On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.65

v2.c19.65

Our pilgrim's narrative proceeds. Above 90 *li* southwest from the Ti-lo-shi-ka monastery was a lofty mountain. Among its sombre masses of clouds and rocks lodged immortals, poisonous snakes and fierce dragons lurked in the hollows of its marshes, fierce beasts skulked and birds of prey roosted in its thickets. On its top was a flat rock surmounted by a tope above ten feet high. This was on the spot where the Buddha once sat all night in the "Samādhi of the end of extinction". The pious devas had made a tope of precious gold and silver to commemorate the event, but in the long course of time the precious metals had changed to stone. No human mortal had ever visited the tope, but from afar serpents and wild beasts could be seen in companies performing pradakṣiṇa, and angels and saints giving praise and worship.