On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c17.s3.66

v2.c17.s3.66

Continuing his description the pilgrim relates that to the north of the city, above 300 paces on the other side of the river, was a tope at the place of the Buddha's cremation. He states that the ground there was still of a yellowish black colour, the soil having a mixture of ashes and charcoal, and that people praying there in perfect good faith might get relics. The Buddha's coffin, he tells us, was made of the seven precious substances, his body was wrapped in 1000 folds of cotton: with incense and flowers and banners and sunshades the Mallas bore the coffin, and formed an escort to it, crossing to the north of the Golden River. Using abundance of fragrant oil and sweet-scented wood they set fire to the pile; the fold of cotton next the body and the outside fold remained unburnt; for the sake of living creatures the rest of the body (shê-li for sarira) was reduced to atoms (lit. separated and dispersed), the hair and nails alone remaining uninjured.