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

The Country of Wutu烏荼國

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) · 4 passages · 367 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 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.

烏荼國周七千餘里,國大都城周二十餘里。土地膏腴,穀稼茂盛。凡諸果實,頗大諸國,異草名花,難以稱述。氣序溫暑,風俗獷烈,人貌魁梧,容色厘黮。言辭風調,異中印度。好學不倦,多信佛法。伽藍百餘所,僧徒萬餘人,並皆習學大乘法教。天祠五十所,異道雜居。諸窣堵波凡十餘所,並是如來說法之處,無憂王之所建也。

The country of Wutu is more than seven thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. The soil is rich and fat, and the grain crops are lush and thriving. All the many fruits are rather larger than in the other countries, and the strange plants and famous flowers are hard to tell of in full. The climate is warm and hot, and the customs are rough and fierce. The people are tall and grand in form, and their faces are dark. Their speech and the turn of their voices differ from Central India. They love learning and do not tire of it, and many believe in the Law of the Buddha. There are more than a hundred monasteries and more than ten thousand monks, and all of them study and learn the Law and the teaching of the Greater Vehicle. There are fifty temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them. Of the stupas there are more than ten in all, and all are places where the Tathagata spoke the Law, raised by King Wuyou.

2The stupa where the flower canopies cling

國西南境大山中,有補澀波祇厘僧伽藍。其石窣諸波極多靈異,或至齋日,時燭光明。故諸凈信,遠近咸會,持妙花蓋,競修供養。承露盤下,覆缽勢上,以花蓋笴,置之便住,若磁石之吸針也。此西北山伽藍中有窣堵波,所異同前。此二窣堵波者,神鬼所建,靈奇若斯。

In the great mountains on the southwestern border of the country there is the monastery of Busebozhili. Its stone stupa has very many holy wonders, and sometimes when a fast day comes a bright light shines there. So the many who believe with a pure heart gather from far and near, and they carry wondrous flower canopies and strive with one another in making offerings. If one sets the handle of a flower canopy on the upturned bowl below the dish that catches the dew, it stays there and clings, as a lodestone draws a needle. In a monastery in the mountains northwest of this there is a stupa, and its wonder is the same as the one before. These two stupas were raised by spirits, and their holy strangeness is like this.

3The city of Zhelidaluo, and the light twenty thousand li away

國東南境臨大海濱,有折利呾羅城,周二十餘里,入海商人、遠方旅客,往來中止之路也。其城堅峻,多諸奇寶。城外鱗次有五伽藍,臺閣崇高,尊像工麗。南去僧伽羅國二萬餘里,靜夜遙望,見彼國佛牙窣堵波上寶珠,光明離然,如明炬之懸燭也。

On the southeastern border of the country, looking out on the shore of the great sea, there is the city of Zhelidaluo, more than twenty li around. It is the road where merchants who put out to sea and travelers from far regions come and go and rest. The city is strong and steep, and there are many rare treasures in it. Outside the city, ranged like fish scales, are five monasteries, whose terraces and pavilions are lofty and whose holy images are finely wrought. Going south it is more than twenty thousand li to the country of Sengjialuo, and on a still night, looking far off, one sees the jewel on the stupa of the Buddha's tooth in that country shining bright, like a bright torch hung up and burning.

Interlinear notes 1

唐言發行。

In the language of the Tang it is Faxing.

自此西南大林中行千二百餘里,至恭御陁國。

From here one goes southwest through a great forest more than twelve hundred li and comes to the country of Gongyutuo.

Interlinear notes 1

東印度境。

It is the border of East India.