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374
Birth
He was born in Wu-yang, China in 374. He was born in the village of Wu-yang in China's Shansi province. His three older brothers all died in childhood. -
377
Buddhist Monastery
He went to live at a Buddhist Monastery in Ch'ang-gan at the age of three. His three older brothers died when he was younger so his father sent him to this monastery as a way of safe-guarding his life. It was here that he found his real name, his first name was Sehi but he then changed it to Faxian which means "Splendor of Dharma". -
400
Pamir Mountains
Faxian passed through the very difficult route through the Pamir Mountains. The mountains were covered all year round. There were many venemous animals. He quotes: "There are also among them venomous dragons, which, when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those who encounter these dangers escapes with his life." -
400
Heartland of India
He then went through Gilgit and then down the Kabul River to the city of Peshawar and across the Punjab plains into the heartland of India. In the holy city of Magadha he spent three years collecting and copying Buddhist texts. -
403
Ganges
He then travelled down to Ganges and the holy sites along the way. He then reached Tamralipti where he spent the next too years. -
410
Sumatra and Java
He tried to head home from Sri Lanka, but his ship was wrecked on a small island off the coast of Indonesia called Sumatra. He then made it to Java where he spent the next five months waiting for a ship to China. -
414
Drifting Ship
He finally got the ship and headed for Canton but was blown off course and drifted for 70 days. Finally, it turned northward and touched land on the Shantung Peninsula in northern China. He reached there in 414, after an absence of 15 years. -
415
Home then Capital of China
Once he was home he then went to the Capital of China and worked translating some of the texts he brought back. -
420
Retired to Monastery
He then retired to a monastery in the province of Hupei where he wrote the stories of his travels. It was called the Fo-Kwe-Ki (Memoirs of the Buddhist Realms) and told future Chinese pilgrims of the way to India overland and by sea. -
462
Death
He died at the age of 88 in the monastery in Hupei. -
Father's Death
His father died when he was 10 years old. His uncle urged him to come home from the monastery but he did not until his mother's death two years later. -
Became a Full Monk
At the age of 20 Faxian became a full monk. -
Leaves for his Travels
Faxian left for his travels in 399.He traveled across North China then he went along the south side of the Nan Shan Mountains to Dunhaung. He followed the Tarim and Khotan Rivers around the great Takla Makan desert to the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan centered on the present-day town of Hetian. It took him 25 days to go to the caravan town of Yarkand and then another month to get to Kashgar. -
Idea to Depart
He felt that the Chinese translations of the Sanskrit texts are inadequate. He decided to set out to India the next year to learn more about these texts. -
Sri Lanka
He then left India and went to Sri Lanka which was an important center of Buddhism. He spent another two years here.
