[Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms by Fa-Hsien]@TWC D-Link book
Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

CHAPTER XXXVIII
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The vegetation is always luxuriant.
Cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed seasons for it.
When Buddha came to this country,( 2) wishing to transform the wicked nagas, by his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of the royal city, and the other on the top of a mountain,( 3) the two being fifteen yojanas apart.

Over the footprint at the north of the city the king built a large tope, 400 cubits high, grandly adorned with gold and silver, and finished with a combination of all the precious substances.

By the side of the top he further built a monastery, called the Abhayagiri,( 4) where there are (now) five thousand monks.

There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid works of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there is an image (of Buddha) in green jade, more than twenty cubits in height, glittering all over with those substances, and having an appearance of solemn dignity which words cannot express.

In the palm of the right hand there is a priceless pearl.


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