Record of the Western World by Hsüan Tsang
(extracted from Buddhist Pilgrimage, by Bro
Chan Khoon San)
The T’ang Dynasty Record of the Western World is an
objective record composed in twelve books by the famous
Chinese pilgrim Hsüan Tsang about his epic journey from
China to Central Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent and back
in 629-645 AD. It should not be confused with the popular
Chinese fiction Si-yü-ki or Travels to the West featuring
the adventures of the mythical Monkey God, which have been
made into films and TV shows for entertainment.
While Fa Hsien went to India to seek the Vinaya or
Monastic Rules, Hsüan Tsang’s purpose of going to India was
to learn from the wise men there on the points of doctrine
that were troubling his mind. When his application to leave
China was refused by the authorities, he departed in secret
from Chang’an (Xian) in 629 AD at the age of twenty-seven.
Heading up the Gansu corridor, he passed Lanzhou and worked
his way to the end of the Great Wall near Dunhuang. There he
took the northern branch of the Silk route passing through
Yumen Guan (Jade Gate Pass) and after crossing the Gobi
desert, arrived at Hami. There, he was summoned to Turfan,
the capital of the Uighur country, by its pious Buddhist
ruler to become the country’s chief priest, which Hsüan
Tsang declined. After failing in his attempt to detain Hsüan
Tsang, he remitted the pilgrim to Kara-shahr, from which he
advanced to Kucha.
Kucha was an oasis town on the edge of the desert,
famous for its excellent horses. The ground was rich in
minerals and its soil was suitable for agriculture. It had
one hundred monasteries with over five thousand
Sarvastivadin monks. All the monasteries had highly adorned
images of the Buddha, which were paraded on special
occasions in a procession of idol-carriages. In Kucha, the
king observed the Quinquennial Assembly, originally
instituted by King Asoka, whereby a great offering was made
to the Sangha every five years. Outside the main city gate,
Hsüan Tsang saw two erect figures of the Buddha, about 90
feet tall, and in front of them was a place erected
specially for this festival. After staying here for two
months, he continued his journey to Aksu and crossing the
snowy Tian Shan mountains, reached the shores of lake Issyk
Kul in Kyrgyzstan. This mountain lake, 5,200 feet above sea
level, is the second largest in the world covering an area
of 6,200 sq. km.
He then proceeded north-west along the fertile valley
of the Chu river passing the Kyrgyz lake-land area of
Myn-bulak, known as the “Thousand springs”. Moving westward,
he passed the Tartar town of Taras and the country of
Nujkend on the Chatkal range, and arrived at Tashkent in
Eastern Uzbekistan, which was then under the control of the
Tuh-kiueh (Huns or Eastern Turks). The next stop was
Samarkand, a very populous country located at the junction
of the trade routes between China and India. It was the
emporium of the Silk route where the merchants bartered
their goods, and according to Hsüan Tsang,
“The precious merchandise of many
countries is stored up here. Its inhabitants are skilful in
the arts and trades beyond those of other countries. The
people are brave and energetic and are copied by all
surrounding people in point of politeness and propriety.”
From Samarkand, the pilgrim proceeded to Kesh (Karshi)
and moving south, entered the mountains. After climbing the
steep and precipitous road, he arrived at the Iron Gate, a
mountain pass bordered on both sides by very high rocky
walls with an iron colour. Here double wooden doors had
been erected and many bells were fixed on them. The doors
were strengthened with iron and impregnable. Because of the
protection afforded to the pass when these doors were
closed, the pass was called Iron Gate. Passing Iron Gate, he
reached Tukhara, a country controlled by the Turks and
crossing the Oxus river (Amu Darya) near Termez, arrived at
Kunduz in Afghanistan. Here he met the eldest son of the
Turkish Khan, brother-in-law of the king of Turfan, from
whom Hsüan Tsang had letters of recommendation. After some
delay, he proceeded with some monks from Balkh to that
city, formerly capital of the Bactrian kingdom of Milinda.
It had about a hundred monasteries and three thousand monks.
After paying reverence to the sacred relics, he
departed from Balkh and made the difficult and dangerous
journey across the Hindu Kush mountains to Bamiyan. Here the
people worshipped the Triple Gem but still maintained a
hundred tutelary deities, which the merchants sought to
propitiate when business was bad. There were ten monasteries
with about a thousand monks of the Lokuttaravadin school.
Hsüan Tsang saw the two colossal Buddha images, about 55 and
35 metres tall, carved out of a mountain-side in the 4th
and 5th centuries AD, and mistook the smaller one to be
bronze due to its gilded surface. He also saw a large
reclining Buddha image and paid reverence to some tooth
relics. (Note: In an act of religious bigotry, the fanatical
Talibans of Afghanistan destroyed the ancient Buddha images
in 2001, despite worldwide protests and condemnations.)
Moving eastward, Hsüan Tsang entered the passes of the
Hindu Kush and crossing the Siah Koh ridge, arrived at the
country of Kapisa. It had one about hundred monasteries with
six thousand Mahayana monks and a great monastery with three
hundred monks of the Small Vehicle. There were also some ten
Deva temples with about a thousand Hindu ascetics of
various sects, such as naked ascetics (Digambaras), those
who covered their bodies with ashes (Pasupatas) and those
who wore chaplets of bones on their heads (Kapaladharinas).
Every year, the king would make a silver image of the Buddha
and offer alms to the poor, destitute and bereaved in his
kingdom. After spending the summer of 630 AD in Kapisa,
Hsüan Tsang went to Nagarahara (Jalalabad). Here he found
many monasteries but few monks. The stupas were desolate and
ruined. He visited the famous Naga Gopala cave, which
according to legend, once contained the shadow left by the
Buddha after he had tamed the naga (serpent). At the vihara
of the skull-bone relic, he found that the caretakers were
Brahmans appointed by the king and they charged the
worshippers a fee in order to see the relic.
From Nagarahara, the pilgrim entered Gandhara by the
Khyber Pass. Here he found the towns and villages deserted
with few inhabitants. There were about a thousand
monasteries, which were in ruins, overgrown with wild shrubs
and empty. The stupas were mostly decayed. At the capital,
Purushapura (Peshawar), there was only one monastery with
fifty Mahayana monks. However, the Deva temples numbering
about one hundred were fully occupied with heretics.
According to Hsüan Tsang,
“Centuries ago, there was a treacherous
Hun king from Sakala named Mahirakula, who killed his
benefactor, the king of Kashmir and usurped the throne. Then
he came to Gandhara and killed its ruler in an ambush. He
exterminated the royal family and the chief minister,
overthrew the stupas and destroyed the monasteries,
altogether one thousand six hundred foundations.”
Travelling north, the pilgrim arrived at Udyana, a
flourishing centre of Buddhism during the time of Fa Hsien.
But now, all its one thousand four hundred olden monasteries
lay waste and desolate. Formerly, there were some eighteen
thousand monks but now there were very few. After visiting
the shrines, he continued his journey to Takkasila (near
Rawalpindi). Here again, he saw the aftermath of the
devastation by the Hun king Mahirakula – many monasteries
destroyed and deserted. From Takkasila, he went to Kashmir
where Buddhism still prevailed. There were still a hundred
monasteries and five thousand monks. It appeared that after
the death of Mahirakula, his descendants, who then ruled
Kashmir, atoned for his misdeeds by erecting stupas and
monasteries for the Buddhists. At the capital Srinagar,
Hsüan Tsang spent two years (631-633 AD) studying philosophy
and copying the scriptures under a Mahayanist teacher.
From Kashmir, the pilgrim travelled south passing
Jammu and reached Sakala (Sialkot near Lahore), the seat of
the Bactrian king Milinda of old and of the infamous
Mahirakula of late. As he was leaving Sakala, he was robbed
by brigands and spent the night in a neighbouring village.
Moving on, he reached a large town, probably Lahore, where
he remained for a month. Then he went to stay a year in
Chinapati. In 634 AD, he travelled to Jalandhar and
reaching the Sutlej river, passed Satadru and Paryartra
before arriving at Mathura. Along the way, he could see the
decline of Buddhism and the rise of neo-Brahmanism of the
Gupta age. Mathura, a stronghold of Buddhism during the time
of King Asoka and centre of the Sarvastavadin school under
the famous monk Upagupta, was now a shadow of its past, with
only twenty monasteries and two thousand monks. After
visiting the local shrines, the pilgrim ascended the Yamuna
river to Kuru-kshetra (Thaneswar), the holy land of the
Hindus and scene of the legendary Mahabharata wars between
the Pandava brothers and the Kauravas, cousins as well as
bitter rivals. There were only three monasteries with about
seven hundred monks but one hundred Deva temples with great
numbers of various sectarians.
Travelling east, he reached the Ganges and following
its downward course, passed several towns where he noted
the rising tide of Brahmanism. He visited Sankasia and saw
the shrines associated with the Buddha’s descent from
Heaven. Next he went to Kanauj also known as Kanyakubja,
i.e., “city of the hump-backed women”, which King Harsha
Vardhana had made his capital. He did not meet the king, who
was away, but who later became his friend and patron. From
Kanauj, he went to Ayodha or Saketa, where the Mahayanist
teacher Vasubhandu composed his sastras or treatises and
reaching the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers,
arrived at Prayag (Allahabad). There were two monasteries
with few followers but many Deva temples with great numbers
of sectarians. At the confluence of the two rivers, Hsüan
Tsang saw hundreds of Hindu devotees drowning themselves in
the waters after fasting for seven days, in the belief that
this would wash away their sins and lead them to heaven. He
went to Kosambi and visited Ghositarama, now an old
habitation in ruins, which the rich merchant Ghosita had
built for the Buddha to stay in whenever he was in Kosambi.
Moving northwards, the pilgrim travelled to Sravasti
and visited Maheth, where he saw the Sudatta stupa marking
the site of Anathapindika’s house and beside it the
Angulimala stupa. At Saheth, he found Jetavana in ruins and
deserted. From Sravasti, he went to Kapilavastu, capital of
the old Sakyan kingdom; Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha;
Ramagama, which had been waste and desolate for many years;
and Kusinara, scene of the Buddha’s Mahaparinibbana.
Travelling south 500 li, through a great forest, he reached
Varanasi, the sacred city of the Hindus. There were about
thirty monasteries with three thousand monks but over a
hundred Deva temples with about ten thousand sectarians,
mostly Siva worshippers. At the Deer Park in Sarnath, he
visited a monastery with fifteen hundred monks of the
Sammitiya school and paid reverence at the shrines in the
vicinity. Following the course of the Ganges eastward to
Ghazipur, then north east, he arrived at the city of Vesali.
There were several hundred monasteries, which were mostly
dilapidated with very few monks. The city was in ruins and
practically deserted. He saw the Asokan pillar with a lion
capital on top and beside it, the stupa built by King Asoka.
Near the pillar was a pond dug by a band of monkeys for the
Buddha’s use and further south was a stupa marking the spot
where the monkeys, taking the Buddha’s bowl, climbed a tree
and gathered him some honey. Travelling north-west, he
passed the Vajjian country and went to Nepal. Then returning
to Vesali and crossing the Ganges, he arrived at the country
of Magadha.
Pataliputta (Patna), capital of the great Mauryan
empire during the time of King Asoka, was in decay. There
were fifty monasteries with about ten thousand monks, the
majority being Mahayanists. In the old city, Hsüan Tsang saw
hundreds of monasteries, Deva temples and stupas lying in
ruins. He also visited Kukkutarama monastery built by Asoka,
but the building had long been in ruins and only the
foundation walls remained. Travelling south, he passed the
Tiladaka vihara where learned men and scholars from
different countries came to study. Inside one building, he
saw images of Tara and Avalokitesvara beside an erect image
of the Buddha, an indication of the growing influence of
Tantrism. Moving on he reached the Neranjara river and
crossing it, arrived at Gaya. Here he visited Pragbodhi
where the Bodhisatta under-went six years’ austerities,
Sujata’s village, Uruvela forest and Bodhgaya, scene of
Buddha’s Enlightenment and holiest spot to all Buddhists.
Then he went to Rajagaha where he visited all the sacred
shrines, including Vulture Peak, Bamboo Grove, the hot
springs, Pippala stone house and Sattapanni caves, venue of
the First Buddhist Council.
He was in Nalanda around 635 AD and enrolled at the
famous Nalanda University, India’s premier Buddhist seat of
learning, to fulfill his purpose of coming to India and
learn from the wise men about Buddhism. Admission was based
on merit in which the gate-keeper, a responsible officer of
considerable learning, would ask some difficult questions
and the candidate had to answer them to his satisfaction.
Normally, out of ten candidates, seven or eight would fail
this screening test. Hsüan Tsang, who already had a solid
grounding of scholarship, was able to gain admission into
the University. Here he studied Yogacara philosophy under
the famous Mahayanist teacher Silabhadra. He also studied
Hindu philosophy and mastered the Sanskrit language. During
his residence in Nalanda, he distinguished himself by his
diligence and scholarship.
In 638 AD he interrupted his studies and travelled to
Champa (Bhagalpur) and West Bengal, ending up at Tamralipti,
where he intended to take ship to Sri Lanka and study the
Theravada doctrine. There he was told that the island was
within easy reach of South India. So he decided to travel by
land rather than take the risk of a long sea voyage. Moving
in a south-westerly direction he passed Orissa state, which
had some hundred monasteries with ten thousand Mahayanist
monks, and Kalinga where the heretics, mostly Niganthas
predominated. Then continuing the journey through Kosala
(the land of Nagarjuna, founder of the Madhyamika doctrine)
and Andhra, he reached Amaravati. There were numerous
monasteries but they were deserted and ruined. Of those
preserved, there were about twenty with a thousand monks of
the Mahayana tradition. He saw two establishments situated
on two cliffs, one in the east called Purvasaila (East
cliff), and the other on the west called Aparasaila (West
cliff). Both used to be inhabited by monks but were now
deserted and wild. After spending the rainy season of 639
AD in Amaravati, the pilgrim proceeded south passing the
country of Chola, which he described as
“…wild and deserted, a succession of
marshes and jungle, with a small population and troops of
brigands go through the country openly”.
Then, continuing south through a wild forest district
and travelling 1,500 li, he arrived at the country of
Dravida.
At the capital Kanchipuram (near Madras), there were
about a hundred monasteries with ten thousand Mahayanist
monks. Here he learned that Sri Lanka was facing unrest and
famine following the death of its ruler. So he gave up the
idea of going to the island. Moving northwards, he entered a
forest and passed many deserted villages where brigands
roamed in search of victims. After travelling 2,000 li
without incident, the pilgrim arrived at Konkanapura (Golconda
near Hyderabad), which had about a hundred monasteries with
ten thousand monks from both traditions. From Konkanapura,
he crossed a wild country, infested with wild beasts and
robbers, and arrived safely in the state of Maharashtra,
where he visited the famous rock-cut cave monasteries or
lenas at Ajanta. From Ajanta, he travelled to Valabhi around
641 AD passing Bharoch, Malava and Kachha. Valabhi was the
capital of the Maitraka kingdom in Gujerat and a famous
centre of learning and commerce. According to Hsüan Tsang:
“There were about a hundred families who
possess a hundred lakhs (millionaires). The rare and
valuable products of some distant regions are stored here in
great quantities.”
He visited a great monastery where two distinguished
Mahayana masters, Sthiramati and Gunamati had resided and
composed their treatises. Moving west, he passed Surashtra
and Gurjjara before arriving at Ujjain, the capital of
Avanti. There were scores of monasteries but they were
mostly in ruins and only three hundred monks remained.
Moving west, he travelled to Sindh where he saw several
hundred monasteries occupied by some ten thousand monks of
the Sammatiya school. Then moving north and crossing the
Indus river, he arrived at Multan. Here the believers and
monks were few. There were ten monasteries, all in ruins. At
this point, he decided to return to Nalanda as he had
visited most of the Buddhist shrines in India.
Back at Nalanda, Hsüan Tsang devoted his time fully to
the study of the Mahayana doctrines and participated in
philosophical debates. After acquiring an encyclopedic
learning, he was looking forward to returning to China and
spreading the new learning. The king of Assam, Kumara-raja,
heard about the Chinese master’s ability and invited him to
the capital Kamarupa in 643 AD. While Hsüan Tsang was there,
Kumara-raja received an order from his overlord, King Harsha
Vardhana, to bring the Chinese monk to see him at Kajinghara,
a small kingdom on the banks of the Ganges. At the meeting,
both men established a close relationship. Harsha Vardhana
invited Hsüan Tsang to his capital at Kanauj where he
convoked a religious assembly on the banks of the Ganges,
attended by the kings of twenty vassal states, together with
monks and Brahmans. Hsüan Tsang was appointed ‘Lord of the
Discussion’. For the next three weeks, Harsha would offer
food to the monks and Brahmans daily. After this, he would
carry a life-size golden image of the Buddha on his shoulder
up a tall tower, where he paid homage to the Triple Gem with
a great offering of silken garments decorated with precious
stones. On the last day, the heretics tried to sabotage the
assembly by setting fire to the tower and attempting to
assassinate the king in the resulting confusion. But the
attempt on Harsha’s life was foiled when the culprit was
caught by the king himself. He confessed that he was hired
by the heretics and Brahmans, who were jealous of the
reverence and honour accorded to the Buddhist monks by the
king. Thereupon the king punished the ringleader and
banished the Brahmans to the frontiers of India. After this,
Harsha took his honoured guest to Prayag, where he held the
Quinquennial festival in which he gave away all his wealth
accumulated over five years, following the example of King
Asoka.
After witnessing the ceremonies at Prayag, Hsüan Tsang
stayed for ten more days with Harsha and then started his
return journey to China. To ensure his safe passage to the
border, Harsha provided him with a military escort led by
Kumara-raja. He returned to China by the opposite direction
to which he came to India, by way of Jalandhar, Takkasila
and Nagarahara. Then crossing the Hindu Kush, he entered
northern Afghanistan. Moving in a north-west direction, he
reached Badakshan and traversing the mountains and valleys
of the Pamirs, passed several towns in Tajikistan.
