As a monk, retrace the path to the west
In 2006, Master Mingxian was busy supervising the construction of the Donglin Temple on Mount Lu. Suddenly received a call from the staff of the organizing committee of “Revisiting Tang Monk’s Journey to the West”, inviting him to participate in this event.
Master Mingxian became the only representative of the mainland among the two Buddhist monks who “retraced Tang Monk’s journey westward”.
Soon, Master Mingxian entered the public eye. As soon as I got off the plane to attend a meeting arranged by the organizing committee in Guangzhou, I was surrounded by numerous journalists. Various questions flooded in, and reporters chased after him all the way to the hotel where he was staying, asking until two or three in the morning, until he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
For an ordinary monk, I have never seen such a scene before. If you have any questions, answer them honestly. One of the reporters asked, ‘How did you feel about participating in this journey to the west?’. He only responded with one sentence, ‘I will travel westward like a monk.’
The next day, the interview was published in the newspaper. The public opinion evaluates this monk as follows: he is not vulgar, adheres to his duties, and has not been overwhelmed by the heat of modern activities.
On the morning of July 30th at 6 o’clock, 33 year old Master Mingxian and Master Huizai from Taiwan set off from the Xuanzang Memorial Square in front of the Dacien Temple in Xi’an, embarking on the “journey of Tang Monk’s westward journey”.
This is a hiking trip that lasted nearly five months and covered a total distance of over 25000 kilometers. Following in the footsteps of Master Xuanzang over 1300 years ago, they departed from Xi’an, passed through Shaanxi and Gansu, left Xinjiang, crossed the Russian border, passed through Kyrgyzstan (for security reasons, they never set foot in Pakistan or Afghanistan), and finally arrived at Nalanda University in India.
In order to coordinate with the foreign affairs activities scheduled for November, Master Mingxian and his team must arrive at the designated location of the organizing committee every day, no matter how late it is.
Although I made sufficient preparations beforehand, I encountered trouble on the first day of walking. Walking to the west gate of Xi’an, it was already three or four o’clock in the afternoon, and I had walked nearly thirty kilometers. Master Mingxian’s feet have developed blisters, causing excruciating pain as soon as they hit the ground. There is still a considerable distance from the designated Xiaowang Village on that day. Sitting under the city gate, Master Mingxian took out the military leg wraps gifted by his layman and tied them up. After drinking water, finding food, and then starting on the road again.
It started pouring rain within two kilometers of leaving the city. When we first left the city, many media reporters followed along. Master Mingxian and the others walked fast, and the reporter shouted from behind, ‘Master, wait a moment.’. The heavy rain dispersed a large number of journalists. Despite the wind and rain, Master Mingxian and his team finally arrived at Xiaowang Village. The first day of westward journey has ended.
From then on, I kept moving forward day by day. The walking speed has also gradually increased, roughly around 100 kilometers per day. I still receive small notes from the organizing committee every day, which include the route I took that day and the places I stayed, stayed, and ate. Many times we depart before dawn and arrive at our destination at eleven or twelve in the evening. I have also stayed in hotels in some cities, and I was taken to a certain room in the hotel in the dark. Some conditions are better, while others are dark and humid. Sometimes we have to camp in the wilderness.
The first thing to do upon arrival at the destination is to undo the leg wrap. The soles of the feet are now covered in blood and flesh, and use a needle to puncture the blister. When sleeping, hang your feet outside. Wait until the soles of the feet are dry and the blisters are gone the next day, then reattach the leg wraps. This leg binding has been following Master Mingxian on his journey westward. Due to limited conditions, it has not been cleaned all the way and has already been soaked with pus and blood. After using it for a long time, it has also developed a certain hardness. Every time I wrap it up, I can hear a popping sound. After the event ended, Master Mingxian took it to the pool to clean. After soaking, the water was dyed red. After changing the water five times, it was finally washed out, but the original yellow color was already mixed with blood red.
The farthest one, Master Mingxian and his team walked for 16 hours. After going out of Bancheng County, you can enter the Dafengkou formed by Turpan Basin and Tianshan Mountain, Qiongdaban. On one hand, there is the scorching heat with an altitude as low as 70-80 meters below sea level, and on the other hand, there is the severe cold with a snow covered sky at an altitude of nearly 5000 meters. Fengfeng is an uninhabited area with constant strong winds throughout the year. It is also one of the top ten exploration routes in the country, and many professional exploration team members have never been able to come out after entering.
Looking at the boundless snow capped mountains, desolate and devoid of any green vegetation. I have been walking for several days and my body feels exhausted. But reality is cruel, if you can’t cross the wind according to the plan, you will be frozen into a big popsicle. The naan has been eaten up, and the water in the kettle has frozen into ice. Master Mingxian hooked his waist and struggled forward by picking rocks. The mountain road is rugged, and I sprained my foot more than ten times while walking among the rocks. A gust of wind blew, and the outside of the clothes was already frozen with ice, and sweat had already condensed. When the wind reached level 12 or above, Master Mingxian stood straight and his monk robe was blown up by the wind, tightly wrapped around his body like a rope.
Master Mingxian felt desperate and worried that his practice would be buried here, which would hinder his parents, brothers and sisters. This is a moment that tests willpower. In a desperate situation, we can only give it our all. More than 1300 years ago, when Master Xuanzang traveled westward, the conditions were naturally even more difficult and harsh than they are now. When fate arises, one naturally experiences it. The obstacles that briefly arose in Master Mingxian’s heart were quickly subdued.
The Influence Along the Way and the Journey to the West Diary
Throughout, Master Mingxian has kept as few accompanying equipment as possible, leaving as much space as possible to carry books with him. Here are Master Xuanzhuang’s “Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty”, books related to the True Consciousness and the Yogacara school, “Zen Gate Hymn”, teachings from Master Hanshan and Master Xuyun, modern Chinese and Western philosophy, as well as Jung’s psychology. They are all used for daily practice, deepening understanding of the scenery and Buddhist historical sites along the way, as well as solving psychological and social problems encountered along the way.
Master Mingxian had a clear and vivid understanding of the local customs, traditions, and current state of Buddhism in the places he visited. Once, when walking to a valley called Lubangou in Gansu, I saw collapsed ancient grottoes and Buddhist murals inside the caves. That is a place far away from human habitation and rarely visited by believers all year round. A Buddhist nun in her seventies who is overweight has been stationed there for many years. The old Bhikkhuni did not have a temple in Wuxi, so he built a bed in an open-air cave and covered it with a mosquito net with plastic sheeting. Seeing the arrival of the mages, the old bhikkhuni couldn’t help but burst into tears, crying and recounting how many people came to the cave to drive her away, hoping to develop this place into a tourist destination. After leaving, no one came to guard the cave for the Buddha Bodhisattva. Master Mingxian encouraged the old bhikkhuni to restore the temple and ensure that there would be successors, while silently taking out as many resources and money as possible to leave for her.
When they first entered Yanqi County, Xinjiang, they did not see any traces of Buddhism along the way. I stayed at a hotel in the county that night. At two or three o’clock in the morning, someone knocked on the door. After opening the door, there were six or seven elderly people who bowed and cried when they saw Master Mingxian. I learned from the elderly that Yanqi County has never established a Buddhist association, temples, or lay forests. I was very happy to see the monk retrace his westward journey on TV, and the joyful Buddhist monk finally arrived. They want to apply to the local government to hold a welcome ceremony and also take this opportunity to apply for a Buddhist temple. Unexpectedly, he was summoned by the local authorities for a conversation. The elderly people were trembling with fear one by one.
Master Mingxian advises the elderly not to worry. From now on, everyone should start working hard to draft a constitution for establishing a Buddhist association and then apply to the government. Before leaving, he inscribed the five words’ Xuanzang Nianfo Hall ‘as a gift to the elderly. Until the end of 2012, the layman in charge of leading the way approached Master Mingxian before the New Year and told him the good news that the local Buddhist association had been approved by the higher authorities. These things have been recorded by Master Mingxian in his blog. Every day, one or two hours before going to bed, he would pick up the phone, call a layman in Nanchang, and narrate the day’s itinerary. After the layman sorted it out, he would simultaneously publish it on his blog and share it with his friends. In the past five months, except for more than twenty days when the environment was particularly harsh, the work of oral blogging has been ongoing. The content includes the places visited throughout the day, the historical scenery along the way, Buddhist historical relics, and the current survival status of Buddhism.
Master Mingxian often recounted that halfway through, he had already fallen asleep groggily on his stomach. The layman on the other end shouted desperately on the phone, “Master, can you hear me?” “Oh, yes, where was I?” Following the layman’s reminder, the oral blog continued.
Until now, Master Mingxian is still constantly supplementing and improving this precious travelogue, hoping to publish and distribute it in the future. Through this, more people can have a rich and comprehensive understanding of Master Xuanzang and the history and current situation of his journey to the west, opening a window for the world to rediscover Buddhism and monks.
On November 26, 2006, Master Mingxian and his companions finally arrived at Nalanda University in India according to the scheduled plan. Received a warm welcome from the school principal and fellow monks. In the welcome speech, Principal Pant said that they have been looking forward to the arrival of the westbound monks all along. But there is also concern that the event may be influenced and turned into a show. Sure enough, today Chinese monks came as promised, using purely religious communication methods, showcasing the experiences of monks who arrived in India after experiencing countless mountains and rivers, similar to those of Master Xuanzang back then.
Master Mingxian and his two companions hand copied the calligraphy they carried along the way, including “Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty” and “Six Groups of Altar Sutras”. They created a statue of a master in mysterious attire by combining the water from the Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River, the soil from the Yellow Emperor’s Mausoleum, and the soil from Alishan and Riyue Mountains in Taiwan, and presented it to Nalanda Temple.
For Master Mingxian personally, ‘retraceing Tang Monk’s journey westward’ is an unforgettable mark on his personal path of studying Buddhism. Although I do not possess the extraordinary wisdom and abilities of Master Xuanzhuang, I have honed a kind of perseverance and courage to uphold justice.
