Hyecho’s Pilgrimage to the Five Indian Kingdoms
The Silla monk Hyecho sailed to India, toured the five Indian kingdoms and Central Asia, and returned to Tang to write the Wang ocheonchukguk jeon.
Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart · Public domain · Source
After going to Tang, Hyecho sailed to India around 723, visited the Buddhist sites of the five Indian regions, recorded what he heard of Persia and the Arabs, and crossed Central Asia to reach Tang’s Anxi Protectorate at Kucha in 727. Scholars differ somewhat on his dates and route.
His account is a rare record of the religion, customs and politics of 8th-century India and Central Asia. In 1908 Paul Pelliot found an abridged manuscript, missing its beginning and end, in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang; it is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hyecho later translated esoteric scriptures in Tang.