Pilgrimage

In 629 ad, Xuanzang reportedly had a dream that convinced him to journey to India . The Tang Dynasty and Eastern Türk Göktürks were waging war at that point oftime; therefore Emperor Tang Taizong had prohibited foreign travel . Xuanzang persuaded some Buddhist guards at the gates of Yumen and slipped out of the empire via Liangzhou (Gansu), and Qinghai province . He subsequently travelled across the Gobi Desert to Kumul (Hami), thence following the Tian Shan westward, arriving in Turfan in 630 ad . Here he met the king of Turfan, a Buddhist who equipped him further for his travels with letters of introduction and valuables to serve as funds .
Moving further westward, Xuanzang escaped robbers to reach Yanqi, then toured the Theravada monasteries of Kucha . after travelling Further west he passed Aksu before turning northwest to cross the Tian Shan's Bedal Pass into modern Kyrgyzstan . He skirted Issyk Kul before visiting Tokmak on its northwest, and met the great Khan of the Western Türk, whose relationship to the Tang emperor was friendly at that time . After a feast, Xuanzang continued west then southwest to Tashkent (Chach/Che-Shih), capital of modern day Uzbekistan . From there, he crossed the desert further west to Samarkand. In Samarkand, which was under Persian influence, the party came across some abandoned Buddhist temples and Xuanzang impressed the local king with his preaching . Setting out again to the south, Xuanzang crossed a spur of the Pamirs and passed through the famous Iron Gates. Continuing southward, he reached the Amu Darya and Termez, where he encountered a community of more than a thousand Buddhist monks .
After travelling Further east he passed through Kunduz, where he stayed for some time to witness the funeral rites of Prince Tardu, who had been poisoned . Here he met the monk Dharmasimha, and on the advice of the late Tardu made the trip westward to Balkh (modern day Afghanistan), to see the Buddhist sites and relics, especially the Nava Vihara, or Nawbahar, which he described as the westernmost monastic institution in the world . Here Xuanzang also found over 3,000 Theravada monks, including Prajnakara, a monk with whom Xuanzang studied Theravada scriptures . He acquired the important [Mahāvibhāṣa] text here, which he later translated into Chinese . Prajnakara then accompanied the party southward to Bamyan, where Xuanzang met the king and saw tens of Theravada monasteries, in addition to the two large Bamyan Buddhas carved out of the rockface . The party then resumed their travel eastward, crossing the Shibar pass and descending to the regional capital of Kapisi (about 60 km north of modern Kabul), which sported over 100 monasteries and 6,000 monks, mostly Mahayana. This was part of the fabled old land of Gandhara . Xuanzang took part in a religious debate here, and demonstrated his knowledge of many Buddhist sects . Here he also met the first Jains and Hindus of his journey. He pushed on to Jalalabad and Laghman, where he considered himself to have reached India . That was in the year 630 ad .