Record of the Western Regions

The Records of the Western Regions, also known by its Chinese names Datang Xiyuji or Da Tang Xiyu Ji, is the account of a journey of about nineteen years made by the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, from Tang China to medieval India and back, in the mid-seventh century CE. The work was compiled in 646, after the monk completed a trip that had taken place between 626 and 645. His disciple Bianji spent more than a year putting it into writing from Xuanzang's dictation.

The text traces the pilgrim's route, which set out from the imperial capital of Chang'an, in today's Shaanxi Province, and followed the Silk Road through what are now Gansu and Xinjiang. He crossed Central Asia, skirted the Himalayas and reached India, travelling as far south as Kanchipuram. Alongside religious material, it records observations on geography, climate, products, languages, history, politics, economy, customs and religion across some 110 countries and regions, from Xinjiang to Afghanistan, eastern Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, northern India and Sri Lanka.

Although his departure from China had been illegal, Emperor Taizong of Tang received Xuanzang on his return and commissioned this record for the official archives. It is now regarded as an essential source for historians and archaeologists. It offers evidence of Buddhist culture in seventh-century Afghanistan, the earliest textual references to the Buddhist sculptures at Bamiyan, and descriptions of distances and locations that have guided excavations at sites such as Rajagrha, Sarnath, the Ajanta Caves and the ruins of Nalanda. His travels are also credited with partly spreading sugar-making techniques in medieval China and India. The work inspired the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, published in the Ming dynasty.