South Asia

I left Jalalabad which had a few Buddhist monksbut many stupas and monasteries. Ipassed through Hunza and the Khyber Pass to the east, reaching the former capital of Gandhara, Peshawar ont he other side. Compared to its former glory, Peshawar was nothing. Buddhism was a declined iin that country. I visited a number of stupas around Peshawar but my personal favourite was the Kanishka Stupa. It was built just southeast of Peshawar by a former king of the city.


After leaving Peshawar, I travelled northeast to the Swat Valley. When I reached Udyana, I found 1,400 old monasteries that had previously supported 18,000 monks. I continued moving northward and into the Buner Valley before going back via Shabaz Gharni to cross the Indus River at Hund. Thereafter, I headed to Taxila, a Mahayana Buddhist Kingdom that was a vassal of Kashmir, which is precisely where I headed next. There I found over 5,000 Buddhist monks in 100 monasteries. There I met a brilliant Mahayana monk and I spent my next two years studying Mahayana alongside other schools of Buddhism with him. During that period of time, I wrote about the Fourth Buddhist council that took place nearby, which was under the other of King Kanishka of Kushana.

In AD 633, I left Kashmir and journeyed south to Chinabhukti. I studied there for a year with a monk-prince Vinitaprabha.

In AD 634, I went east to Jalandhar in eastern Punjab, before climbing up to visit predominantly Theravada monasteries in the Kulu valley and turning southward again to Bairat and then to Mathura which is on the Yamuna river. There was 2,000 monks in Mathura of both major Buddhist branches despite being a Hindu dominated country. I then travelled up the river to Srughna before crossing eastward to Matipura. I arrived there in AD 635 having crossed river Ganges. From there I headed south to Sankasya, said to be where Buddha descended from heaven. From there I moved onward to teh northern Indian emperor Harsha's grand capital of Kanyakubja. There in AD 636, I encountered 100 monasteries of 10,000 monks and I became impressed by the king's patronage of both scholarship and Buddhism. I spent the time in the city studyiing Theravada scriptures before setting out eastward again for Ayodhya, the homeland of Yogacara school. I then moved out south to Kausambi where I had a copy made from an important local image of the Buddha.

Kulu Valley.

River Ganges.

Buddha.

I then returned northward to Sravasti, then travelled through Terai and thence to Kapilavastu, my last stop before Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. Reaching Lumbini, I had seen a pillar near the old Ashoka and records that he worshipped at that paticular spot.

In AD 637, I set out of Lumbini to Kusinagara, the site of Buddha's unfortunate death. I then headed southwest again to the deer park at Sarnath where Buddha gave his first sermon, where I managed to found 1,500 resident monks. Travelling eastward via Varanasi, I reached Vaisali, Paliputra and Bodh Gaya. I was then accompanied by local monks to Nalanda, the great ancient university of India where I spent at least two years. I was accompanied by several thousand scholar monks. I studied logic, grammar, Sanskrit at the Yogacara school of Buddhism during my time at Nalanda.