] Of Buddha, Which May Be

Referred to the reign of king P'ing of the Chow dynasty.[8] According to this account we may say that

The diffusion of our great doctrines (in the east) began from (the setting up of) this image. If it had not been through that Maitreya,[9] the great spiritual master[10] (who is to be) the successor of the Sakya, who could have caused the 'Three Precious Ones'[11] to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those border lands to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of (the way for such) a mysterious propagation is not the work of man; and so the dream of the emperor Ming of Han[12] had its proper cause."

NOTES

[1] The Sindhu. We saw in a former note that the earliest name in China for India was Shin-tuh. So, here, the river Indus is called by a name approaching that in sound.

[2] Both Beal and Watters quote from Cunningham (Ladak, pp. 88, 89) the following description of the course of the Indus in these parts, in striking accordance with our author's account: - "From Skardo to Rongdo, and from Rongdo to Makpou-i-shang-rong, for upwards of 100 miles, the Indus sweeps sullen and dark through a mighty gorge in the mountains, which for wild sublimity is perhaps unequalled. Rongdo means the country of defiles.

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