Xuanzang Slips Out of China to Study Buddhism in India
A monk denied an exit permit crosses the Gobi anyway and returns nineteen years later with 657 texts
Quick facts
- Traveler
- Xuanzang, Chinese Buddhist monk
- Journey span
- 629-645 CE
- Route
- Chang'an to India via the Tarim Basin, Bactria, and the Hindu Kush
- Major work produced
- Records of the Western Regions (646 CE)
What happened
In 629 CE the Buddhist monk Xuanzang left the Tang capital Chang'an without official authorization to travel, crossed the Tarim Basin via its northern route through Turfan and Kucha, continued through Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bactria, and crossed the Hindu Kush into India, where he studied Buddhist philosophy for years, including at the famous monastic university of Nalanda, before returning by the southern route in 645. At the request of the Tang emperor Taizong, who by then welcomed him back despite the illegal departure, Xuanzang composed a detailed account of the lands and peoples he had traveled through, known in English translation as Records of the Western Regions, dictated in part to his disciple Bianji. The remainder of his life was spent translating the Buddhist scriptures he had brought back into Chinese.
Why it matters
Xuanzang's Records became one of the single most valuable sources historians have for the political geography, religious practice, and daily life of Central Asia and India in the seventh century, precisely because it recorded a Silk Road journey by someone with no reason to flatter any of the rulers he described.
How we know
Xuanzang's own account survives in Chinese and was translated into English by Samuel Beal as Buddhist Records of the Western World (1884); Book One of that translation, describing the journey's early stages, is hosted by the University of Washington's Silk Road Seattle project alongside historical notes on his route and dates.
Sources
- Translated by Samuel Beal (1884), hosted by Silk Road Seattle, University of Washington. Xuanzang's Record of the Western Regions · Primary source (author-declared)depts.washington.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The Sogdians, Smithsonian Institution. Xuanzang · Reputable sourcesogdians.si.edu · The domain "sogdians.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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