Chasing the Monk's Shadow

Chasing the Monk's Shadow: A Journey in the Footsteps of Xuanzang

The 7th century CE Chinese monk Xuanzang (Hsuan Tsang) travelled through Central Asia to India, studied Buddhism under Indian masters, returned to China after 18 years, translated Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, and also left a detailed record of his 10,000 mile journey. During his stay in India he studied in Nalanda.

P.S.: Nalanda is a historical place in central Bihar, India, 90 km south-east of the state capital of Patna.

Fourteen hundred years after legendary Chinese traveler Xuanzang, aka Hiuen Tsang, traveled 10,000 miles from China to India in one of the greatest journeys of all times, one India-born author retraced his path.

Mishi Saran follows in Xuanzang's footsteps to the fabled oasis cities of China and Central Asia, and the Buddhist sites and now-vanished kingdoms in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan that Xuanzang wrote about. Travelling seamlessly back and forth in time between the seventh century and the twenty-first, Saran uncovers the past with consummate skill even as she brings alive the present through her vivid and engaging descriptions of people and places.