Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 10

The Country of Danmolidi耽摩栗底國

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) 大唐西域記 · Xuanzang · compiled by Bianji · 646 (Tang, 20th year of the Zhenguan era) · 3 passages · 156 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 10 The record Xuanzang laid before Emperor Taizong of the Tang after seventeen years of walking through the Western Regions and India, a hundred and thirty-eight countries in all. It is the stuff from which Journey to the West was made, but what stands here is not monsters — it is the compass and the climate and the speech and the faith of one country after another. The road runs two hundred years after Faxian and eighty years before Hyecho.

耽摩栗底國周千四五百里,國大都城周十餘里。濱近海垂,土地卑濕。稼穡時播,花果茂盛。氣序溫暑,風俗躁烈。人性剛勇,邪正兼信。伽藍十餘所,僧眾千餘人。天祠五十餘所,異道雜居。國濱海隅,水際交會,奇珍異寶,多聚此國,故其國人大抵殷富。

The country of Danmolidi is a thousand four or five hundred li around. The great capital city of the country is more than ten li around. It lies close on the edge of the sea, and the land is low and damp. They sow and reap in season, and flowers and fruits are lush and thriving. The climate is warm and hot, and the customs are hasty and fierce. The people are hard and brave by nature, and they believe in the false and the true together. There are more than ten monasteries and more than a thousand monks. There are more than fifty temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them. The country lies on a corner of the sea where the waterways meet one another, so rare and precious treasures are gathered in this country in great number, and for that reason the people of that country are for the most part rich and well provided.

2The stupa of King Wuyou

城側窣堵波,無憂王所建也。其傍則有過去四佛坐及經行遺跡之所。

The stupa beside the city was raised by King Wuyou. Beside it is the place where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked, and their traces are left there.

自此西北行七百餘里,至羯羅拿蘇伐剌那國。

From here one goes northwest more than seven hundred li and comes to the country of Jieluonasufalana.

Interlinear notes 1

東印度境。

It is the border of East India.