other utensils. When any of these pure men 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; but Fa-hien and the others, wishing to see the
procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in
this country four 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, take up their residence for the time.

The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in
greatest reverence by the king, took precedence of all the others in the
procession. At a distance of three or four li 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 [3] were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers
and canopies hanging all around. The chief image stood in the middle of
the car, with two Bodhisattvas [4] in attendance on it, while devas 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, went out at the gate to meet the image;
and, with his head and face bowed to the ground, he did homage at its
feet, and then scattered the flowers and burnt the incense. When the
image was entering the gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her
in the gallery above scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which
floated about and fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way
everything was done to promote the dignity of the occasion. The
carriages of the monasteries were all different, and each one had its
own day for the procession. The ceremony began on the first day of the
fourth month, and ended on the fourteenth, after which the king and
queen returned to the palace.

Seven or eight li to the west of the city there is what is called the
King's new monastery, the building of which too