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Note on Siṃhala
by Zeng He
The country of Siṃhala, known as the Land of Lions in olden times, and
also called the Country of No Sorrow, is south of India. It is also called the
Precious Island because it produces many rare gems. Śākyamuni Buddha
once transformed himself into a man named Siṃhala and he was made king
by the people of the country, as he was a person who possessed all virtues.
Therefore it was also called the country of Siṃhala. With his great supernatural
powers he destroyed the great iron city, annihilated the
rākṣasī
s, and rescued
the victims who were in peril. He then constructed a capital city and built
towns to convert and guide the local people. After having propagated the
right teaching he passed away, leaving a tooth behind in this country. It is
adamantine and will last for many
kalpa
s without being damaged. It emits
a precious light like that of a brilliant star, or like the moon shining in the
night or the sun brightening the daytime. Whenever a prayer is said to [the
tooth relic] it responds as swiftly as an echo. In times of natural disaster an
earnest prayer will bring instant divine auspiciousness. What is now called
the Mountain of Ceylon was the country of Siṃhala in ancient times. Beside
the royal palace is a temple for the Buddha’s tooth relic, decorated with
various gems and shining with great brilliance. It has been worshiped from
generation to generation without negligence.
The reigning king A lie ku nai er (Bhuvanaikabāhu V, r. 1372–1408
C.E.
)
is a native of Soḷī. He is a brutal and tyrannical ruler who worships heretics,
does not venerate the Triple Gem, has no feeling of pity for his people, and
blasphemes the Buddha’s tooth relic.
In the third year of the Yongle period (1405
C.E.
) of the great Ming dynasty,
the Emperor dispatched the eunuch Zheng He as an imperial envoy to send
incense and flowers to that country and make offerings [to the tooth relic].
Zheng He exhorted King Bhuvanaikabāhu V to respect Buddhism and stay
away from heretics. The king was enraged and intended to kill the envoy.
Having got wind of the intrigue, Zheng He fled. Later he was again sent to
bestow gifts on various foreign countries and visited the king of the Mountain
of Ceylon, who was all the more arrogant and disrespectful and attempted
to kill him. The king mobilized fifty thousand troops to fell trees to obstruct
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Note on Siṃhala
the road and sent a contingent to ransack the seagoing vessels. At that point
a subordinate official leaked the secret and Zheng He and his men, having
realized the situation, immediately tried to return to their ships. The road had
been cut off so they could only secretly send some men out, but the captors
of the ships would not allow them to board. Zheng He, commanding three
thousand soldiers, made an assault by a shortcut at night and took possession
of the royal city.
The native troops that had captured the ships joined forces with the native
soldiers on land and launched a counterattack from all four sides. They
besieged the royal city with a tight encirclement and fought for six days.
Zheng He and his men captured the king and opened the city gate, and, after
cutting down trees to make a passage, they retreated while fighting. Going
for more than twenty
li,
they reached the ships in the evening. They brought
the Buddha’s tooth relic on board with due ceremony. It emitted a brilliant
light in a most unusual manner, as mentioned above, and a peal of thunder
rumbled with such a loud crash that people saw the lightning from a great
distance and hid themselves. The ships sailed on the great sea without encoun-
tering a windstorm [and they were as safe] as if they were walking on dry
land. Ferocious dragons and mischievous fishes emerged before the ships
but caused no harm. All the people on board the ships were safe and happy.
On the ninth day of the seventh month in the ninth year of Yongle (1411
C.E.
) they returned to the capital. The Emperor ordered that a precious diamond
seat be prepared in the imperial city for the tooth relic, in order to make offer-
ings to it for the benefit of living beings and the welfare of the people, so
that they might perform countless meritorious deeds.
313
Translator’s Introduction
315
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