Note 1 — CHAP. IX.
Reading edition
: It was whilst looking at this statue that FA HIAN encountered an incident which he has related with touching simplicity:—"Depuis que FA HIAN avait quitté la terre de Han, plusieurs années s'étaient écoulées; les gens avec lesquels il avait des rapports étaient tous des hommes de contrées étrangères. Les montagnes, les rivières, les herbes, les arbres, tout ce qui avait frappé ses yeux était nouveau pour lui. De plus, ceux qui avaient fait route avec lui, s'en étaient séparés, les uns s'étant arrêtés, et les autres étant morts. En réfléchissant au passé, son coeur était toujours rempli de pensées et de tristesse. Tout à coup, à cóté de cette figure de jaspe, il vit un marchand qui faisait hommage à la statue d'un éventail de taffetas blanc du pays de Tsin. Sans qu'en s'en aperçût cela lui causa une émotion telle que ses larmes coulèrent et remplirent ses yeux." (FA HIAN, Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 333.) "Tsin" means the province of Chensi, which was the birthplace of Fa Hian.
2: FA HIAN, Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 334-5.
3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 241, 249. After the funeral rites of Gotama Buddha had been performed at Kusinara, B.C. 543, his "left canine tooth" was carried to Dantapura, the capital of Kalinga, where it was preserved for 800 years. The King of Calinga, in the reign of Maha-Sen, being on the point of engaging in a doubtful conflict, directed, in the event of defeat, that the sacred relic should be conveyed to Ceylon, whither it was accordingly taken as described. (Rajavali, p. 240.) Between A.D. 1303 and 1315 the tooth was carried back to Southern India by the leader of an army, who invaded Ceylon and sacked Yapahoo, which was then the capital. The succeeding monarch, Prakrama III., went in person to Madura to negotiate its surrender, and brought it back to Pollanarrua. Its subsequent adventures and its final destruction by the Portuguese, as recorded by DE COUTO and others, will be found in a subsequent passage, see Vol. II. P. VII. ch. v. The Singhalese maintain that the Dalada, still treasured in its strong tower at Kandy, is the genuine relic, which was preserved from the Portuguese spoilers by secreting it at Delgamoa in Saffragam.
TURNOUR'S Account of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1837, vol. vi. p. 2, p. 856.