In the seventh century, when Xuanzang journeyed to India, he began his pilgrimage from Xi’an in China, traveling across Central Asia and hundreds of kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent before finally reaching Nalanda in Bihar. The purpose of this long and challenging journey was to collect the authentic teachings of the Buddha from the great Buddhist monasteries of India and to pay homage at the sacred sites associated with his life. Xuanzang spent sixteen years on this journey, carefully documenting everything he encountered. Upon his safe return to China, he devoted the rest of his life to translating the Buddhist scriptures he had gathered in India and compiling his detailed diaries into a travel account.

He presented this monumental record to Emperor Taizong of Tang under the title Da Tang Xi Yu Ji (The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions). This travelogue was a masterpiece, offering the first written descriptions of the lands and peoples lying west of China. Centuries later, British scholars—most notably Sir Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893)—used Xuanzang’s accounts to identify many of the great Buddhist pilgrimage sites such as Bodh Gaya, Sankasya, Shravasti, Vaishali, Nalanda, and Sarnath. After the establishment of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861, further discoveries and identifications of Buddhist sites continued, guided in part by Xuanzang’s work.

For the world, Xuanzang’s travelogue remains an invaluable treasure in the rediscovery of the Buddha’s footsteps. During his journey, the Dhamma in India was still a flourishing tradition, vibrant with life and practice.