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, and sugarcane.
[Footnote 1: Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks
of K'eeh-ch'a had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers.]
CHAPTER VI
~North India--Image of Maitreya Bodhisattva~
From this the travellers went westward towards North India, and after
being on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across and
through the range of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them both
winter and summer. There are also among them venomous dragons, which,
when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of snow and
storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those who
encounter these dangers escapes with his life. The people of the country
call the range by the name of "The Snow mountains." When the travellers
had got through them, they were in North India, and immediately on
entering its borders, found themselves in a small kingdom called
T'oleih, where also there were many monks, all students of the hinayana.
In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhan, [1] who by his supernatural
power took a clever artificer up to the Tushita [2] heaven, to see the
height, complexion, and appearance of Maitreya Bodhisattva, [3] and then
return and make an image of him in wood.
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