ARH 382
ART OF THE SILK ROAD

WINTER 2004

ARH 382 - HOME >> Reading Questions >> Fa-Hsien and Hsuan-Tsang
  1. Fa-Hsien:
    • Why does he leave China (c. 399) to make the long journey to India?
    • What is the country like along the Silk Route, on his way to Gandhara?
    • In Khotan, for example, what is the nature of the community?
    • What is the nature of their practice of Buddhism?
    • How does he describe the travel through Gandhara? Easy? Treacherous? Why?
    • Notice how he describes the country of Udayana, with its main sites of Takashila (!), Peshawur, etc….how it was still
    • rich and flourishing; notice how he identifies specific sites with particular jataka tales….
    • What happens to his traveling companions, and especially to Hui-ching? What does this suggest about travel through these regions? (see section from Nagarahara to Panjab)
    • Notice the description of the Buddha skull relic treasured at Hidda (Hadda).
    • In Fa-hsien's account, what is the relationship between what we would call reality and fantasy? How would you explain his easy shift between the two?
    • Notice the story of Blue Nun, at Kapitha: what are the implications of that story for men and women?
    • What has happened to the country of Kapilivastu? How does Fa-hsien describe this once rich city?

  2. Hsuan-Tsang:
    • What was the reason for HT's trip to India?
    • How does he describe the people of the various kingdoms through which he passed?
    • What kinds of practices catch his attention?
    • Would he have made a good anthropologist?
    • How does he describe Bamiyan (Fan-yen-na)
    • How does he describe Gandhara (Kien-t'o-lo)

  3. General questions for both the records of both travelers:
    • What were the motives of these travelers for undertaking their journeys?
    • What preparations did they appear to make?
    • What dangers awaited them, and how did they overcome them?
    • Who were their companions? Did they survive the trip?
    • What sites, monasteries, did they see? What were their impressions?
    • How long did the trip take each traveler? What routes did they follow?
    • Were they sustained by their faith? Do they talk about that?
    • Do the journals convey a real sense of the regions through which they travelered?