Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of En...
Religion, history, and travel collide as Richard Bernstein sets out to follow in the footsteps of Hsuan Tsang, a Buddhist monk who traveled across ...
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reviews
Oct 02, 2009
John
rated it: 
Thought I was getting into another exciting spiritual journey here. Not at all.
An awful and tedious book. How much more interesting must the supposed subject of the book, the 7th century Chinese monk Hsuang Tsang, than Bernstein himself? How much more sympathetic are the impoverished Kazakhs, Afghans, Uzbekhs, Indians etc. that Bernstein complains endlessly about than the author himself.
This really could be read as a study of the impossibility of travel, especially f More...
An awful and tedious book. How much more interesting must the supposed subject of the book, the 7th century Chinese monk Hsuang Tsang, than Bernstein himself? How much more sympathetic are the impoverished Kazakhs, Afghans, Uzbekhs, Indians etc. that Bernstein complains endlessly about than the author himself.
This really could be read as a study of the impossibility of travel, especially f More...
May 06, 2010
Jim
rated it: 
If I had come at this book as primarily an account of the spiritual journey of a 7th century Buddhist monk (which is how the publisher has packaged it) I probably would not have liked it as much as I did. I knew, going in, that this was more about the author’s travels through Central Asia and China, and that was what I was in the mood for at the time. As it is, 4 stars seem a bit too generous, but 3 stars, too stingy.
Journalist Richard Bernstein follows the route of the monk Hsuang More...
Journalist Richard Bernstein follows the route of the monk Hsuang More...
May 08, 2011
Alana
rated it: 
I really enjoyed parts of this book although I wish I'd known more about Asia before starting. The beginning was a bit tedious and hard to get through but once he got going on the journey and his girlfriend took off the book started to pick up. I feel grateful for his comment in the beginning about how to pronounce some of the Chinese words, however, I still felt I stumbled over a lot of the names of people and places adding to the slowness in the beginning. There were some great descriptions of
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Mar 24, 2009
Alyssa
rated it:
I bought this book several years ago from my university's bookstore, but didn't get around to reading it until now. In it, Bernstein follows Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang's route through China and India in search of the meaning of Buddhist texts.
I did have a bit of trouble getting into this book. It started with a lot of history and some theory that can be tough to wade through if you're not accustomed to reading that sort of thing (which I'm really not). As he gets further into China More...
I did have a bit of trouble getting into this book. It started with a lot of history and some theory that can be tough to wade through if you're not accustomed to reading that sort of thing (which I'm really not). As he gets further into China More...
Nov 17, 2008
John
rated it:
The first few chapters in "Han" (as opposed to ethnic minority) China were slow going, but once the author's Chinese girlfriend heads back to Beijing for work, the memoir aspect takes a back seat, and the travel narrative gears up. Most the adventure is spent off the tourist trail, although there are indications that such won't be the case for much longer, given the expanding "adventure travel" market. Strikes a great balance between the historical story, and modern day findi
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Aug 17, 2011
Matt
rated it:
Very cool non-fiction piece about a journalist who retraces the journey of a Buddhist monk across modern-day China.
Jun 21, 2008
Theadra
rated it:
I liked it, but I felt like I wasn't really smart enough to get all of it. I liked the juxtaposition of the author's travel over the explination of Buddhism, but felt like I wanted to know more of the Monk's travel. I felt that, though he was the impetus for the journey, not enough time was devoted to the Monk or his own journey. More that he was a side note.
Jan 16, 2011
Beth
rated it:
So far, I like the way that personal narrative and contextual information (historical, cultural, geographic)is balanced in this book.
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