Sharing this 7th century pilgrimage movie found on YouTube.

[evanlow]

Anyway, why not. Here's a pilgrimage by a monk named Xuan Zang in the 7th century from China who journeyed to India for Buddhist scriptures in 627 AD (predates the Camino by 100 hundred plus years or 300 years if one is to follow its popularity).

A pilgrimage spanning 19 years, 25,000 km.

It has English subtitles so most can follow.

The movie is made in 2016. It has breathtaking cinematography.

As I guess most are only familiar with western culture and history. So here is some context to go along with this movie.

1. Buddhism was already in China, spread by the Buddhist monks from India, but maybe not too complete, hence the need for Xuan Zang to go on a reverse journey to India.

2. This is way before the Mongols, right at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty in China (golden age) where it is still forbidden to travel west as you know it takes time to stabilize for any new era.

3. Predates Mohammad (Islam) so central Asia is pretty much steppes people with their own religion (or Buddhism). Buddhism was bigger there back then before waning (especially in India). Had this journey been taken one or two hundred years later it would have quite different and the Sidhu monks in India would most likely not be there as Hinduism has supplanted Buddhism by then. In fact, a bit of rediscovery of the Buddhism history in India is due Xuan Zang's account, as mentioned also in the movie.

4. The journey goes really into the west before going south, then east into India. Gobi desert, almost the stan countries (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan). The reason is the huge Himalayan mountain blocking access to India. It might be easier to go via Indochina and west to India from Myanmar but I guess the knowledge wasn't there at that time. The silk road yeah was more known then.

And yeah, that is an awesome ancient mochila (backpack). Have seen many paintings of it but first time seeing it in real life.

 

[Deleted member 73526]

Debating whether to share this movie found on YouTube.

Let us know what you decide.

 

[evanlow]

Let us know what you decide.

Already there...

 

[Marcus-UK]

Is this the basis of the famous chinese book "Journey to the West"? I think most Western kids in the last 40 years have grown up with the various TV adaptions of the story.

 

[evanlow]

Xuan Zang is historically real. He actually did the pilgrimage 1500 years ago did the 25000 km journey and spend 19 years away.

The journey to the west is a fictional story, took the loosely premise, add the monkey god, demons, etc. It was written only 500 years ago.

This movie actually followed his journey on real location.

 

[IngridF]

I particularly like his nightlight (headlamp), what a great idea. Very much enjoyed the movie, a soothing 2 hours, with lots of tea, both from China and India.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

Journey to the West follows a more mythical version of Xuanzang's pilgrimage and was one of China's earliest epics and perhaps had an oral tradition before it was actually written down. If you go to Xi'an( the ancient Tang Dynasty capital was called Chang'an), you can visit the Wild Goose Pagoda, which was built to house the Buddhist scriptures Xuanzang brought back from India. They say Xuanzang is buried on the site. Having known about Xuanzang's pilgrimage long before I heard about the Camino, in my mind, my Camino Frances WAS my Journey to the West.

 

[Tincatinker]

I learn so much from this forum. Who knew there were film-crews in the 7th century?

 

[taigirl]

Anyway, why not. Here's a pilgrimage by a monk named Xuan Zang in the 7th century from China who journeyed to India for Buddhist scriptures in 627 AD (predates the Camino by 100 hundred plus years or 300 years if one is to follow its popularity).

A pilgrimage spanning 19 years, 25,000 km.

It has English subtitles so most can follow.

The movie is made in 2016. It has breathtaking cinematography.

As I guess most are only familiar with western culture and history. So here is some context to go along with this movie.

1. Buddhism was already in China, spread by the Buddhist monks from India, but maybe not too complete, hence the need for Xuan Zang to go on a reverse journey to India.

2. This is way before the Mongols, right at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty in China (golden age) where it is still forbidden to travel west as you know it takes time to stabilize for any new era.

3. Predates Mohammad (Islam) so central Asia is pretty much steppes people with their own religion (or Buddhism). Buddhism was bigger there back then before waning (especially in India). Had this journey been taken one or two hundred years later it would have quite different and the Sidhu monks in India would most likely not be there as Hinduism has supplanted Buddhism by then. In fact, a bit of rediscovery of the Buddhism history in India is due Xuan Zang's account, as mentioned also in the movie.

4. The journey goes really into the west before going south, then east into India. Gobi desert, almost the stan countries (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan). The reason is the huge Himalayan mountain blocking access to India. It might be easier to go via Indochina and west to India from Myanmar but I guess the knowledge wasn't there at that time. The silk road yeah was more known then.

And yeah, that is an awesome ancient mochila (backpack). Have seen many paintings of it but first time seeing it in real life.

Looks interesting but apart from first minute or so there are no subtitles.

 

[taigirl]

Anyway, why not. Here's a pilgrimage by a monk named Xuan Zang in the 7th century from China who journeyed to India for Buddhist scriptures in 627 AD (predates the Camino by 100 hundred plus years or 300 years if one is to follow its popularity).

A pilgrimage spanning 19 years, 25,000 km.

It has English subtitles so most can follow.

The movie is made in 2016. It has breathtaking cinematography.

As I guess most are only familiar with western culture and history. So here is some context to go along with this movie.

1. Buddhism was already in China, spread by the Buddhist monks from India, but maybe not too complete, hence the need for Xuan Zang to go on a reverse journey to India.

2. This is way before the Mongols, right at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty in China (golden age) where it is still forbidden to travel west as you know it takes time to stabilize for any new era.

3. Predates Mohammad (Islam) so central Asia is pretty much steppes people with their own religion (or Buddhism). Buddhism was bigger there back then before waning (especially in India). Had this journey been taken one or two hundred years later it would have quite different and the Sidhu monks in India would most likely not be there as Hinduism has supplanted Buddhism by then. In fact, a bit of rediscovery of the Buddhism history in India is due Xuan Zang's account, as mentioned also in the movie.

4. The journey goes really into the west before going south, then east into India. Gobi desert, almost the stan countries (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan). The reason is the huge Himalayan mountain blocking access to India. It might be easier to go via Indochina and west to India from Myanmar but I guess the knowledge wasn't there at that time. The silk road yeah was more known then.

And yeah, that is an awesome ancient mochila (backpack). Have seen many paintings of it but first time seeing it in real life.

So watching on the YouTube channel on tv - no subtitles. Watching on my phone or tablet has subtitles.

 

[Former member 49149]

Once the sword fights began, they lost me. Life is a bit too short for violence for this old lady.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

Once the sword fights began, they lost me. Life is a bit too short for violence for this old lady.

Skip past the sword fight, which is about 2 minutes in the entire movie. Then your journey will begin.

 

[Hanneke]

Before Xuan Zang there was another pilgrim named Faxian who traveled from China to India to seek Buddhist scriptures. After 15 years en 30 countries he was back with what he set out to find. He wrote about his travels just as Xuan Zang would do. A Dutch buddhist, Maarten Olthof, has used both stories to recreate the pilgrimage that the Buddha himself recommended. He wrote a book about it 'Go without fear' stil available at Amazon for Kindle.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

Before Xuan Zang there was another pilgrim named Faxian who traveled from China to India to seek Buddhist scriptures. After 15 years en 30 countries he was back with what he set out to find. He wrote about his travels just as Xuan Zang would do. A Dutch buddhist, Maarten Olthof, has used both stories to recreate the pilgrimage that the Buddha himself recommended. He wrote a book about it 'Go without fear' stil available at Amazon for Kindle.

Thank you.