Reaching Sri Lanka

So he was carried aboard a merchant's great ship and went southwest over the sea. He caught the seasonal wind of early winter, and after fourteen days and nights he reached the country of Sri Lanka. The people of that country say the distance between them is some seven hundred yojanas.

That country lies on an island, fifty yojanas from east to west and thirty yojanas from north to south. The small islands to either side number a hundred. Some lie ten li or twenty li apart, and some two hundred li, but all of them belong under the great island.

Precious jewels and pearls come out of it in plenty. There is ground where mani pearls are found, about ten li on each side. The king sets men to guard it, and if anyone digs there, three parts in ten are taken.

In that country there were no people at first, and only spirits and dragons lived there. Merchants from many countries traded with them, and when they traded the spirits did not show their own bodies. They only set out their treasures and wrote the price beside them, and the merchants laid down the price and took the goods. Because merchants came and went and stayed there, the people of many countries heard that the land was good to live in, and they too all came, and so it grew at last into a great country.

That country is mild and temperate, and there is no difference between winter and summer. The grass and the trees are always thick, and men sow the fields as they please, without waiting on a season.

The Buddha came to that country, wishing to convert an evil dragon. By the power of his spirit feet he set one foot north of the royal city and the other on a mountain top, and the two prints were fifteen yojanas apart. Over the print north of the royal city a great stupa was raised, forty zhang high, adorned with gold and silver and made of all manner of jewels together.

Beside the stupa a sangharama was raised as well, named Wuweishan, and there are five thousand monks there. A hall of the Buddha was built, carved with gold and silver and covered all over with every kind of jewel. Inside it there is an image of blue jade, something over two zhang high. The whole body of it burns with the light of the seven jewels, and its majesty stands out so plainly that words cannot hold it. In its right palm there is a jewel beyond price. Faxian had been away from the land of Han for years on end. All those he met with were men of other lands, and among the hills and streams and the grass and the trees he could raise his eyes on nothing he had known before. Those who set out with him had parted from him too, some staying behind and some dying, and when he looked at his shadow only he was left, so that his heart always carried sorrow. Then all at once, beside this jade image, he saw a merchant make an offering of a white silk fan from the land of Jin, and before he knew it grief came over him and the tears ran and filled his eyes.

A former king of that country sent an envoy to the Middle Country of India, brought back a seed of the Beiduo tree, and planted it beside the hall of the Buddha. It grew about twenty zhang high, and when the tree leaned to the southeast the king feared it would fall and propped it with a pillar eight or nine arm-spans round. At the place where it was propped the tree put out a core, which bored through the pillar and went down and entered the ground and became a root, and it is about four arm-spans thick. The pillar is split down the middle, but it still wraps the outside of the root, and no one takes it away. Under the tree a vihara was raised, and inside it there is a seated image, which men of the Way and laymen look up to and honor without growing weary.

In the city a vihara of the Buddha's tooth was also raised, and it is made wholly of the seven jewels. The king keeps the pure practice clean, and the reverence and faith of the people in the city are deep as well. Since rule was established in that country there has been no famine, no mourning, and no disorder. In the storehouse of the monks there are many precious jewels and mani stones beyond price, and when the king went into the monks' storehouse and looked about, he saw a mani pearl and a greedy heart rose in him at once, and he wished to take it away. Only after three days did he come to himself. He went before the monks, bowed his head to the ground, and repented of the guilty heart he had had. Then he said to the monks, "I beg the assembly to set a rule. From now on do not allow the king to come into the storehouse and look, and let a monk enter only after he has completed forty years as a monk."

In that city there are many householders, elders, and sabo merchants. The houses are stately and fine, and the lanes and the streets are level and straight. At the head of every crossroad a hall for preaching the Law is built, and on the eighth, the fourteenth, and the fifteenth day of the month a high seat is spread there, and the four assemblies of men of the Way and laymen all gather to hear the Law. The people of that country say there are some sixty thousand monks in all, and that food for the assembly is provided for all of them, and that the king provides food for an assembly of five or six thousand besides within the city. Whoever needs it takes a great bowl and goes to fetch it, and each one comes back with his vessel filled to what it will hold.