Buddhism in the eyes of Chinese pilgrims

Abstract

The book titled “Buddhism in the Eyes of Chinese Pilgrims” was translated and edited by S. Thammawisai. The original text is the writing “Buddhism in India as Described by the Chinese Pilgrims AD 399-698” written by Kanai Lal Hazra, which was published in Dhammajak, totaling 15 episodes. The editorial team of Dhammajak has collected and published this book, which has 201 pages. The overall content of this book is the story of 3 Chinese pilgrims who traveled to India: Fa Xian, Xiang Zang, and Yi Jing, including stories about Buddhism from various perspectives from the records of the 3 pilgrims, which reflects the image of Buddhism in India at that time. The reviewer was interested in the book “Buddhism in the Eyes of Chinese Pilgrims” because its content is both historical and Buddhist. The content reflects the way of life of ancient Indians, showing Buddhist culture and traditions, allowing one to understand the social costs of that era. The reviewer had previously studied the topic of social costs in social science, which was one of the inspirations for wanting to read and study this book.