Jiantuowei and the Buddha's Alms Bowl

From here they went down east for five days and reached the country of Jiantuowei. It is the place that Fayi, the son of King Ashoka, governed. When the Buddha was a bodhisattva he gave his eyes away to another in this country, and there too a great stupa has been raised and adorned with gold and silver. The people of this country are mostly students of the Lesser Vehicle.

Going east from here for seven days there is a country named Zhuchashiluo. Zhuchashiluo in the speech of Han means to cut off the head. When the Buddha was a bodhisattva he gave his head away to another in this place, and the name came from that. Going east again for two days, one reaches the place where he threw down his body to feed a starving tiger. At these two places also great stupas have been raised, and both are adorned with jewels of every kind. The kings and the ministers and the people of many countries vie in making offerings, and the scattering of flowers and the lighting of lamps go on one after another without a break. Taking these together with the two stupas above, the people of that region call them the four great stupas (四大塔).

From the country of Jiantuowei they went south for four days and reached the country of Fulousha. Long ago, when the Buddha traveled through this country with his disciples, he said to Ananda, "After I have entered nirvana, there will be a king named Jinijia who will raise a stupa in this place." Later King Jinijia came into the world, and once when he went out to look about him, Shakra, lord of the gods, wishing to open his mind, changed himself into a boy herding cattle and was building a stupa in the road. The king asked, "What are you making?" He answered, "I am making a stupa of the Buddha." The king said, "Very good indeed." Then the king raised a stupa over the boy's stupa, more than forty zhang high and adorned with jewels of every kind. Of all the stupas and temples they had seen along the way, none could be compared with this for grandeur and majesty. It is handed down that of all the stupas of Jambudvipa, this one alone is the highest. When the king's stupa was finished, the little stupa came out of itself at the side, to the south of the great stupa, about three chi high.

The begging bowl of the Buddha is in this very country. Long ago the king of the Yuezhi raised a great army and came to attack this country, meaning to take the begging bowl. When he had subdued the country, the king of the Yuezhi and his men, being firm believers in the Law of the Buddha, wished to carry the bowl away, and so they made great offerings. When they had made their offerings to the three treasures, they adorned a great elephant and set the bowl upon it, but the elephant lay down on the ground and could not go forward. Then they made a four-wheeled carriage and loaded the bowl on it, and eight elephants drew it together, but again it could not go forward. The king knew that his bond with the bowl had not yet come, and he was deeply ashamed and sighed over it. So in that very place he raised a stupa and a sangharama, and left men behind to guard it, and made offerings of every kind. There may be more than seven hundred monks there. As noon draws near the monks bring out the bowl, and with the lay people they make offerings of every kind, and only then take their midday meal. At dusk, when the incense is burned, they do the same again. The bowl holds about two dou. Its colors are mixed, but the black is the most, and its four rims are clear, and it is about two fen thick and has a fine gloss. If a poor man throws in a few flowers, it is full at once; if a very rich man wishes to make an offering of many flowers, he may pour in a hundred thousand million hu and never fill it.

Baoyun and Sengjing made their offerings to the begging bowl of the Buddha and then turned back. Huijing, Huida, and Daozheng had gone ahead to the country of Najie to make offerings to the shadow of the Buddha, and to his tooth, and to the bone of his skull. Huijing fell ill, and Daozheng stayed to care for him, and Huida came back alone, and they met one another in the country of Fulousha. Then Huida, Baoyun, and Sengjing at last went back to the land of Qin. Huijing passed away at the monastery of the Buddha's bowl. So Faxian went on alone toward the place where the bone of the Buddha's skull is.