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Xuanzang: Journey to the West

Xuanzang, a famous Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled to India to study Buddhist scripts in early Tang Dynasty, graces the cover of this book. In the picture, he is dressed as an ancient backpacker, with sandals and a bamboo backpack that looks heavy. His journey to India was unbelievably long and arduous even by today’s standards.

Xuanzang travelled across the Tarim Basin via the northern route through Turfan, Kucha, Tashkent, Samarkand, Bactria, and then over the Hindu Kush to India. He departed Xi’an, the Tang capital in AD 629, returning 16 years later. During his journey, he suffered great hardships and danger. He once lost his way in the desert and almost died of thirst. Another time, he was forced to stay in a small kingdom and had to go on a hunger strike to demonstrate his will.

When Xuanzang returned from India, the emperor held a big ceremony for him in Xi’an. Xuanzang made a proposal to build a pagoda to store the scriptures and statues he had collected and brought back. The emperor agreed and built the famous Big Goose Pagoda for him. The pagoda was dedicated to a goose, which sacrificed itself to testify to the truth told by Buddha. Big Goose Pagoda still exists today. It is now a popular tourist site in Xi'an, with a statue of Xuangzang standing in front of it.

Xuanzang lived near the pagoda and spent the rest of his life translating sutras in Sanskrit into Chinese. At the request of the Tang emperor, he wrote down a description of the lands through which he travelled in Records of the Western World of the Great Tang Dynasty (大唐西域记), an important historical, geographical and cultural record of that time.

The amazing adventure of Xuanzang later inspired a great mythological fiction in China, Pilgrimage to the West (西游记), written by Wu Cheng’en in the 1570s during the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644). It inspired countless novels, movies, plays, and TV programmes. His journey to the west has become the most beloved story in Chinese history, which has been passed, followed, and imitated by generations.