On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s1.11

v1.c8.s1.11

The district or region which the envoy Chang reported as named, let us continue to say, Shên-tu, is briefly described by him and others of the Han period. It was several thousand *li* south-east from Bactria, near a river (or sea); its inhabitants used elephants in fighting. Some writers describe them as Buddhists; and they were in many respects like the people of Bactria, or like the Geti (Yue-ti) according to another account. Their country was about 2000 *li* south-west from what is now the Ch'êng-tu and Ning-yuan districts in Ssŭchuan, and it had a regular trade with the merchants of the Ch'êng-tu district, some of whom seem to have settled in it. Further, this country was not far from the western border of the Chinese empire in the Han time, and it was on the way from China to Bactria. So though the name Shên-tu came to be afterwards given to India yet in its first use it apparently denoted a small region in what is now Yunnan and Burmah.²