Question

short note on Buddhist pilgrim Xuan Zang

Answer 1

Xuanzang, Wade-Giles romanization Hsüan-tsang, original name Chen Yi, honorary epithet San-tsang, also called Muchatipo, Sanskrit Mokshadeva, or Yuanzang, (born 602, Goushi, Luozhou, now Yanshi, Henan province, China—died 664, Chang’an, now Xi’an, China), Buddhist monk and Chinese pilgrim to India who translated the sacred scriptures of Buddhism from Sanskrit into Chinese and founded in China the Buddhist Consciousness Only school. His fame rests mainly on the volume and diversity of his translations of the Buddhist sutras and on the record of his travels in Central Asia and India, which, with its wealth of detailed and precise data, has been of inestimable value to historians and archaeologists.


Born into a family in which there had been scholars for generations, Xuanzang received a classical Confucian education in his youth, but under the influence of an older brother he became interested in the Buddhist scriptures and was soon converted to Buddhism. With his brother he traveled to Chang’an and then to Sichuan to escape the political turmoil that gripped China at that time. While in Sichuan, Xuanzang began studying Buddhist philosophy but was soon troubled by numerous discrepancies and contradictions in the texts. Not finding any solution from his Chinese masters, he decided to go to India to study at the fountainhead of Buddhism. Being unable to obtain a travel permit, he left Chang’an by stealth in 629. On his journey he traveled north of the Takla Makan Desert, passing through such oasis centres as Turfan, Karashar, Kucha, Tashkent, and Samarkand, then beyond the Iron Gates into Bactria, across the Hindu Kush (mountains) into Kapisha, Gandhara, and Kashmir in northwest India. From there he sailed down the Ganges River to Mathura, then on to the holy land of Buddhism in the eastern reaches of the Ganges, where he arrived in 633.

In India, Xuanzang visited all the sacred sites connected with the life of the Buddha, and he journeyed along the east and west coasts of the subcontinent. The major portion of his time, however, was spent at the Nalanda monastery, the great Buddhist centre of learning, where he perfected his knowledge of Sanskrit, Buddhist philosophy, and Indian thought. While he was in India, Xuanzang’s reputation as a scholar became so great that even the powerful king Harsha, ruler of North India, wanted to meet and honour him. Thanks largely to that king’s patronage, Xuanzang’s return trip to China, begun in 643, was greatly facilitated.

Answer 2

The Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Fa Xian, came to the subcontinent about 1600 years ago, Xuan Zang and I-Qing, came about 50 years after Xuan Zang. They came to visit places associated with the life of the Buddha as well as famous monasteries.

Each of these pilgrims wrote of the dangers they encountered on their travels, which took years, of the countries and the monasteries that they visited, and the books they carried back with them.

Xuan Zang, took the land route back to China. He carried back statues of the Buddha made of gold, silver and sandalwood, and over 600 manuscripts loaded on the backs of 20 horses. Over 50 manuscripts were lost when the boat on which he was crossing the Indus capsized. He spent the rest of his life translating the remaining manuscripts from Sanskrit into Chinese.

Please Mark As Brainliest .