The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (W.M. Keck Foundation Series)

Description

This is an account of the travels in Central Asia and India of the seventh-century Chinese scholar-monk Xuanzang. An epoch-making figure in the history of Chinese Buddhism, the Master had a strong impulse to solve theoretical uncertainties by searching for the missing, untranslated original Sanskrit texts, particularly the Yogacara-bhumi-sastra . Violating a government ban on emigration, he slipped out of the empire without official permission. During his sojourn of sixteen years in India, he studied the said sastra and other texts under the tutelage of the Venerable Silabhadra. He visited all the important Buddhist sites and ruins, enjoyed great popularity in India through his learning as an outstanding Buddhist scholar and won the support of the reigning monarchs such as Siladitya and others of India. Upon his return, he was requested by the Emperor to write a book about the journey for his reference. The Record was completed in 646 C.E., the year after his return to the capitol. It was appended some seven hundred years after the time of Xuanzang to include Zheng He's visit to Sri Lanka during the reign of Emperor Chengzu (r. 1403-24) of the Ming dynasty. The Record has been of great value to Western historians and archaeologists, who used it to fill in certain gaps in the history of India and locate the sites of India's former glories. With its exact descriptions of distances and locations of different places, the Record served as a guidebook for the excavation and rediscovery of such important ancient sites as the old city of Rajagrha, the Temple of the Deer Park at Sarnath, the grottoes of Ajanta, the ruins of the well-known Nalanda Monastery in Bihar, etc. Thus it is not merely a book to be studied by students of Buddhism, but also a substantial and interesting book of reference, providing rich information about medieval India for the general reader. Review: Worth it, valuable addition to any collection - I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Xuanzang traveled for 16 years in India, during which he visited 110 countries and heard accounts of 28 countries. This is an extensive report of these countries, compiled for Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The account includes information on the geography, crops, culture, relics, monasteries, and Buddhist holy sites of many kingdoms. Not only that, he retells several legends of the likes of kings, dragons, demons, and so on. I found it simply fantastic and a marvel, although some parts may be slow or a little confusing. The translation is superbly written. There is a small glossary and a full index in the back of the book. However, the book has so many Buddhist terms and figures that sometimes it was hard to understand. I wish that there had been footnotes with further explanation, and some maps and images to supplement the information. Note that this is a report on the conditions of many countries. It is primarily told from a neutral viewpoint. At first I thought that it would be more of a personal diary of his journey--it is not. Clearly, he suffered many hardships, as he briefly mentioned encountering dangerous wild animals and gangs of bandits. But he doesn't go into detail about it. I believe that his biography may have more details about his personal journey: "A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty (BDK English Tripitaka)". Review: Five Stars - Good!