Yetgeul › Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) › Complete in one volume
The Country of Balhana跋賀那國
Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) Complete in one volume The travel record of Hyecho, a monk of Silla, who at about twenty walked forty countries of India and the Western Regions and set down what he saw. It was lost for more than a thousand years and was found again in 1908 in the caves of Dunhuang, as a damaged scroll. Five poems in five-word lines, longing for home, are carried in it.
1Two kings with a river between them
又從康國已東。即跋賀那國。有兩王。縛又大河。當中西流。河南一王屬大𥦽。河北一王屬突厥所管。土地亦出駝騾羊馬疊布之類。衣著皮裘疊布。食多餅麨。言音各別。不同餘國。不識佛法。無有寺舍僧尼。
Again, east of Gang is the country of Balhana (跋賀那國). It has two kings. The great river Bakcha (縛又) flows west through the middle of it. The king south of the river is under the Arabs, and the king north of the river is under the rule of the Turks.
The land too yields camels, mules, sheep, horses, wool cloth and the like. They wear leather coats and wool cloth. Their food is mostly cakes and barley flour. Their speech is quite their own and is not like that of the other countries. They do not know the Law of the Buddha, and there are no monasteries and no monks or nuns.
Interlinear notes 1
⿱穴是
This is the character written with 是 beneath 穴.