In commenting on A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, I noted that the Chinese Mahāyāna monk Fa-hien noticed stupas dedicated to past pratyekabuddhas during his 5th century tour of India. James Legge, the Cambridge scholar who translated Fa-hien’s account into English in 1886, said the presence of the stupas dedicated to pratyekabuddhas was evidence that these pratyekabuddhas were known to primitive Buddhism, something other Western scholars had questioned.

Recently I’ve been reading “The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet,” which was written by the 14th century Tibetan scholar Bu-ston and translated into English by Eugene Obermiller in 1932.

Note this explanation of what became of the Pratyekabuddhas:

Twelve years before the Bodhisattva was to enter (his mother’s) womb, the sons of the gods belonging to the Pure Region, having miraculously assumed the form of Brāhmaṇas, proclaimed aloud that if (the Bodhisattva) would be conceived in the womb —in the way that is to be described below — he would become a universal monarch or a Buddha, endowed with the characteristic features and marks (of the super-man)! And (other similar gods) addressed the Pratyekabuddhas (in Jambudvipa) as follows: “In 12 years the Bodhisattva will become conceived in the womb; therefore you must abandon this land (since there is nothing more for you to do here).” This was heard by the Pratyekabuddha Mātaṅga, who was abiding on the hill Golāṅgulaparivartana, near Rājagṛha, and he passed away into Nirvāṇa, having left his footprints on a stone. At Vārāṇasi, 500 Pratyekabuddhas gave themselves up to the element of fire. And, after (they were consumed and) had passed away, their ashes fell (on the earth). Thence from that place received the name of Ṛṣipatana, “the place where the Sages fell.”

The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, page 1

Were these the Pratyekabuddhas honored by the stupas Fa-hien visited? If so, does that mean Pratyekabuddhas only exist in places where no Buddha exists?