The stele tells the story of the mission of 635 CE: how a man from the west, a Christian monk called Rabban Olopun, brought the Christian scriptures to China, and how, ‘following the direction of the winds through great perils and difficulties’, he arrived in Chang’an. There followed an audience with Emperor Taizong in which the monk explained the Christian message and the emperor ordered the Christian scriptures to be translated in the imperial library.
