The Country of Boluoyeqie缽邏耶伽國

The country of Boluoyeqie is more than five thousand li around. The great capital city of the country stands where the two rivers meet and is more than twenty li around. Sowing and reaping are rich and abundant, and the fruit trees grow thick. The climate is mild and pleasant, and the customs are good and gentle. The people like study and the arts, and they believe in the other ways. There are two monasteries and the monks are few, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. There are several hundred temples of the gods, and followers of other ways are truly many.

Southwest of the great city, in a grove of zhanboqie flowers, there is a stupa raised by King Wuyou. Its foundation leans and has sunk, but it is still more than a hundred feet high. Long ago the Tathagata subdued the followers of other ways in this place. Beside it there are a stupa of the hair and nails and the traces where he walked.

Beside the stupa of the hair and nails there is an old monastery. This is the place where the bodhisattva Tipo composed the Guangbai lun, broke down the Lesser Vehicle and subdued the followers of other ways. When the bodhisattva Tipo first came from South India to this monastery, there was in the city a Brahman of another way, known for his lofty argument, whose skill in speech met no hindrance. He would take a name and press it for its reality, and turn a question back until words failed. He knew well that Tipo had searched widely into what is dark and deep, and he wished to blunt his edge. So he took his name and asked, "What is your name?" Tipo said, "My name is Tian." The follower of the other way said, "Who is Tian?" Tipo said, "I am." The follower of the other way said, "Who am I?" Tipo said, "A dog." The follower of the other way said, "Who is a dog?" Tipo said, "You are." The follower of the other way said, "Who are you?" Tipo said, "Tian." The follower of the other way said, "Who is Tian?" Tipo said, "I am." The follower of the other way said, "Who am I?" Tipo said, "A dog." The follower of the other way said, "Who is a dog?" Tipo said, "You are." The follower of the other way said, "Who are you?" Tipo said, "Tian." As it went round and round in this way, the follower of the other way at last understood. From that time on he deeply revered his bearing and his way.

In the city there is a temple of the gods, bright with ornament, great and shining, and its strange wonders are of many kinds. According to their books this place is the finest ground in which living beings may plant merit. They say that if a man can cast away a single coin in this temple, his merit is greater than the giving of a thousand pieces of gold in another place, and that if he holds his life light and ends it within the temple, he will receive the blessings and joys of heaven, far off and without end. Before the hall of the temple of the gods there is one great tree, its leaves thick and its shade deep. A demon that eats men leans upon it and dwells there, and for that reason there are many bones left on either side of it. If a man comes to this temple there is none who does not lightly cast away his body and his life. He is drawn on by false words and lured on by the demon, and from of old until now this wrong custom has not changed. Lately there was a Brahman, a son of a house of standing. He was open and full of wisdom, bright and quick and of high talent. He came to the temple and said to the people there, "A crooked custom and a low purpose are hard to lead and to admonish. I shall first do as they do, and then I shall take them up and change them." When he had climbed up and was looking down, he said to his friends, "I am going to die. In days past I held this a lie, and now I have proved it true. The music of the gods and immortals comes riding the air to welcome me and lead me on. I shall follow them to the finer place and cast away this base form." He was about to throw himself down and take his own death. His friends urged him back, but his purpose would not be moved. In the end they spread out their clothes and laid them all about beneath the tree, and so when he threw himself down he kept his body and his life whole. After a long while he came to himself and said, "I saw only the gods in the air calling me. This was a crooked demon leading me on. It was not the joy of heaven that I had won."

East of the great city, where the two rivers meet, the ground is more than ten li wide. The land is open and high, and fine sand is spread over it. From of old until now, whenever the kings and the great houses have had anything to give away, there is none who has not come here, and they share it out all around without counting; and so it is called the great field of giving. King Jieri of today has taken up what went before him and has made his giving generous. He gathers wealth for five years and pours it all out in a single morning, and on that field of giving he heaps up many precious goods. On the first day he sets up a great image of the Buddha and adorns it with dignity with all manner of jewels, and then he takes the finest and rarest of his treasures and offers them in giving. Next come the monks who dwell there always, next the assembly gathered before him, next those of high talent and great learning and those who know many things and are able in much, next the students of the other ways and those who live hidden away, next widowers and widows, orphans and the old without children, and the poor who beg. He sets out all that is precious and pleasing and spends all the finest food, and in this order there is none who does not receive his share. When the storehouses are empty and the things he treasured are all gone, he gives away in turn the bright jewel in his topknot and the strings of gems upon his body, and from first to last he has no regret. When his giving is done he says, "It is a joy. All that I had has gone now into the firm and diamond storehouse." After this the kings of the various countries each offer him precious robes, and before ten days have passed his storehouses are full again.

East of the great field of giving, at the mouth where the rivers join, several hundred people drown themselves each day. It is the custom of that land to hold that one who seeks to be born in heaven ought to cut off grain in this place and sink himself, and that by bathing in the midst of the stream his sins and defilements are wiped away. And so from other countries and from far places they hurry here and gather, and after seven days without food they end their lives. Even the monkeys of the hills and the deer of the fields come in herds to play at the water's edge; some wash in the stream and go back, and some cut off food and die. At the time of King Jieri's great giving there was a monkey that lived on the riverbank. It hid itself alone beneath a tree and ate nothing, and after some days it starved itself to death. And so those of the various other ways who practice hard austerities set up a high pillar in the midst of the river. As the day is about to dawn they climb it at once and take hold of the top of the pillar with one hand and one foot, treading on a peg at the side; the other hand and foot they hang in the empty air and stretch outward, facing the void without bending. They stretch out their necks and open their eyes wide, watching the sun and turning to the right, and only when the dusk comes do they come down. Of such men there are some tens, and by this hard toil they hope to escape birth and death; some of them have gone some tens of years without ever growing idle or resting. Going southwest from here one enters a great forest where fierce beasts and wild elephants gather to fall upon travelers, so that without a large company it is hard to pass through. After more than five hundred li one comes to the country of Jiaoshangmi.