Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of HanFaxian
Philosophy
Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han
Faxian
China -- Literary collections; Chinese literature; Chinese literature -- Translations into English
Going west for sixteen yojanas, [1] he came to the city He-lo [2] in the
borders of the country of Nagâra, where there is the flat-bone of
Buddha's skull, deposited in a vihâra [3] adorned all over with
gold-leaf and the seven sacred substances. The king of the country,
revering and honoring the bone, and anxious lest it should be stolen
away, has selected eight individuals, representing the great families in
the kingdom, and committed to each a seal, with which he should seal its
shrine and guard the relic. At early dawn these eight men come, and
after each has inspected his seal, they open the door. This done, they
wash their hands with scented water and bring out the bone, which they
place outside the vihâra, on a lofty platform, where it is supported on
a round pedestal of the seven precious substances, and covered with a
bell of lapis lazuli, both adorned with rows of pearls. Its color is of
a yellowish white, and it forms an imperfect circle twelve inches round,
curving upwards to the centre. Every day, after it has been brought
forth, the keepers of the vihâra ascend a high gallery, where they beat
great drums, blow conches, and clash their copper cymbals. When the king
hears them, he goes to the vihâra, and makes his offerings of flowers
and incense. When he has done this, he and his attendants in order, one
after another, raise the bone, place it for a moment on the top of their
heads, and then depart, going out by the door on the west as they had
entered by that on the east. The king every morning makes his offerings
and performs his worship, and afterwards gives audience on the business
of his government. The chiefs of the Vaisyas [4] also make their
offerings before they attend to their family affairs. Every day it is
so, and there is no remissness in the observance of the custom. When all
of the offerings are over, they replace the bone in the vihâra, where
there is a vimoksha tope, of the seven precious substances, and rather
more than five cubits high, sometimes open, sometimes shut, to contain
it. In front of the door of the vihâra, there are parties who every
morning sell flowers and incense, and those who wish to make offerings
buy some of all kinds. The kings of various countries are also
constantly sending messengers with offerings. The vihâra stands in a
square of thirty paces, and though heaven should shake and earth be
rent, this place would not move.
Going on, north from this, for a yojana, Fâ-hien arrived at the capital
of Nagâra, the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased with money
five stalks of flowers, as an offering to the Dipânkara Buddha. In the
midst of the city there is also the tope of Buddha's tooth, where
offerings are made in the same way as to the flat-bone of his skull.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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