A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

Chapter III · KHOTEN. PROCESSIONS OF IMAGES. THE KING’S NEW MONASTERY.

James Legge translation

Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and flourishing population. The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join together in its religious music for their enjoyment.(1) The monks amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the mahayana.(2) They all receive their food from the common store.(3) Throughout the country the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope(4) reared in front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more.(5) They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters,(5) the use of which is given to travelling monks who may arrive, and who are provided with whatever else they require.

The lord of the country lodged Fâ-Hien and the others comfortably, and supplied their wants, in a monastery(6) called Gomati,(6) of the mahayana school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are called to their meals by the sound of a bell. When they enter the refectory, their demeanour is marked by a reverent gravity, and they take their seats in regular order, all maintaining a perfect silence. No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and other utensils. When any of these pure men(7) require food, they are not allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands.

Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of K’eeh-ch’a;(8) but Fâ-Hien and the others, wishing to see the procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in this country four(9) great monasteries, not counting the smaller ones. Beginning on the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and water the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes and byways. Over the city gate they pitch a large tent, grandly adorned in all possible ways, in which the king and queen, with their ladies brilliantly arrayed,(10) take up their residence (for the time).

The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in great reverence by the king, took precedence of all others in the procession. At a distance of three or four le from the city, they made a four-wheeled image car, more than thirty cubits high, which looked like the great hall (of a monastery) moving along. The seven precious substances(11) were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers and canopies hanging all around. The (chief) image(12) stood in the middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas(13) in attendance upon it, while devas(14) were made to follow in waiting, all brilliantly carved in gold and silver, and hanging in the air. When (the car) was a hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, changed his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his hands flowers and incense, and with two rows of attending followers, went out at the gate to meet the image; and, with his head and face (bowed to the ground), he did homage at its feet, and then scattered the flowers and burnt the incense. When the image was entering the gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her in the gallery above scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which floated about and fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way everything was done to promote the dignity of the occasion. The carriages of the monasteries were all different, and each one had its own day for the procession. (The ceremony) began on the first day of the fourth month, and ended on the fourteenth, after which the king and queen returned to the palace.

Seven or eight le to the west of the city there is what is called the King’s New Monastery, the building of which took eighty years, and extended over three reigns. It may be 250 cubits in height, rich in elegant carving and inlaid work, covered above with gold and silver, and finished throughout with a combination of all the precious substances. Behind the tope there has been built a Hall of Buddha,(15) of the utmost magnificence and beauty, the beams, pillars, venetianed doors, and windows being all overlaid with gold-leaf. Besides this, the apartments for the monks are imposingly and elegantly decorated, beyond the power of words to express. Of whatever things of highest value and preciousness the kings in the six countries on the east of the (Ts’ung) range of mountains(16) are possessed, they contribute the greater portion (to this monastery), using but a small portion of them themselves.(17)

NOTES

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · (1) This fondness for music among the Khoteners is mentioned by Hsuan and Ch’wang and others.Note 2 · (2) Mahayana. It is a later form of the Buddhist doctrine, the second phase of its development corresponding to the state of a Bodhisattva, Note 3 · (3) Fâ-Hien supplies sufficient information of how the common store or funds of the monasteries were provided, farther on in chapters xvi an Note 4 · (4) The Chinese {.} (t’ah; in Cantonese, t’ap), as used by Fâ-Hien, is, no doubt, a phonetisation of the Sanskrit stupa or Pâli thupa; and i Note 5 · (5) The meaning here is much disputed. The author does not mean to say that the monk’s apartments were made “square,” but that the monasteri Note 6 · (6) The Sanskrit term for a monastery is used here,—Sangharama, “gardens of the assembly,” originally denoting only “the surrounding park, b Note 7 · (7) A denomination for the monks as vimala, “undefiled” or “pure.” Giles makes it “the menials that attend on the monks,” but I have not met Note 8 · (8) K’eeh-ch’a has not been clearly identified. Rémusat made it Cashmere; Klaproth, Iskardu; Beal makes it Kartchou; and Eitel, Khas’a, “an Note 9 · (9) Instead of “four,” the Chinese copies of the text have “fourteen;” but the Corean reading is, probably, more correct.Note 10 · (10) There may have been, as Giles says, “maids of honour;” but the character does not say so.Note 11 · (11) The Sapta-ratna, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies, diamonds or emeralds, and agate. See Sacred Books of the East (David Note 12 · (12) No doubt that of Sâkyamuni himself.Note 13 · (13) A Bodhisattva is one whose essence has become intelligence; a Being who will in some future birth as a man (not necessarily or usually Note 14 · (14) {.} {.}, “all the thien,” or simply “the thien” taken as plural. But in Chinese the character called thien {.} denotes heaven, or Heave Note 15 · (15) Giles and Williams call this “the oratory of Buddha.” But “oratory” gives the idea of a small apartment, whereas the name here leads th Note 16 · (16) The Ts’ung, or “Onion” range, called also the Belurtagh mountains, including the Karakorum, and forming together the connecting links b Note 17 · (17) This seems to be the meaning here. My first impression of it was that the author meant to say that the contributions which they receive Note 18 · (6) The combination of {.} {.} in the text of this concluding sentence, and so frequently occurring throughout the narrative, has occasioned