On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s5: Ni-P'O-Lo or Nepal
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s5
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Ni-P'O-Lo or Nepal
v2.c18.s5.1
The pilgrim continuing his narrative tells us that "from this", that is perhaps, from the neighbourhood of the tope to the west of the old city, a journey of 1400 or 1500 *li* over a mountain and into a valley brought one into the Ni-p'o-lo or Nepāl country. This country he describes as being above 4000 *li* in circuit and as situated in the Snow Mountains, the region presenting an uninterrupted succession of hill and valley. The capital was above 20 *li* in circuit; the country yielded grain and much fruit, also copper, yaks, and francolins; copper coins were the medium of exchange; the climate was cold; the people were rude and deceitful, good faith and rectitude were slighted by them; they had no learning but were skillful mechanics; they were ugly and coarse in appearance, and they believed both in false and true religion, the Buddhist monasteries and the Deva temples touching each other. There were above 2000 Buddhist ecclesiastics who were attached to both "Vehicles", and the number of the Non-Buddhists was not ascertained. The kings of Nepāl, the author adds, were Kshatriya Licchavis, and they were eminent scholars and believing Buddhists. A recent king whose name is given as Ang-shu-fa-ma or Aṁśuvamma, in Chinese Kuang-chou (光 冑) or "Radiant Armour", had composed a treatise on Etymology. Near the south-east side of the capital, we are told, was a small pond the water of which could make burning things blaze, and ignite things thrown into the pond.
v2.c18.s5.2
It is remarkable that the annotator to the text from which the above passage has been transcribed places Nepāl in "Mid India". The statement occurs in all the editions, but the "Fang-chih" has "North India". Then notwithstanding the statement at the end of this chüan about the pilgrim returning to Vaiśālī, it may be doubted whether he actually made the double journey from that city to Nepāl and back. The Life does not mention any place between Śvetapur and Magadha. Still it is not impossible that Yuan-chuang may have personally visited Nepāl. We have a more detailed account of the sights of this country in the Fang-chih than we have in the Records, and the information given in the former treatise may have been partly obtained from the account of Wang Hsüan-tsê’s great expedition about this time. We learn from the Fang-chih that there was at the capital of this country a large building in seven storeys, above 200 feet high and 80 paces in circumference, the upper part of which accommodated 10000 persons; the chambers of this building had exquisite carvings, and were adorned with precious stones.
v2.c18.s5.3
The pond or tank of which Yuan-chuang makes mention was, we are told in the Fang-chih, near the "Liquid-fire village", and it was called the A-ch’i-p’o-ni-chih or the A-ch’i-p’o-t’ien (or -li)-shui. These words apparently mean the "Deadly Tank" or the "Deadly Gulf", a-ch’i-p’o being for ajīva. The Tank was only twenty two paces in circuit, and it had contained a case in which was the tiara to be worn by Maitreya when he comes to be Buddha; the tiara in the meantime is in the care of the Fire-dragon of this Tank.
v2.c18.s5.4
We learn also from this book that on an isolated hill above ten *li* to the south of the capital was a Buddhist monastery in several storeys and of fantastic shapes. At this time, about A. D. 645, Nepāl was a dependency of T'u-fan or Tibet, and it joined that country in sending a contingent to help Wang Hsüan-tsê in his trouble with the usurper of Magadha.¹
v2.c18.s5.5
¹ Fang-chih *ch.* 2; T'ang-shu *ch.* 221; Ma T. *l.* *ch.* 335.