Xuanzang's pilgrimage
pilgrimage · 629 AD–645 AD
The Buddhist monk Xuanzang left Chang'an in 629 against an imperial ban on travel, crossed the Taklamakan, the Tian Shan and the Hindu Kush to India, studied at Nalanda, and returned in 645 with 657 texts he spent the rest of his life translating. His own record, the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, and a biography by his disciple Huili are the sources for the route. The overland route to and from India is well established; dates inside India are reconstructions that differ by several years between scholars. The journey inspired the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, in which a fictionalised Xuanzang (Tang Sanzang) travels with the Monkey King.
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Recorded boundaries
| Period | Control | Confidence | Evidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 629 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Set out from Chang'an. Reached Liangzhou → Guazhou. Left without permission: the Tang court had forbidden travel beyond the frontier. Slipped past the Yumen watchtowers at night and nearly died of thirst in the desert beyond. |
| 630 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Gaochang → Kucha → Suyab → Samarkand → Balkh → Bamiyan. King Qu Wentai tried to keep him at court, then sent him on with letters of introduction, an escort and supplies. Waited about two months for snow to clear from the mountain passes. Received by Tong Yabghu, khagan of the Western Turks, whose protection eased the rest of the way through Central Asia. Described the colossal standing Buddhas, destroyed in 2001. |
| 631 AD–635 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Kashmir. Stayed about two years studying with the monks of Kashmir. |
| 636 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Kannauj. |
| 637 AD–639 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Bodh Gaya → Nalanda. Studied at the great monastic university under its abbot Śīlabhadra. Estimates of when he arrived range from 633 to 637. |
| 640 AD–641 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Kanchipuram. Hoped to sail on to Sri Lanka, but turned back on news of unrest there. |
| 642 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Nalanda. |
| 643 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Kannauj → Prayag. Invited by King Harsha to a great assembly, where he defended Mahayana doctrine. Attended Harsha's great distribution of gifts at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, then set out for home. |
| 644 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Indus crossing → Kashgar → Khotan. A boat overturned crossing the Indus and some of his manuscripts and seeds were lost. Wrote to Emperor Taizong asking forgiveness for leaving illegally, and waited here for months for the reply welcoming him home. |
| 645 AD | — | high confidence | no observation date recorded | Reached Chang'an. Welcomed back by crowds, and by the emperor who had forbidden him to go. He brought 657 texts and spent his remaining nineteen years translating them. |
Each row is a snapshot the source recorded, not a continuous history. The period between two observations is an inference this atlas shows rather than hides.
Sources
- Huili; translated by Samuel Beal, The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, (1911)
- Sally Hovey Wriggins, Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road, (1996)
- Xuanzang; translated by Samuel Beal, Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, (1884)