Hyecho's Journey: The World of Buddhism

by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

In the year 721, a young Buddhist monk named Hyecho set out from the kingdom of Silla, on the Korean peninsula, on what would become one of the most extraordinary journeys in history. Sailing first to China, Hyecho continued to what is today Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, before taking the Silk Road and heading back east, where he ended his days on the sacred mountain of Wutaishan in China.
            With Hyecho’s Journey , eminent scholar of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. re-creates Hyecho’s trek. Using the surviving fragments of Hyecho’s travel memoir, along with numerous other textual and visual sources, Lopez imagines the thriving Buddhist world the monk explored. Along the way, Lopez introduces key elements of Buddhism, including its basic doctrines, monastic institutions, works of art, and the many stories that have inspired Buddhist pilgrimage. Through the eyes of one remarkable Korean monk, we discover a vibrant tradition flourishing across a vast stretch of Asia. Hyecho’s Journey is simultaneously a rediscovery of a forgotten pilgrim, an accessible primer on Buddhist history and doctrine, and a gripping, beautifully illustrated account of travel in a world long lost.
 

Genres: Religion, Buddhism, History, Art

208 pages, Hardcover

Published December 21, 2017

About the author

Donald Sewell Lopez, Jr. (born 1952) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Son of the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Donald S. Lopez.

Reviews

[Melos Han-Tani · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly a perfect general-audience academic book. fun structure, has a strong awareness of when a concept is unlikely to be known by the general reader. you really get a sense for the richness of the asian world in the 700s - the book talks about different countries, buddhist practices, art, etc that Hyecho (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyecho) would have seen during his journey. pretty wild how much buddhism was spreading then

[vicente elizondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

bedtime stories become sacred texts

[Eric Donarski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book during my time at the University of Michigan, while taking Dr. Lopez's class on Buddhism. Lucky to have such an elegant book, luckier still to take the class.

[Blair Walker]

I only read the introduction, and the short part about Silla.