Author: Benjamin Brose
Publisher: Shambala 2021
XuanZang (pronounced “ShonZung” ශොන්ෂන්) is not well known in Sri Lanka relative to another Chinese monk Fa-Hsien (FaXian). XuanZang is more famous in the world than Fa-Hsien. XuanZang travelled to India and over a course of sixteen years visited hundreds of Buddhist monasteries in what are known today as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. He spent most of his time at Nalanda in India studying Buddhist texts under Venerable Silabhadra.
There were 6 schools of Buddhist scholarship in China at the time: the “Three Treatise tradition” studied second century work of Nagarjuna; “the Establishing Reality Tradition (Tattavasiddhi) attributed to Harivarman (250-350); the Abhidharma school, which studies Vasabandhu’s Abhidharmasoka Bhasya; the Nirvana school studied MahaParinirvana Suthra; the Dilun tradition studied Dasabhumika Bhashya and Avathamsaka Suthra; the Shelun tradition studied Asanga’s Mahayanasamgraha Sastra (Compendium of the great vehicle). Most of them could not read Sanskrit and the accuracy of the Chinese versions of these Mahayana texts were in doubt.
XuanZang spent his early years studying Asanga’s compendium of the great vehicle. This text provided a systematic overview of the Yogacara teachings. In Chang’an, XuanZang probably heard about the “Discourse on the Stages of the Yogic Practice” that was currently being taught at the thriving Buddhist monastery of Nalanda in northeastern India.
On the way to India, XuanZang visited Kucha and there were several thousands of monks of Sarvastivada, one of the most prominent schools of non-mahayana mainstream Buddhism. In Suyab (near present day Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan) people followed the teachings of the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster. In Bactria, XuanZang observed that the Greek language was still used for official record keeping. (Alexander the Great had conquered Bactria in 327 BCE.)
According to Buddhist tradition, the Greek king of Bactria, Menander I (165-130 BCE) converted to Buddhism and the region remained Buddhist during the seventh century. (This king is known as “Milinda” (මිලින්ද) in Sri Lanka. See "The Questions of King Milinda" by T.W. Rhys Davids.) XuanZang observed hundreds of Monasteries occupied by thousands of Buddhist monks. Passing through Bamiyan, XuanZang found several thousand monks studying the lokottaravada tradition. In addition to the Buddha statues destroyed by Taliban, XuanZang marveled at a hundred-foot tall standing of Buddha cast in Bronze and a beautifully adorned recumbent parinirvana statue of the Buddha one thousand feet in length. While staying in Kapisa XuanZang noted that the king staged a five day debate between Mahayana and mainstream monks. Unfortunately, Buddhism has disappeared from Central Asia.
Kashmir remained the preeminent center of Sravasthivadin Abhidharma studies and there were one hundred temples with five thousand monks. Kashmir was also home to scholars of the Mahasangika tradition. XuanZang remained in Kashmir for two years.
In XuanZang’s view, Buddhism was under siege in India.
False sages engaged in practices delusional and disturbing. Jain monks and nuns, the devotees of the “destroyer” god Siva and the “preserver” god Vishnu, and other ascetics all competed with Buddhist monastics for the support of the laity. The capital city Kanyakubja, for example, had twice as many “deva” temples as did Buddhist monasteries. Even King Harsha was most likely a devotee of Siva, the same deity venerated by the Kapalikas with their grisly necklaces made of human skulls.
The formerly thriving Buddhist center of Gandhara once had over a thousand monasteries, but they are deserted and desolate now, overgrown with weeds. In Pataliputra, the former capital of King Ashoka, there had once been several hundred monasteries but now only two or three remained. In Sravasti, although there were still several hundred monasteries, most were dilapidated.
XuanZang’s first destination after leaving Nalanda was the island of Sinhale’ (Sri Lanka). He heard there were unparalleled scholars of the “Discourse on Stages of Yogic Practice” and the works of the Sthavira, an influential tradition of early mainstream Buddhism. When he reached the port city of Kancipura, from where he intended to sail to Sinhale’, he learned that the island’s king had recently died and the island was in the midst of a devastating famine. Hundreds of Sinhale’ Monks were leaving to the mainland in search of food and shelter. XuanZang questioned three such refugee monks and learned that their understanding did not surpass what he learned at Nalanda. XuanZang abandoned his plan to visit the island.
I checked Chulawansa (second part of the the historical written records of Sri Lanka known as “Mahawansa”.) According to Chulawansa, there was a continuing battle between two kings Dathopatissa I and Aggabodhi III at this time in Sinhale’. Chulawansa recorded the events as follows:
The whole people suffering under the wars of these two kings, fell into great misery and lost money and field produce. Dathopatissa exhausted the whole property of former kings and seized all objects of value in the three fraternities and in the relic temples. He broke in pieces the golden images and took the gold for himself and plundered all the golden wreaths and other offerings. In the Thuparama likewise he took away golden crowning on the cetiya which was studded with costly precious stones. The canoes in the Mahapali Hall he left to the Damilas; and they burned down the royal palace together with the Relic Temple.
Cūlavamsa (Being the more recent part of the Mahāvamsa)—Translated by William Geiger
When XuanZang returned to China, he carried back 657 texts, 150 relics, and at least seven statues. These texts, relics, and statues were stored in the great wild goose pagoda. When the great wild goose pagoda was completed in 652, XuanZang hoped that it would endure long as heaven and earth. Now 1500 years later the stupa is still there and it towered over fast food restaurants in modern Xian (former Chinese capital of the Tang dynasty Chang’an) but the palm leaf manuscripts, statues, and relics disappeared long ago.
The reigning emperor, Taizong has asked XuanZang to reside in the spacious Hongfu temple and serve the court. He was asked to write a detailed account of all the places he had visited and all the things he had seen and heard during the years on the road. The result, “The Record of the Western Regions”, is the most extensive detailed account of seventh-century Central Asia ever produced.
In the five years between 660 and 664 XuanZang and his team translated 670 fascicles of texts. With the completion of the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 663, XuanZang stopped his translation work. At midnight, on the fifth day of the second month of 664, XuanZang died.
XuanZang’s disciples composed the biography of the Tripitaka master of the great Ci’en Monastery of the great Tang dynasty shortly after his death. XuanZang’s disciple Huili wrote the first 5 chapters which covers XuanZang’s early life and his travels to India. Another disciple Yanli added another 5 chapters covering XuanZang’s return to China until his death and the funeral.
XuanZang’s translations were carried all over China, Japan and Korea. The study and practices of XuanZang’s teachings continued in Japan by the “Hosso” sect for over thirteen hundred years. One of Korean disciples of XuanZang, Wonchuck returned to Korea and is revered as the first patriarch of “Ximing” Branch of the “Popsong” lineage.
XuanZang’s works were later translated into Tibetan and Turkish and much later into French, English, Russian, and German. Stanislas Julien managed to secure a copy of the "Records of the Western Regions" from the Imperial library in Nanjing and translated it to French in 1857.
Captain Cunningham of Bengal Engineers, was appointed director-general of the newly established Archeological Survey of India in 1861. Armed with Julien's translation of “The Record of the Western Regions”, he began his own field work in Northern India. Over the next several decades Cunningham and his colleagues rediscovered temples, stupas, Ashoka edicts, at Bodhgaya, Sravasthi, Kausambi, Nalanda, Taxila, and many other long forgotten sites. (See "Buddha and the Sahibs" by Charles Allen.)
XuanZang’s physical remains were unearthed in Nanjing in 1942 by occupying Japanese troops. Since its discovery, the bones were partitioned and fragments of the original relic now reside in China, India, Japan, and Taiwan. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai presented a portion of the relic to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on January 12, 1957 at the Nalanda Maha Viharaya. A life size statue of XuanZang now stands near the entrance of the XuanZang memorial hall at Nalanda.
Few modern pilgrims have followed XuanZang’s footsteps. They have retraced the long and difficult route leading from China through Central Asia to India. They make the journey in part to remember what once was, the vanished Buddha statues of Bamiyan, crumbling stupas of Saranath, but also to learn something about themselves. China Central Television network even sponsors a “XuanZang Road Business School Gobi Challenge'', where teams of MBA students race along a hundred kilometer stretch of Xuanzang’s route through the desert, paying tribute to what they describe as his commercial wisdom and pioneering spirit”.
For some Indians, XuanZang has risen to the level of a bodhisattva. Anand Deepak maintains a Facebook page titled “Retracing Bodhisattva Xuanzang Project''.
Retracing Bodhisattva Xuanzang
There is a Google Arts and Culture project titled “XuanZang Memorial, Nalanda.
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