Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c12.s1.43

v2.c12.s1.43

*Records of Foreign Nations* recorded folk customs of Indian states such as Calicut, Gujirat, Malava, Chola, Malava and so on. It is valuable that the book recorded folk customs of local people of Andaman Islands and related gossips may not be accurate. While recording the folk customs of Calicut it said that people were naked and wore no shoes. They were just wrapped with white cloths and ornaments were worn on arms and feet. It wrote Gujirat folk customs where people were fairer comparatively, men and women pierced their ears and wore heavy earrings. They wore narrow clothes, wrapped yarn around their waist and wore white earmuffs and red leather shoes. People were prohibited to eat meats. There were 4,000 temples and about 20,000 girls offering Buddha rice and flowers twice each day. The offered flowers that were knitted into the shape of ball with thread and were weighted about 300 jin every day. The records were detailed and reliable basically, but Hindu temples were mistaken as Buddhist pagodas.