Khoten.  Processions of images.  The king’s new monastery.

Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and flourishing population.  The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join together in its religious music for their enjoyment.(1) The monks amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the mahayana.(2) They all receive their food from the common store.(3) Throughout the country the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope(4) reared in front of its door.  The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more.(5) They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters,(5) the use of which is given to travelling monks who may arrive, and who are provided with whatever else they require.

The lord of the country lodged Fa-hien and the others comfortably, and supplied their wants, in a monastery(6) called Gomati,(6) of the mahayana school.  Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are called to their meals by the sound of a bell.  When they enter the refectory, their demeanour is marked by a reverent gravity, and they take their seats in regular order, all maintaining a perfect silence.  No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and other utensils.  When any of these pure men(7) require food, they are not allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands.

Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of K’eeh-ch’a;(8) but Fa-hien and the others, wishing to see the procession of images, remained behind for three months.  There are in this country four(9) great monasteries, not counting the smaller ones.  Beginning on the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and water the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes and byways.  Over the city gate they pitch a large tent, grandly adorned in all possible ways, in which the king and queen, with their ladies brilliantly arrayed,(10) take up their residence (for the time).

The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in great reverence by the king, took precedence of all others in the procession.  At a distance of three or four le from the city, they made a four-wheeled image car, more than thirty cubits high, which looked like the great hall (of a monastery) moving along.  The seven precious substances(11) were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers and canopies hanging all around.  The (chief) image(12) stood in the middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas(13) in attendance upon it, while devas(14) were made to follow in waiting, all brilliantly carved in gold and silver, and hanging in the air.  When (the car) was a hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, changed his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his hands flowers and incense, and with two rows of attending followers,