A Tribute to Xuanzang

Though the Buddha was born in the West, his Dharma has spread to the East. In the course of translation, mistakes may have crept into the texts, and idioms may have been misapplied. When words are wrong, the meaning is lost, and when a phrase is mistaken, the doctrine becomes distorted. So wrote Xuanzang (602 – 664 CE; aka Hiuen Tsang) in his book, Record of the Western Regions – about the reasons for his strenuous journey to the West – in search of something authentic and enlightening he held dearest to his heart. This is unique in the annals of human history – that perilous journeys after journeys were undertaken by devout Buddhist monks and travelers to get to the root of the Great Teachings of the Buddha (The Tathagata).
I am delighted to pay tribute to one of the greatest minds that made a significant contribution to the development of Buddha Dharma in the East. His accurate and detailed records of the culture and the Dharma – he witnessed in countries and regions he crossed on his East-West forward travel, and West-East return journey – stand out in details and accuracy to inspire future generations.
In the pleasant season of autumn in 2018, I along with my elder daughter Dipa visited the Dust of India that was happy to be trodden by the sacred feet of the Buddha. The pasted photos of the Xuanzang Memorial compound and hall in Rajgir-Nalanda – represent a spectacular image of stunning Chinese Architecture. Our travels were featured in Bodhgaya; Lumbini; Rajgir, Nalanda and Sarnath and Vaishali, Shravasti and Kushinagar. It was a pleasing experience to see that the statues of Xuanzang and Anagarika Dharmapala (1864 – 1933, another great Buddhist icon of modern times) – were honored in several temples and monasteries representing different cultures and countries.
This piece is built upon several website articles including: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Brook Larmer in National Geographic, June 2010; and T Sen 2006, The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing, Education About Asia, 11(3). In addition, the essence of this piece can best be appreciated when read with other WIDECANVAS articles: The Fundamental Laws of Nature; Something Different; The Tathagata; Enlightenment, Emptiness and Nirvana with links to others in the Website Links and Profile.
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Before moving on to Xuanzang – here is a short brief on the other two great Chinese travelers – Faxian and Yijing.
Faxian’s (337 – 422 CE aka Fa-Hsien) travel to the West in 399 CE precedes Xuanzang’s. His forward travel to India was through the formidable land route – the Silk Road via Central Asia – where he visited Buddhist establishments in . . . Dunhuang > Loulan > Karashahr > Khotan > Tashkurghan > Jalalabad > Taxila > India. The return back travel via sea route started at Tamralipti on the Indian eastshore – taking him to see Buddhist establishments in Sri Lanka > Palembang, Indonesia > and back to China. In his book, A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, he outlined that the main purpose of his travel – was to find the authentic source of the Buddhist monastic rules or Vinaya.

• About the famous oasis city of Khotan on the outskirt of Taklamakan Dessert, he wrote: Throughout the country, the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope (i.e. pagoda) reared in front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more, They make (in monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters, the use of which is given to traveling monks who may arrive, and are provided with whatever else they require.
• His travel descriptions included: the Shakya Kingdom at Kapilavastu, Buddha’s birth place Lumbini, Mahaparinirvana at Kusinagra . . . in Peshawar he witnessed veneration of Buddha’s alms-bowl . . . in his two-years stay in Sri Lanka he witnessed the elaborate ceremony in veneration of Buddha’s tooth relic. His descriptions are thought to have generated renewed interests in the practices of collecting and venerating Buddha relics in China, East Asia and other far-flung countries.

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Yijing’s (635 – 713 CE) travel to India in the period between 671 and 695 CE – closely followed Xuanzang’s – but via a to-and-fro sea route. The eastshore point in India was Tamralipti < > Kedah in Malaysia < > Srivijaya in Indonesia < > with the starting and end shore point in China at Guangzhou. His two works of travel are:

• The Record of Buddhism As Practiced in India – Sent Home from the Southern Seas. In it he wrote: if you read this Record of Mine, you may, without moving one step, travel in all the five countries of India . . . My real hope and wish is to represent the Vulture Peak in the Small Rooms [peak of Mount Song] of my friends, and to build a second Rajagrha City in the Divine Land of China. It is at the Vulture Peak in Rajgir where Prajnaparamita Sutta (The Perfection of Wisdom Discourse) was delivered by the Buddha. There is a World Peace Pagoda and a Japanese Temple at the peak. Visitors take cable cars to reach the peak – that opens up a beautiful vista of serene valleys down below and distant hill tops.
• The other is: Memoirs of Eminent Monks Who Visited India and Neighboring Regions in Search of the Law during the Great Tang Dynasty. This record says that some 56 Chinese monks traveled to India in search of the Dharma in the 7th century. In it, he described and compared the monastic rules and practices of India and China.

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The Illustrious Xuanzang
This great monk took the perilous journey to West in 627 CE to personally witness the practices of the Buddha Dharma in the lands of its birth. In his pursuit, he visited sacred Buddhist sites – and brought back authentic Buddhist texts for the benefit of Chinese society. In the process, he observed and noted in detail – local customs, culture, and governance system of the countries he visited – and compared them with his own country. He was received in royal courts with honor – and his depth of the knowledge of Buddha Dharma had been received with great admiration and respect.
He traveled extensively in India and lived there for nearly 15 years. He lamented the existence of caste-based fragmented social system in parts of India – the Hindu Varna superiority-inferiority complex in Indian societies – a country where the compassionate Buddha was born. He witnessed in great sadness, how the lowest castes were obliged to avoid roads, drinking-water-wells and other places of amenities – frequented by higher hierarchical castes – the Brahmins and Kshatriyas. This observation indicates that different regions of India were still living in the dark periods of very rigid Varna discriminatory practices. Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861 – 1941) dance drama Chandalika is one such portrayal of Varna cruelty - and of the serene compassion and assurance of a Buddhist monk, who said to the lowest-caste girl: you are as much a human like me and others.
During the Sui Dynasty (589 – 618 CE) and Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 CE), when Xuanzang lived, Chinese Buddhist Schools were sophisticated, and monasteries were numerous, rich and powerful. Buddhism was also strong in India, Central Asia and what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His to-and-fro travel along the treacherous land route – the Silk Road, a well-known network of routes of travelers and merchants among Asian countries – was one of bravery and unwavering pursuit and motivation. His forward journey to the land of Buddha’s birth took him to places: Changan > Liangzhouh > Anxi > Hami > Turfan > Agni > Kucha > Aksu > Tashkent > Samarkand > Balkh > Bamiyan > Kapsi > Taxila > Sakala > Kanauj. His return journey to China was a somewhat different route: Balkh > Kashgar > Yarkand > Khotan > Nlya > Luolan > Dunhuang > Changan. His extensive visits and stay in India took him to Multan, Ujjain, Ajanta, Nasik, Kanchipuram, Dhanakataka, Tamralipti, Pataliputra, Vaishali, Lumbini, Sravasti, Mathura, Kausambi, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Rajgir-Nalanda. He took residence and studied at the world’s second earliest university at Nalanda under the patronage of King Harshavardhana (606 – 647 CE) and the university chief abbot Ven Silabhadra. This scholar also taught at the university – and continued teaching there until the time of his return journey back to China. It is said that he became victorious in each episodes of Dharma debates he participated. Such practices are common among the members of Buddhist monastic community or Shanga.
His book, Record of the Western Regions Visited During the Great Tang Dynasty has been a rich resource for historians and archeologists all over the world. It comes with meticulous details and accounts of the Buddhist World – he saw in his to-and-fro travel route between the two great civilizations. According to it: in Turfan king Chu Wen-tai – a pious Buddhist himself – wanted to retain Xuanzang so badly – he threatened to put him to prison, unless Xuanzang agrees to his request. Seeing no other way, Xuanzang had to resort to hunger strike to persuade the King to let him go.
Brook Larmer wrote in an article in the National Geographic 2010 [cited in: Xuanzang the Great Chinese Explorer-Monk Facts and Details]: What kept Xuanzang going, he wrote in his famous account of the journey, was another precious item carried along the Silk Road: Buddhism itself. Other religions surged along this same route – Manichaeism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and later, Islam – but none influenced China so deeply as Buddhism, whose migration from India began sometime in the first three centuries A.D. The Buddhist texts Xuanzang carted back from India and spent the next two decades studying and translating would serve as the foundation of Chinese Buddhism and fuel the religion’s expansion.
When he reached Kanauj in around 637 CE – the capital of King Harshavardhana’s empire in Northern India – that extended from Bengal in the East to Punjab in the West to Gujrat in the Southwest – he saw peace and prosperity in the empire. His audience with the king was full of accounts of admiration of Harsha’s rule. He narrated the practices of Tang Dynasty ruler Taizong, of whom Harsha was aware of, as: He has reduced taxes and mitigated punishments. The country has surplus revenue and nobody attempts to violate the laws. As to his moral influence and profound edification of the people, it is exhausting to narrate in detail. King Harsha responded, Excellent! The people of your land must have performed good deeds in order to have such a saintly lord. The exchanges showed the mutual admiration between the Indian and Chinese dynasties – and indeed, Xuanzang played the role of an able monk diplomat – that paved the way to establish a relationship of Buddhist and diplomatic exchanges between them.
In reply to a question about the reasons for returning back to China – posed to him by a Nalanda University scholar, he replied: The King of the Dharma (i.e. The Buddha) has founded his teachings and it is proper for us to propagate them. How can we forget about those who are not yet enlightened while we have gained the benefit in our own minds? In this reply he essentially upheld the duties of a monk – the Bodhisattva Ideal: Gate-Gate-Paragate-Parasamgate-Bodhi-Svaha. He reasoned that China was a civilized land with laws, principled officials, and cultured people.
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Xuanzang Legacy

• It is impossible to look back at the extent of Buddhist World without consulting Xuanzang travel records. It ranks as one of the most important and essential documents – an indispensable guide for historians and archeologists – pursuing the exploration and understanding of the extent and glory of Buddha Dharma in Asia in 7th century CE. And, for that matter, to anyone interested to rediscover and understand their past illustrious glory and tradition.
• His popularity in China and abroad led to the creation of many fictional stories and movies. An extensively popular Chinese novel is written based on his travels, Xiyouji (Journey to the West). A Chinese-Indian historical adventure film, Da Tang Xuan Zang (lead character portrayed by Huang Xiaoming) released in 2016 – chronicles the 17-year journey of this great monk. It was directed by Huo Jianqi and produced by Wong Kar-wai.
• His other legacy lies in expounding the Yogacara School of Buddhism – which was the focus of Nalanda University curricula while Xuanzang was there. This school of Buddhism essentially says: . . . the object is not all what it seems . . . the object is only a mode of consciousness. Its appearance although objective and external is in fact the transcendental illusion, because of which consciousness is bifurcated into the subject-object duality. Consciousness is creative and its creativity is governed by the illusive idea of the object . . . An apt concordance of it with Nature says, A seed produces a manifestation – A manifestation perfumes a seed – The three elements (seed, manifestation, and perfume) turn on and on – The cause and effect occur at one and at the same time. This saying is another way of elucidating the Universal Law of Paticca-Samupadha – the Buddha taught (see more in The Fundamental Laws of Nature).
• The legacy of Xuanzang was immortalized in The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda with the associated complex of The Temple of Great Happiness in southern Xian, Shaanxi, China – a World Heritage Site declared in 2014. It was built by Tang Dynasty Emperor Gaozong (649 – 683 CE) shortly after the return of Xuanzang. Granting his wish – the emperor built the pagoda to facilitate the translation of many texts (some 657) into Chinese – as well as to house and enshrine many Buddha statues brought by him. Xuanzang spent his last years in this pagoda translating the Buddhist texts, propagating the Dharma and training monks.
• Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian (624 – 705 CE) rebuilt the pagoda in 704 CE, and more repairs and renovations were implemented during the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The present height of the pagoda stands at 64 m.
• In Mao Zedong’s (1893 – 1976) Great Leap Forward call to people to destroy the Four Olds – Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas during the 1966 – 1976 Cultural Revolution – a great uncertainty and confusion engulfed Chinese society. This call essentially attempted to remove traces of the Chinese national identity - its history, glories and traditions. Only heaven knows what motivated this great leader to declare such a horrific thing. World is fortunate that this wrong policy did not last long.
• In present day China, in efforts to restore the traditional glories of the past – and following its world heritage declaration – the pagoda has seen massive renovation and expansion.
• In celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861 – 1941) visit to Northern China, the Global Times wrote a remembrance in an article on August 4, 2024. Apart from visiting Jinci Buddhist temple in Shanxi, on 23 May 1924, Tagore gave a speech to a packed crowd in a hall at Wenying Lake Park in Taiyuan . . . "China and India are both ancient countries of the East. And the cultural relationship between China and India also started very early, so when I came to China, it was like I was going to a second home” . . . Tagore also compared "locusts" to imperialism, and deeply criticized imperialism for oppressing China and India and other weak and small countries through forced "Western material civilization," . . . "making the most beautiful world extremely ugly and the most harmonious world extremely tense." . . . "All those who have been conquered, oppressed, and lost their lives should unite to restore the originally beautiful world to a harmonious and life-filled world, and to take back our lives"

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The Koans of this piece:
What and who deserve admiration and respect most – something that can do things better than yours – someone who can do things better than you. Consciously or unconsciously an agitated and unguarded mind has subjective taints in perceiving things – so much so that the true nature of such things gets masked by the projection of the observer’s state of mind – therefore, when awaken the observer begins to wonder where is Ekti Kunri Duti Pata Ratanpur Bagichai?

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- by Dr. Dilip K. Barua, 12 October 2023

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