The Best Graduate Student in Religious Studies: Xuanzang

Xuanzang took a round trip from China to India by foot during the early 7th century.  Talk about the ultimate backpacking trip!   This map charts his journey:



(http://www.silk-road.com/artl/hsuantsang.shtml)

When I think about his journey, I can't help but think about graduate school.  He's arguably the best graduate student in world history:

• He realized that China didn't have comprehensive detail about Buddhism and needed more credible sources.


• He defied the emperor Tang Taizong's orders went against everyone's advice.  Makes modern visa issues seem like a trifle.


• He did amazing fieldwork.  He learned dozen foreign languages and befriended many locals.  Plus there's the whole let's make a loop around India thing.


• Buddhism in India was on the wane, so he went just in time before Buddhist knowledge became irrelevant in India.


• As John Keay in A History of China puts it, he brought 500 trunks, an ENTIRE LIBRARY's worth of Buddhist text carried by HUNDREDS of monks.  He brought an ENTIRE UNIVERSITY with him!  Sadly, one of his elephants fell in a precipice.


• Emperor Tang Taizong ordered 'Great Pagoda of the Wild Goose' to house all of Xuanzang's precious text.  It's essentially a university for Xuanzang.  I use the present tense of the verb "is" because IT'S STILL THERE, 1400 years later!  Take that Cambridge!

(Shablam!  All in it's jpeg glory!)

It's easy to bash humanities graduate students and say that their work serves little to no practical purpose towards humanity.  Then I think about this pagoda, and how Xuanzang permanently changed the moral values of east Asia.

I'm still considering graduate school in Chinese literature.

I have a new twitter!  Feel free to add me: @TPolmelo.  Feel free to comment on grad school or any other thoughts as well!