The Travels of Fa-Hsien
(399-414 A.D.)
or
Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms
Translated by
Professor H.A. Giles
Routledge & Kegal Paul
London, 1923
As a very early travel-log this is an interesting work; for the Buddhist, it does not have much to offer. It is mostly composed of "X distance from here, one finds Y where the Buddha did this and a pagoda was built." Here and there one will find descriptions of various legends concerning the original bhikkhus and the Buddha. These mostly have little resemblance to the stories found in the Pāḷi cannon we have today. There is no description of the doctrines held by the various peoples encountered. No description of the differences between the Greater and Lesser Vehicles. There are some interesting things to be found by reading between the lines. There were easily a million renunciate bhikkhus existant at the time. Most of the people encountered on the journey were Buddhists of one sort or another and both seem to have been, shall we say, "interested" in aquisition of power and wealth. The rules of the Vinaya seem to have been largely the same throughout the regions traversed, but there were some slight differences. Also, these rules were mostly not written down. It was the main purpose of Fa-Hsien to obtain a copy of the written rules (along with a number of sutttas, apparently not available in China), and he only found two versions that were written down. The rest were passed from one Master to the next. Land was given to the orders by way of a 'perpetual' deed which was written on a metal plate.
Beal has written about this book, but Giles states that Beal's work is full of errors. I read the Giles translation in book form, and it is readily available as an expensive paperback, or is downloadable for free from here. See just below.
That's about it.
Giles, The Travels of Fa-Hsien
Beal, Buddhist Records
