On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c18.s5.1

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.