by Robert Harding
The spread of Buddhism to China inaugurated a period
of intense religious contacts between China and India. Many hundreds
of monks went to India to experience the cities and landscapes associated with
the biography of the Buddha, and to study and take back to China relics or texts
with them. The importation and translation of Buddhist texts was a
long process in which Faxian was a key figure. The first of the
major Chinese travellers to India, Faxian had as his mission to bring back an
adequate copy of the Vinaya, the rules and regulations of the Buddhist
monastic life. Leaving in 399, he travelled for 14 years. His journey
encompassed northern India and Southeast Asia. Most importantly, his
record is the first of such a journey to India and back to China, and is rivalled as a source
for medieval Indian geography only by the seventh-century accounts
of another pilgrim, Xuanzang.
Please click here to read a longer Summary by Sally K. Church
