Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 11

The Country of Biduoshiluo臂多勢羅國

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 · 220 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 11 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.

臂多勢羅國周三千餘里,國大都城周二十餘里。居人殷盛,無大君長,役屬信度國。土地沙鹵,寒風淒勁。多宿麥,少花果。而風俗獷暴,語異中印度。不好藝學,然知淳信。伽藍五十餘所,僧徒三千餘人,並學小乘正量部法。天祠二十餘所,並塗灰外道也。

The country of Biduoshiluo is more than three thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. The people who live there are many and thriving, but there is no great ruler, and the country is subject to the country of Xindu. The soil is sand and salt, and the cold wind is bleak and strong. Winter wheat is plentiful, and flowers and fruits are few. The customs are rough and fierce, and their speech differs from that of Central India. They are not fond of arts and learning, yet they know how to believe with a simple heart. There are more than fifty monasteries and more than three thousand monks, and all of them study the Law of the Zhengliang school of the Lesser Vehicle. There are more than twenty temples of the gods, and all of them belong to the followers of other ways who smear themselves with ashes.

2The place where the seer was harmed by the king

城北十五里大林中,有窣堵波,高數百尺,無憂王所建也。中有舍利,時放光明。是如來昔作仙人,為國王所害之處。

Fifteen li north of the city, in the midst of a great forest, there is a stupa several hundred feet high, and it was built by King Wuyou. Within it are relics, which at times send out a bright light. This is the place where the Tathagata, long ago, was a seer and was harmed by the king of the country.

3The monastery built by Dajiaduoyanna

此東不遠有故伽藍,是昔大迦多延那大阿羅漢之所建立。其傍則有過去四佛座及經行遺跡之處,建窣堵波以為旌表。

Not far east of this there is an old monastery, and it was built long ago by the great arhat Dajiaduoyanna. Beside it is the place where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked, and their traces remain, and a stupa was built there as a mark.

從此東北行三百餘里,至阿軬荼國。

Going northeast from here more than three hundred li, one reaches the country of Afentu.

Interlinear notes 1

西印度境。

It is the border of West India.