A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms
by Fa-Hien | A.D. 399-414 | 51,094 words
Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text by James Legge...
After they had crossed the river, there was a country named Pe-t’oo,[1] where Buddhism was very flourishing, and (the monks) studied both the mahayana and hinayana. When they saw their fellow-disciples from Ts’in passing along, they were moved with great pity and sympathy, and expressed themselves thus: “How is it that these men from a border-land should have learned to become monks,[2] and come for the sake of our doctrines from such a distance in search of the Law of Buddha?” They supplied them with what they needed, and treated them in accordance with the rules of the Law.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Bhida. Eitel says, “The present Punjab;” i.e. it was a portion of that.
[2]:
“To come forth from their families;” that is, to become celibates, and adopt the tonsure.