Ten Thousand miles Without a Cloud is Chinese metaphor for absolute clarity. It is the title of a book by Sun Shuyun, a Chinese filmmaker settled in UK. She travels more than ten thousand miles to retrace the travels of Xuanzang (or Hieun Tsang as he is known in India), A Chinese monk who lived in 7th century AD. The death of her father, an armyman, broken and embittered, sets her thinking. She herself was successfully indoctrinated during the cultural revolution and is a typical product of Mao's revolution. However the changes that swept through China in eighties and nineties and her own experiences abroad have shaken those foundations. A well known Chinese folk tale "The Monkey King", a fictionalised account of Xuanzang's travels and a chance conversation with an Indian student at Oxford leads her to discover the monk. Curiosity to learn more about the monk and his travels and a desire to search for meaning, something to believe in leads her to embark on an ambitious journey retracing Xuanzang's footsteps along the Silk Route, from Xian to India. Memories of her own grandmother's devout Buddhism amidst the Cultural Revolution and in face of ridicule at home hover in the background.
This is a delightful book. Aprt from large doses of history and snippets from Xuanzong's own account and his biography, the book contains surprising insights into Chinese society and recent history. For example, we learn that the context for Cultural Revolution was the religious fervour that swept China in the late fifties when the authorities relaxed their grip on religious freedom. Similarly the intellectual climate sweeping through Beijing university in the mid eighties contained the seeds of the Tiananmen protests. Of course Sun Shuyun doesn't talk about the massacre itself as she had moved out of China by then. Her description of the present day situation in Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) is interesting. The sense of alienation felt by Uighurs and the apparent lack of social interaction between them and Han Chinese is troubling and familar. Many Indians would find this familiar as we remember the complete breakdown of interaction between Hindus and Muslims during times of riots and between Pandits and Muslims in Kashmir. While it is known that China faces separatism in Xinjiang the extent of the problem is not well appreciated. If the sense of alienation is as deep as Sun Shuyun portrays then China may just be storing up trouble for future. Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen were seminal events in modern Chinese history. May be the next big shake up will take place in the western regions.
Sun Shuyun's portrayal of this situation is balanced and sympathetic. Impressive given that she herself acknowledges the drawbacks of the Han Chinese society - inward looking and a sense of cultural supremacy. However her portrayal of Xuanzang's is as hagiographic as they come. Of course no one can fail to be impressed by his achievements. He crossed over 100 countries and was on the road for 18 years. He was single handedly responsible for bringing back a large number of Buddhist sutras and translating a number of them. It will not be an exaggeration to say that he strengthened the foundations of Buddhism in China and ensured that it will live on for centuries together. He was set upon by bandits, lost his way in the desert and amidst snowstorms, had to turn down rulers keen on holding him back in their countires and even turned down a princess' hand! And to think that he set out in violation of an Imperial decree banning foreign travel. His steadfastness, intelligence and dedication stand out. His was an achievement more diffcult than Marco Polo's and unlike Polo he accomplished his goals.
Xuanzang wrote a book "Record of the Western Regions" a detailed acocunt of the places he visited and the things he saw. This book proved invaluable to future historians across Central Asia and in India to rediscover lost sites and to reconstruct history. Sun Shuyun finds that Xuanzang is revered in many countries even today precisely for this reason. His account was a beacon in the darkness of the past in these countries. His reputation outside China is completely opposite to the way he is remembered inside China where the fictional account of the "Monkey King" has taken precedence over the truth. Hijacking truth was not the prerogative of Communicst China alone. Imperial China also had uses for false history. Be as it may, Sun Shuyun doesn't dwell too much on why a Buddhist monk wrote such a book in first place. She acknowledges that Xuanzang wrote the book to please Emperor Taizong whose patronage he needed for his massive translation job. Xuanzang needed to make up with the Emperor after having defied him by leaving the country. Also an Imperial stamp of approval would not hurt the chances of Buddhsim versus other faiths. But is it possible that Xuanzang made his journey with the knowledge and approval of the Emperor and he was in fact spying for the Tang Empire? We will never know. For historians in India and other Central Asian countries it doesn't matter.
In India itself, all traces of Buddhism had vanished till the nineteenth century when Alexander Cunningham, thanks to Xuanzang's account, single handedly unearthed scores of Buddhist sites and rediscovered Buddhism for India. It is an amazing, unbelievable story and must have cleared Sun Shuyun's doubts about why Xuanzang was so revered outside China. But then how did Buddhism vanish from India? Even today Buddhism with its egalitarian world view is refreshing. In Buddha's times, it must have been nothing short of revolutionary. It represented a direct attack on the ruling elite of those days, the Kshatriyas and the Brahmins. As Sun Shuyun recounts Buddhism was wiped out of India by a combination of the martial and the spiritual. In South India, the reformation movement sparked by Adi Sankara provided an intellectual chanllenge that Buddhism could not meet. In the North, it was the Afghan invaders who did a thorough job of destorying Buddhist sites and converting followers. Indeed, this is one recurring theme throughout Sun Shuyun's book and the places she visits - how the spread of Islam spelt the death knell of Buddhism - in Central Asia, Afghanistan and North India. Along with the author, we mourn the death of Buddhism, the desecration of places of worship and the loss of priceless art in these places. We also relive the agony of those days when the Taliban choose to destory the Bamiyan Buddhas. It is chilling that modern day fundamentalists can summon the same ferocity and hatred that drove their medieval ancestors. All the progress in science, education, culture, of what avail are these? But then as Buddha would say nothing is permanent.
Sun Shuyun's travels in India also offer a contrast in how the dalits, the oppressed, adopt different modes to fight for emacipation in Bihar and Maharashtra. In Bihar the language of the bullet speaks loudest. In Maharashtra, inspired by Ambedkar's example, dalits make their point by renouncing Hindusim and embracing Buddhism. Buddhism gave them dignity and helps them realise the power of the mind. As the author finds out, they have embraced a form of Zen Buddhism that would be alien to many of the followers in China. Indeed, Chinese Buddhism sounds suspiciously like Hindusim with all its superstitions and pantheon of Gods. Surely this was not what Buddha envisioned?
Probably that is why Sun Shuyun is still struggling with her understanding of Buddhism by the end of the book. She doesn't attain the proverbial clarity at the end of it all. She is still confused about Yogacara for which Xuanzang made the trip in the first place. But she discovers that the reason Buddhism is so appealing is that it places emphasis on the mind above all else. One can change one's life by the way one looks at it. Your mind is what matters and you can transform it. Looked at in this manner, Buddha was the pioneer for the self help industry! Although I am ignorant of Buddhism, if it has given hopes to dalits of Inida, if it has allowed them to restore dignity to their lives by changing a way of thinking, then it is truly revolutionary and deserves serious attention. What is best about this book is hat Sun Shuyun discovers that Buddhism can be better understood from the lives of people who practice it in various ways rather than by reading scriptures or following rituals. Her grandmother, Sister Shah Ren at the Thunderbolt monastery, the monk Duan at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the dalits in Kushinagar. Her own journey of self discovery ends at her grandmother's grave where she pays homage and regrets that she and her family didn't give her grandmother the respect, tolerance and understanding due anyone. If this is the one abiding learning from her journey, then it has been worthwhile. And worthwhile for me also. Read the book, you won't regret it.
