Raw data
Fa Hien visited this monastery in 400 or 401 CE. he crossed over the Himalayas from the east through Gilgit into the Swat Valley. He says that there were, in all, 500 monasteries in the valley, under the patronage of the king, who was a Buddhist.
See Fa-hsien, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, (trans.) James Legge (New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp, reprint of the 1886 original edition, 1965), 28-29.
Src: Pakistan
Input by: Stewart Gordon, Nov 23, 2009
Fa-hsien visited Swat valley (Wu-chang country) where he found about 500 sangharamas, all of them belonging to the Theravada school. (Litvinskii et al. 1996:168)
Udyana
[烏仗那国] (Skt; Jpn Ujona-koku)
Also known as Uddiyana. A kingdom to the north of Gandhara in ancient India. It is thought to have been located in the region today known as Swat, the area of the Swat River valley in northwestern Pakistan. The capital of Udyana was at the site of present-day Mingaora, a town just east of the Swat River.
The Sokka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism
http://www.sgilibrary.org/search_dict.php?id=2522
"Udyana is the modern day Swat Valley, which is in Pakistan. The word Udyana in Sanskrit means garden or orchard. Udayana was a Buddhist region and the area is said to have supported 500 Theravada Buddhist monasteries. Buddha's footprints are found here. It is said that when Buddha came to North India, he came to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot. Udyana is of vital importance in the Vajrayana schools of Buddhism."
http://www.indianetzone.com/4/udyana.htm
"[T]he Swat valley was filled with fourteen hundred imposing and beautiful stupas and monasteries, which housed as many as 6,000 gold images of the Buddhist pantheon for worship and education. Archaeologists now know of more than 400 Buddhist sites covering an area of 160 km in Swat valley alone."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swat,_Pakistan
Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 20 km from the point defined by the coordinates below.
General location of the Udyana monastic cluster, Pakistan.
lat=34.7833 long=72.3667
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://maps.fallingrain.com), 2009.
Google Map link:
Final data - explanatory notes
1. Monastery's name
- Swat Valley monastic cluster - Legge (1965:28-29)
2. Monastery's modern country & province
- Pakistan:North-West Frontier Province
3. Monastery's alternative/historical names
- Woo-chang - Legge (1965:28-29)
4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates
- Approx. Lat 34.7833 Long 72.3667 http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/3/Mingaora.html
5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries
- Fa Hien says that there were 500 monasteries in the Swat Valley - Legge (1965:28-29)
6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village
7. The settlement's alternative/historical names
- Mingāora http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/3/Mingaora.html
- Mingora http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/3/Mingaora.html
8. The settlement's coordinates
- Exactly Lat 34.7833 Long 72.3667 http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/3/Mingaora.html
9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition
- Hinayana (Theravada) - Legge (1965:28-29)
10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition
final data ….
11. Date-early
final data ….
12. Date-intermediate
- 400 CE - Legge (1965:28-29)
13. Date-late
14. Details of contacts with other monasteries
final data ….
15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery
- Pilgrim account
16. Additional notes
final data (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)….
17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by
final data ….
end of page
