The Journey

I travelled over land, along the Silk Road west toward India. I crossed the Gobi Desert to Kumul in great pain, thence following the Tian-Shan westward, arriving in Turfan in AD 630. There I met the king of Turfan, a Buddhist who equipped me to go further for my travels with letters of introduction and valuables to serve as funds.

The Main Routes of the Old Silk Road.

The Gobi Desert.

Tian Shan.

I passed Aksu as I moved further west before turning northwest to cross the Tian Shan's Bedal Pass. I skirted Issyk Kul before visiting Tokmak on its northwest and met the great Khan of the Western Turk. After having a feast, I continued my journey west then southwest to Tashkent. From there, I crossed the desert further west to Samarkand. Setting out again to the south, I crossed a spur of the Pamirs and passed through the famous Iron Gates. Continuing the journey southward, I reached the Amu Darya and Termez, where I met more than a thousand Buddhist monks.

I then moved further east and passed through Kunduz, where I stayed for some time to witness the funeral rites of Prince Tardu, who had been poisoned. There I also met the monk Dharmasimha. He recommended, from the advice of the late Tardu, I should continue my trip westward to Balkh to see the Buddhist sites and relics, especially the Nava Vihara which I thought was the wasternmost monastic institution in the world. There I met over 3,000 Theravada monks, including Prajnakara, a monk that I studied Theravada scriptures with. I was accompanied by Prajnakara to Bamyan, where I met the king and saw tens of Theravada monasteries. In addition, I saw the two large Bamyan Buddhas carved out of the rockface. I then resumed my travels eastward, crossing the Shibar pass and descending to the regional capital of Kapisi. I took part in a religious debate in a fabled old land of Gandhara to demonstrate my knowledge of many Buddhist seets. After meeting my first Jains and Hindus, and pushed on to Jalalabad and Laghman, I considered myself to have reached India. That year was AD 630.

The Ancient Walls of Balkh.