A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms / Being an account by the Chinese monk Fâ-hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline

Chapter 19: CHAPTER XV. BHIDA. SYMPATHY OF MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS.

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History - Ancient Religion/Spirituality Travel Writing

About This Book

A travel narrative recounts a lengthy pilgrimage undertaken to obtain authoritative Buddhist scriptures, offering sequential accounts of routes, towns, and regions visited. It records detailed descriptions of monasteries, relics, stupas, festivals, and local legends tied to sacred sites, together with observations on monastic discipline, communal practices, and material culture. The text is arranged chapter by chapter around places of interest and is accompanied by explanatory notes, textual annotations, and occasional reflections on religious observance and geography.

CHAPTER XV.
BHIDA. SYMPATHY OF MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS.

[Chinese]

After they had crossed the river, there was a country named Pe-tʽoo,1 where Buddhism was very flourishing, and (the monks) studied both the mahâyâna and hînayâna. When they saw their fellow-disciples from Tsʽin passing along, they were moved with great pity and sympathy, and expressed themselves thus: ‘How is it that these men from a border-land should have learned to become monks,2 and come for the sake of our doctrines from such a distance in search of the Law of Buddha?’ They supplied them with what they needed, and treated them in accordance with the rules of the Law.

1 Bhida. Eitel says, ‘The present Punjâb;’ i.e. it was a portion of that.

2 ‘To come forth from their families;’ that is, to become celibates, and adopt the tonsure.