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UdyanaUdyāna (Sanskrit, meaning garden or orchard; Chinese pinyin: wu chang, also romanized as Woo-chang) was a Buddhist region in northern India, delimited in part by the Indus river and to the south by a region known as Soo-ho-to. Prakrit was spoken. The area is said to have supported some 500 Theravada Buddhist monasteries, at which travelling monks were provided lodgings and food for three days. It is said Buddha's footprint could be found there, a rock on which he dried his clothes and a place where he 'converted' a Naga. Udyāna is of vital importance in the Vajrayana schools of Buddhism, as most of the later tantras are identified as originating there. Udyāna is the modern day Swat Valley in Pakistan - still a beautiful place to visit. Fa Xian wrote: "There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder. It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day." (This footprint can still be seen today, in the upper Swat valley, at Lat/Long:35.1316,72.459). References * Fa Xian, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms (James Legge translation), Chapter 8. (Online at the University of Adelaide Library)
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