Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c4.s2.20

v1.c4.s2.20

Faxian went to India with nine other fellow students to seek the Buddhist Vinaya. Some of them returned midway, some fell sick and died in India and some settled in India. Faxian visited holy places in India, studied dharma and gathered and transcribed sutras. In 414 CE, he passed by Sri Lanka, Java and other places and came back to China by sea. Later, he wrote a memoir i.e. *A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms* (also called *Biography of Faxian*) and translated many *sutras*. This memoir which included what Faxian had experienced, seen and heard along the way to India as well as the state of Buddhism and local customs then prevailing in India has a significant value for studying the Indian history of that age.