3. INTRODUCTION
Hiuen Tsang was a Chinese traveller.
He spent his time evolving himself in
reading Buddhist texts, understanding
Buddhist culture and visiting places
where Buddhism
was
followed. He visited India
during the reign of king
Harshavardhana in 630 AD .
We shall know more about
him.
A Chinese portrait
depicting Hiuen Tsang
4. Early Life
Hiuen Tsang was born in Chen Hui in 602 in Chenhe Village, Goushi
Town ,Luozhou (near present-day Henan, China).  From boyhood he
took to reading religious books, including the Chinese Classics and
the writings of ancient sages. Â According to traditional biographies,
Hiuen Tsang displayed a superb intelligence and earnestness,
amazing his father by his careful observance of the
Confucian rituals at the age of eight. Along with
his brothers and sister, he received an early
education from his father, who instructed him in
classical works on filial piety and several other
A wood sculpture
depicting childhood of
canonical treatises of orthodox Confucianism.
Hiuen Tsang
5. VISIT TO INDIA
After reading about India and its Buddhist culture in
various Buddhist texts, Hiuen Tsang was deeply
impressed. In 629 AD, Hiuen Tsang
reportedly had a dream that convinced him
to journey to India. The Tang Dynasty and
Eastern Turk Goturks were waging war at
the time; therefore Emperor TaizongÂ
prohibited foreign travel. Hiuen Tsang
persuaded some Buddhist guards at the gates
of Yumen and slipped out of the empire A sacred painting in
Bodh temple, China
depicting Hiuen
via Liangzhou province in 629 AD. Tsang’s travel to India
7. Let’s see the route of Hiuen Tsang which he took to go to
Indian land. {From Yumen Gaon Pass (China) to Sri Nagar
(India) }
Yumen Gaon Pass
Sri Nagar (India)
Turpan
Bamiyan
Jalalabad
8. ACCOUNTS
During his stay in India and after returning
back to China, Hiuen Tsang wrote several
accounts about India’s culture, diversity,
religion etc. These accounts are very important
literary sources about the period 602 -642 AD.
They include
his diary entries,
autobiographies and
biographies. Atisa,
Tripura and Magas
are Hiuen Tsang’s
A painting showing Hiuen Tsang
seated and writing his account
Chinese accounts
10. LATER LIFE
On his return to China in AD 645, Hiuen Tsang was
greeted with much honor but he refused all high civil
appointments offered by the still-reigning
emperor, Emperor Taizong of Tang. Instead, he retired
to a monastery and devoted his energy to translating
Buddhist texts until his death in AD 664. According to
his biography he returned with,
“over six hundred Mahayana and
Hinayana texts, seven statues of
the Buddha and more than a
hundred sarira relics.”
A painting depicting the celebrations in
China on return of Hiuen Tsang to China
