GREAT QUINQUENNIAL ASSEMBLY OF MONKS. RELICS OF BUDDHA. PRODUCTIONS OF
THE COUNTRY.
It happened that the king of the country was then holding the pancha
parishad, that is, in Chinese, the great quinquennial assembly.(1) When
this is to be held, the king requests the presence of the Sramans from
all quarters (of his kingdom). They come (as if) in clouds; and when
they are all assembled, their place of session is grandly decorated.
Silken streamers and canopies are hung out in, and water-lilies in gold
and silver are made and fixed up behind the places where (the chief of
them) are to sit. When clean mats have been spread, and they are all
seated, the king and his ministers present their offerings according to
rule and law. (The assembly takes place), in the first, second, or
third month, for the most part in the spring.
After the king has held the assembly, he further exhorts the ministers
to make other and special offerings. The doing of this extends over
one, two, three, five, or even seven days; and when all is finished, he
takes his own riding-horse, saddles, bridles, and waits on him
himself,(2) while he makes the noblest and most important minister of
the kingdom mount him. Then, taking fine white woollen cloth, all sorts
of precious things, and articles which the Sramans require, he
distributes them among them, uttering vows at the same time along with
all his ministers; and when this distribution has taken place, he again
redeems (whatever he wishes) from the monks.(3)
The country, being among the hills and cold, does not produce the other
cereals, and only the wheat gets ripe. After the monks have received
their annual (portion of this), the mornings suddenly show the
hoar-frost, and on this account the king always begs the monks to make
the wheat ripen(4) before they receive their portion. There is in the
country a spitoon which belonged to Buddha, made of stone, and in
colour like his alms-bowl. There is also a tooth of Buddha, for which
the people have reared a tope, connected with which there are more than
a thousand monks and their disciples,(5) all students of the hinayana.
To the east of these hills the dress of the common people is of coarse
materials, as in our country of Ts’in, but here also(6) there were
among them the differences of fine woollen cloth and of serge or
haircloth. The rules observed by the Sramans are remarkable, and too
numerous to be mentioned in detail. The country is in the midst of the
Onion range. As you go forward from these mountains, the plants, trees,
and fruits are all different from those of the land of Han, excepting
only the bamboo, pomegranate,(7) and sugar-cane.
NOTES
(1) See Eitel, p. 89. He describes the assembly as “an ecclesiastical
conference, first instituted by king Asoka for general confession of
sins and inculcation of morality.”
(2) The text of this sentence is perplexing; and all translators,
including myself, have been puzzled by it.
(3) See what we are told of king Asoka’s grant of all the Jambudvipa to
the monks in chapter xxvii. There are several other instances of
similar gifts in the Mahavansa.
(4) Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks of
K’eeh-ch’a had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers.
(5) The text here has {.} {.}, not {.} alone. I often found in
monasteries boys and lads who looked up to certain of the monks as
their preceptors.
(6) Compare what is said in chapter ii of the dress of the people of
Shen-shen.
(7) Giles thinks the fruit here was the guava, because the ordinary
name for “pomegranate” is preceded by gan {.}; but the pomegranate was
called at first Gan Shih-lau, as having been introduced into China from
Gan-seih by Chang-k’een, who is referred to in chapter vii.