Tang dynasty · 602–664
Xuanzang
玄奘（俗名陈祎） · China
Monk, traveller and translator
Born in Goushi near Luoyang. From 629 to 645 he travelled west to India in search of Buddhist scriptures, studied under Śīlabhadra at Nalanda, and brought back at least 657 texts, whose translation he oversaw. His dictated account of the journey later inspired the Ming novel Journey to the West. In 652 he oversaw the building of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda to house the scriptures he had brought back.
Where the story happened
Places connected with this person
History · Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Da Ci'en Temple
Xuanzang's seventeen years and a pagoda
In 629 Xuanzang set out west from Chang'an, travelling through Central Asia to India, where he studied under the master Śīlabhadra at Nālandā; he returned to Chang'an in 645 with at least 657 Sanskrit texts. To preserve these scriptures and Buddha images safely, in 652 he oversaw the building of a pagoda in the style of the Western Regions — the pagoda of Da Ci'en Temple. The original later decayed, and Wu Zetian and nobles paid for it to be demolished and rebuilt as a seven-storey square pavilion-style pagoda, which survives today.
