Hyecho (; 704–787) was a Korean

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

from

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

, one of Korea's

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

. He is primarily remembered for his account of his travels in

medieval India Medieval India was a long period of post-classical history in the Indian subcontinent between the ancient and modern periods. It is usually regarded as running approximately from the break-up of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century to the star ...

, the .

Life

Hyecho studied esoteric Buddhism in

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, initially under

Śubhakarasiṃha Śubhakarasiṃha (637–735 CE) () was an eminent Indian Buddhist monk and translator of Esoteric Buddhist texts. He originally studied in Nalanda monastery and later arrived in the Chinese capital Chang'an (now Xi'an) in 716 CE and trans ...

and then under the famous Indian monk Vajrabodhi who praised Hyecho as "one of six living persons who were well-trained in the five sections of the Buddhist canon." On the advice of his Indian teachers in China, he set out for India in 723 to acquaint himself with the language and culture of the land of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

Works

During his journey of India, Hyecho wrote a travelogue in Chinese named the ''Memoir of a Pilgrimage to the Five Kingdoms of India'' (, ). The travelogue reveals that Hyecho, after arriving by sea in India headed to the Indian Kingdom of

Magadha Magadha was a region and kingdom in ancient India, based in the eastern Ganges Plain. It was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Second Urbanization period. The region was ruled by several dynasties, which overshadowed, conquered, and ...

(present-day

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

), then moved on to visit

Kushinagar Kushinagar (Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India, east of Gorakhpur on National Highway 27, Kushinagar is a Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha died. Etymology Acc ...

and

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

. However Hyecho's journey did not end there and he continued north, where he visited Lumbini (present-day

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

, the Arabs. Hyecho left India following the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

towards the west, via Agni or

Karasahr Karasahr or Karashar (), which was originally known in the Tocharian languages as ''Ārśi'' (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi ( zh, s=焉耆, p=Yānqí, w=Yen-ch'i), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capi ...

, to China where the account ends in 729 CE. He referred to three kingdoms lying to the northeast of Kashmir which were "under the suzerainty of the Tibetans…. The country is narrow and small, and the mountains and valleys very rugged. There are monasteries and monks, and the people faithfully venerate the

Three Jewels In Buddhism, refuge or taking refuge refers to a religious practice which often includes a prayer or recitation performed at the beginning of the day or of a practice session. Its object is typically the Three Jewels (also known as the Triple ...

. As to the kingdom of Tibet to the East, there are no monasteries at all and the Buddha's teaching is unknown; but in hese above-mentionedcountries the population consists of Hu, therefore they are believers."(Petech, The ''Kingdom of Ladakh'', p. 10), Rizvi (1996), p. 56. Rizvi goes on to point out that this passage not only confirms that in the early eighth century the region of modern

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

was under Tibetan suzerainty, but that the people were of non-Tibetan stock. It took Hyecho approximately four years to complete his journey. The travelogue contains much information on local diet, languages, climate, cultures, and political situations. It is mentioned that Hyecho witnessed the decline of Buddhism in India. He also found it quite interesting to see the cattle roaming freely around cities and villages. The travelogue was lost for many years until a fragment of it was rediscovered by

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...

in the

Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...

in China in 1908 and was subsequently translated into different languages over the years. The original fragment is now in France.

Excerpt: Hyecho on Jibin

One of the important excerpts from Hyecho's work relates to his visit Jibin ( Kapisa) in 726 CE: for example, he reports that the country was ruled by a Turk King, thought to be one of the Turk Shahis, and that his Queen and dignitaries practice Buddhism ( 三寶, " Triratna"):

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * *

External links

*
Fully digitized "Wang ocheonchukguk jeon" on International Dunhuang Project website
{{Authority control 704 births 787 deaths Buddhist monks Korean Buddhist monks Korean Buddhists 8th-century Buddhist monks 8th-century Buddhists Explorers of Asia Silla Buddhist monks Vajrayana Pilgrimage accounts Explorers of South Asia Explorers of Nepal Korean expatriates in India 8th-century travelers