Ultimate journey : retracing the path of an ancient buddhist monk who crossed Asia in search of enlightenment / Richard Bernstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernstein, Richard, 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Xuanzang, approximately 596-664.

Xuanzang.

Buddhist priests--China--Biography.

Buddhist priests.

China.

Silk Road--Description and travel.

Silk Road.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 352 pages : iil., maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : A.A. Knopf, 2001.

Summary:

Richard Bernstein's story of his long journey through Asia is at once a memoir of adventurous travel and a record of cultural discovery and spiritual quest.

In the year 629, a greatly revered Chinese Buddhist monk, Hsuan Tsang, set out across Asia in search of the Buddhist Truth, to settle what he called the "perplexities of my mind." Nearly a millennium and a half later, Richard Bernstein retraces the monk's steps: from the Tang dynasty capital at Xian through ancient Silk Road oases, over forbidding mountain passes to Tashkent, Samarkand, and the Amu-Darya River, across Pakistan to the holiest cities of India -- and back.

Juxtaposing his experiences with those of Hsuan Tsang, Bernstein reconstructs the hazards and glories of this long and sinuous route, comparing present and past. The monk described what he saw and experienced: landscapes, customs, and, above all, people and the variety of religious beliefs held by those he met. So does our present-day author -- taking us to Buddhist cave temples, to the holy places of the Buddha's own life, to the ruins of the Gandharan civilization in Pakistan, to the university in the Ganges Valley where Hsuan Tsang studied. He too encounters extraordinary figures -- among them a German monk in Bodhgaya, a down-and-out maharaja, and a supposed reincarnation of Shiva.

And he follows the path of Hsuan Tsang not only in physical but in contemplative ways, reflecting on the mysteries and paradoxes of Buddhist philosophy and on the nature of the Ultimate Truth that was Hsuan Tsang's goal.

Ultimate Journey is a vivid, profoundly felt account of two stirring adventures -- one in the past and one in the present -- in pursuit of illumination.

Contents:

1. How Many Springs Do We See? 15

2. Leaving the Ba River Behind 36

3. The Fugitive Monk 50

4. The Ghost Town 71

5. The Long Dead 83

6. The Bombing of Belgrade 97

7. The Horror of Home 116

8. The Torugart Pass 130

9. Genghis Khan's Ancestors 143

10. The Bridge Nobody Crosses 154

11. Self-Annihilating Arguments 170

12. An Orphanage in Amritsar 192

13. The Maharaja of Ruin 206

14. A Detour to Hong Kong 219

15. The Holy Places 232

16. The Synagogue of Calcutta 246

17. The Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram 262

18. To the Kunjerab Pass 275

19. The Nightmare Bus to Khotan 296

20. The Southern Oases to Dunhuang 312.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0375400095

OCLC:

46474278