Fwd: Fa-Hsien -- Buddhist Pilgrim of Fifth Century

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gandhara , Yashwant K <yashwant0k wrote:

 

By Irma Marx

 

 

 

Fa-hsien was one of China's greatest traveler of the fifth century. At age

sixty-five he practically walked from central China (AD 399), across the

Taklamakan desert, over the Pamir Plateau, and through India down to the mouth

of the Hoodly, in the county of Tamluk, India. From there he took a ship and

returned by sea to his homeland China, sailing via Ceylon and Sumatra, across

the Indian Ocean and the China Sea, and finally reaching Chienkand (China), in

AD 413. He was bringing with him what he went for---books of the Buddhist canon

and images of Buddhist deities.

In AD 414, he recorded his travels in " Record of Buddhist Countries " today known

as the " Travels of Fa-Hsien " . It is an excellent geographic account of his

journey along the Silk Roads, and an comprehensive report of the history and

customs of Central Asia and India.

Fa-hsien, while traveling through the dangerous Taklamakan desert left us with

this account: " ...We journeyed on and reached Tun-huang (Dunhuang) at the end of

the Great Wall, where the frontier is held by the military for a distance of

eighty le from east to west, and forty le from north to south (one li---is

one-third of a mile). Having stayed there for more than a month, the governor of

Tun-huang provided us with all the necessary provisions for crossing the desert.

We than traveled on with an envoy of a camel train...In this desert there are

great many evil spirits and hot winds; those who encounter them perish to a man.

There are neither birds above nor beasts below. Gazing on all sides as far as

the eye can reach in order to mark the track, no guidance is to be obtained save

from the rotting bones of dead men, which point the way. "

After traveling for seventeen days, about 1,500 le, they arrived at the country

of Shan-shan, today's Lop-Nor, which was a thriving oasis at that time. Fa-hsien

reports: " This land is rugged and barren...The king of this country has received

the Faith, and there are some four thousand and more priests, all belonging to

the Lesser Vehicle, but all practice the religion of India " .

He also left a vivid account of the Kingdom of Khotan, on the southern arm of

the Silk Road, where he stayed for three months. He reports that there were

fourteen large monasteries, 'without counting the smaller ones'. He continued on

his pilgrimage via the Kingdom of Kashgar, where the northern and southern

branches of the Silk Roads reunite. He also tells us that he observed the

Buddhist practice of resting during the summer and rainy seasons, and the

differences between the Chinese and Indian calendars. Traveling through

Afghanistan (Punjab), he commands: " ...there are approximately three thousand

priests belonging to both the Greater and Lesser Vehicles. Here we kept out

summer retreat, and when it was over, we proceeded southwards... " In India he

reports of the Middle Kingdom as. " It has a temperate climate, without frost or

snow, and the people are all happy " . There he spend six years in one of the most

prosperous periods of the Gupta dynasty.

The purpose of his travels to India was to collect Buddhist canon to bring back

to China, and it took him three more years returning to China AD 413. He

traveled through nearly thirty countries from China's most treacherous deserts

to the land of India. He recorded his extensive and hazardous travels on bamboo

and silk, for the benefit of future explorers and historians.

 

http://www.silk-road.com/toc/index.html

 

More later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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