As part of the "Year of China-India Friendship" celebrations,
two Buddhist monks from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, Mingxian
and Huizai respectively, started yesterday on their journey to
India that retraces the footsteps of their legendary predecessor
Xuanzang (602-664).
From Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the monks will, over the
next four months, traverse the route taken by Xuanzang, a Buddhist
pilgrim, from China to India some 1,300 years ago. Xuanzang was on
a mission to obtain Buddhist scriptures and to study. He returned
to China 17 years later.
Mingxian and Huizai will pass through Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang before crossing into Pakistan and
Nepal on their way to Nalanda, the once famous seat of Buddhist
learning in India.
But unlike Xuanzang, Mingxian and Huizai are not in search of
Buddhist scriptures.
"The journey aims to better promote communication and cultural
exchange between China and India," the venerable Shenghui,
administrative vice president of the China Buddhist Association,
said at yesterday's sending-off ceremony.
The project, which is coorganized by the China Buddhist
Association, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with
Foreign Countries and the China Xuanzang Research Center, also
hopes to highlight Xuanzang's enduring spirit in promoting
Buddhism, he said.
"Xuanzang searched for the real Buddhist scriptures by traveling
to India and translated the texts into Chinese," he said. "Today,
his enduring spirit should still be respected and better promoted
and his successors' journey will help give the public a better
understanding of Buddhism."
A total of 108 monks from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong
Kong and Macao and four leading actors from the CCTV television
series, Journey to the West, which is based on Xuanzang's
story, also attended yesterday's ceremony.
(China Daily July 20, 2006)