Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - Seeking the road map of Xuanzang's westward journey

Seeking the road map of Xuanzang's westward journey

In the first year of Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan (627), Xuanzang set out from Chang 'an and began to travel westward. Pass through Qin Zhou (now Tianshui, Gansu), Lanzhou, Liangzhou (now Wuwei, Gansu) and Guazhou (now southeast of Anxi County, Gansu) and sneak into Yumenguan. After five days and four nights, it was difficult to cross the 800-mile desert, passing through Yiwu (now Hami, Xinjiang), reaching Gaochang (now Turpan, Xinjiang) at the end of the year, and then continuing westward along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain, passing through Ayi. Cross Lingshan (now the ridge of Musuer Mountain), go west along Daqingchi (now Lake Issyk Kul in Gurstan) and reach Suye City (namely Broken Leaf City, southwest of tokmak, Kyrgyzstan).

Xuanzang continued to move forward, passing through Shiguo, Guo Kang, Mi Guo, Cao Guo, He Guo, An Guo and Shiguo (all in present-day Uzbekistan) in the nine surnames of Zhaowu, crossing the famous iron gate in the history of Central Asia (now Buzgara Pass in southern Uzbekistan), reaching the northern border of Afghanistan today, going south, passing through Daxue Mountain (now Hindu Kush Mountain), and arriving at Begram in present-day Afghanistan.

In the spring of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), Xuanzang took 657 Buddhist scriptures, went north through Pakistan, passed through Afghanistan, crossed the Pamirs, returned to China along the southern line of Tarim Basin, and returned to the capital Chang 'an two years later. Xuanzang traveled 50,000 Li, 18 years.