Hiuen Tsang
Hiuen Tsang spent seventeen years travelling from China to India and back in the seventh century CE, at the time of the Tang dynasty emperor Taizong. His adventures inspired Wu Ch’en-en’s sixteenth century novel, Journey to the West, which refers to India as ‘Buddha’s pure land’.
An azure pool winds around the monasteries, adorned with the full-blown cups of the blue lotus; the dazzling red flowers of the lovely kanaka hang here and there, and outside groves of mango trees offer the inhabitants their dense and protective shade.
—Hiuen Tsang on Nalanda
i
A half-monk at thirteen
restless to find the truth
one night I saw in my dream
an azure pool
a blue lotus
dazzling red flowers
thick mango groves
wrinkled face of a Bhikchhu
I set out for Yintu
secretly escaping the Middle Kingdom
at night, like the young Siddhartha
against the Emperor’s diktats
I travelled alone for years
a fakir along the Silk Road
hungry, naked but blessed
crossing Gobi, Tien Shan,
Samarkand, Jalandhar, Kashmir,
Kannauj, Varanasi, Patliputra
On my way I met kings and queens
saw blossoming monasteries;
decaying, crumbling ruins
Finally, I found Nalanda
hidden as a jewel
under the thick mango groves
Silbhadra had always known
I would come to Nalanda
as a bee comes to a flower seeking nectar
He took me in as one of his own
taught me Yogacara
and gave me a new name, Mokshadeva
Spending many blissful years
with the Guru and fellow monks
I absorbed their profound wisdom
set out to travel across the moon land
visiting Kanchipuram, Ajanta, Malva, Multan
Nostalgic, I returned to Nalanda
before bidding a final farewell
to head for Kamrupa, the land of Brahmaputra
ruled by the learned Kumar Bhaskar Varman
but my friend King Harshavardhan
could not bear my absence for long
I was brought to attend the Great Assembly at Kannauj
extolled Mahayana Buddhism there, visited Prayag
then journeyed home, my horses laden with texts
statues, rare relics of the Enlightened
I nearly drowned crossing the Indus
washed away by its mighty currents
but was saved by local fishermen
Continuing my journey back
passing Khyber, Kashgar, Khotan,
arriving in Chang’an where
a great procession celebrated my return
the Emperor himself at the city gates
welcomed me with open arms
showered on me
the highest honours of the land
but gently I refused them all
I presented Emperor Taizong
my Great Tang Records (On Western Regions)
and retired to the monastery at Da Ci’en
translating precious gems
gathered on my odyssey
to the Buddha’s pure land.
ii
Hieun Tsang
come back to Nalanda
King Harsha is long gone
but here is a new dawn
Hieun Tsang
it won’t take you seventeen years
you don’t have to cross
Gobi or Tien Shan
Hiuen Tsang
the prince of pilgrims
you don’t have to stop
at Liangzhu or Turpan
Hiuen Tsang
take a non-stop flight
from Beijing to Bodh Gaya
straight to the pure land
Nalanda has risen from its ashes
to embrace you once again
with open arms
Rise like a phoenix
Hiuen Tsang
bring along I-tsing and Faxian
come back to Nalanda
Hiuen Tsang
Notes:
Yintu or Indu (land of the moon), was the name by which India was known in China.
I-tsing and Faxian were other prominent Chinese travellers to India, respectively 673–695 and 399–412 CE.
Hiuen Tsang studied Yogacara (pure consciousness) at the famous Nalanda University under the guidance of the abbot Silbhadra. He was fêted by King Harshavardhana and returned to China with over 600 Buddhist texts and more than a hundred relics of the Buddha’s body. He then recounted his adventures in The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions.
The Great Assembly at Kannauj: In 643 CE Harsha summoned an assembly, the object of which was to take advantage of the presence of Hiuen Tsang to extol Mahayana Buddhism and refute Hinayana. Hiuen Tsang at Nalanda had written The Destruction of Heresy – a refutation of Hinayana. A large number of kings attended the assembly, as well as 3,000 Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhist monks, 3,000 Brahmanas and Jains and about 1,000 Buddhist scholars from Nalanda University.
Nalanda is considered the oldest university in the world and an important seat of Buddhist learning. Destroyed in the twelfth century, Nalanda was forgotten until the late 1800s. Excavated in the early twentieth century with the help of Hiuen Tsang’s writings, Nalanda University has been revived as an international centre for learning. In 2014 it began to function again as a university.
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