宋高僧傳 2.54

2.54

In the fourth year of the Chang'an era [704 CE], because his mother was frail with age, Śikṣānanda longed to return home to comfort and attend to her. He submitted petitions twice before it was granted, and an edict ordered Censor Huo Siguang to escort him to Khotan. When Emperor Zhongzong arose like a dragon, an edict was issued to summon him again. In the second year of the Jinglong era [708 CE], he reached the capital. The Emperor set aside the majesty of the lord of ten thousand chariots and personally welcomed him outside the Kaiyuan Gate. The monks and nuns of the entire capital prepared banners and pennants to lead the way. An azure elephant was decorated for him to ride into the city, and an edict ordered that he be housed at Da Jianfu Temple. Before he had leisure to translate, he fell ill and lingered. On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the first year of the Jingyun era [710 CE], lying on his right side with feet folded, he passed away at the age of fifty-nine. An edict permitted him to be buried according to the customs of foreign lands. On the twelfth day of the eleventh month, he was cremated at the ancient Dīpaṅkara Platform outside the Kaiyuan Gate; when the firewood was consumed and the fire extinguished, his tongue remained intact. On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, his disciple Beizhi and imperial commissioner Geshu Daoyuan escorted his remaining relics and this miraculous tongue back to Khotan, where a stūpa was erected to make offerings. Later people also built a seven-tiered stūpa at the site of his cremation, which local custom called the Stūpa of the Avataṃsaka Tripiṭaka Master.