On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c9.14

v1.c9.14

This country does not seem to have ever been much known to the Chinese generally; and it is rarely mentioned even in the translations of the Buddhist books, or in the accounts of the travels and in the biographies of eminent worthies of the Buddhist religion. There was, however, at least one distinguished Buddhist scholar who is called a Brahmin from the Lampa country and who is recorded as having visited China. This pious and learned Brother, we are informed, in the year A.D. 700 assisted in the translation from Sanskrit into Chinese of a celebrated treatise of magical invocations.¹ Lampa was evidently a district of some importance and it may have been known by some native or local name.