Posted on: 29 December 2011

Xuanzang's (Hiuen Tsiang) Record of the Western Regions

(Book One)
Composed by the Buddhist pilgrim in 646 at the request of the Tang Emperor
Translated by Samuel Beal (1884)

Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled across the Tarim basin via the northern route, Turfan, Kucha, Tashkent, Samarkand, Bactria, then over the Hindu Kush to India. He departed the Tang capitol (Chang'an) in 629 and returned via the southern route in 645. The remainder of his life was spent translating into Chinese the sutras which he had collected in India. At the request of the Tang Emperor Taizong (r.626-649) he composed a description of the lands through which he traveled. After his death, his travels and story became fantastic legends which were used in plays and novels. The following text constitutes Book One of his description. It is taken from the translation of Samuel Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World (London: Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1884).

Read more :
http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/xuanzang.html


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Are there any recent translations available?

Shekhar Sathe : Just posted !

"Chasing the Monk's Shadow" by Mishi Sharan is an interesting book on this topic. Mishi followed in Xuanzang's footsteps to the fabled oasis cities of China and Central Asia , and buddhist sites and now vanished kingdoms in India, Pakistan and Afganistan that Xuanzang wrote about. A gripping chronicle which travels seamlessly back and forth in time between the 7th century and 21st.