This Ancient Chinese Map Details Hiuen Tsang’s Route Through India

Hiuen Tsang. There’s a name that probably rings a bell. Dive deep into your repository of forgotten knowledge from your schooldays and you’re likely to find him there. A legendary traveller, Hiuen Tsang journeyed to India to learn more in an attempt to learn more about Buddhism. He had embraced the religion and at the age of 20 became a monk but still felt that his spiritual journey was incomplete. He left China in secret and made the long and arduous journey across the Himalayas to visit the many sacred Buddhist sites across India.

The accounts of his travels have been widely regarded as some of the best insights into ancient India, and his knowledge greatly aided the cartographers of his age. However outlining maps is a difficult business, and before his return Chinese geographers had very little information to work with. This map, by M.Klaproth from the Great Japanese Encyclopedia for the illustration of the Foe Koue Ki. It differs in some details from Hiuen Tsang’s memoirs and was possibly constructed using many conflicting accounts.

Map makers were well known for adding artistic elements to their maps to improve their aesthetics and at the whims of their superiors, sometimes at the cost of their accuracy. They provide a tremendous insight into a fading past and in our age of satellite images and GPS, it’s tragic that this meticulous and treasured art is quickly being forgotten.

View the full map here.