Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator, becomes famous for his seventeen-year overland journey to India.

Xuanzang and his brother, at the collapse of thet Sui Dynasty in 618, had fled to Chang'an, which had been proclaimed as the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and thence southward to Chengdu, Sichuan.

Here the two brothers had spent two or three years in further study in the monastery of Kong Hui, including the Abhidharmakosa-sastra (Abhidharma Storehouse Treatise).

When Xuanzang requested to take Buddhist orders at the age of thirteen, the abbot Zheng Shanguo had made an exception in his case because of his precocious knowledge.

Xuanzang had been fully ordained as a monk in 622, at the age of twenty.

The myriad contradictions and discrepancies in the texts at this time have prompted Xuanzang to decide to go to India and study in the cradle of Buddhism.

He subsequently left his brother and returned to Chang'an to study foreign languages and to continue his study of Buddhism.

He began his mastery of Sanskrit in 626, and probably also studied Tocharian.

During this time, Xuanzang had also became interested in the metaphysical Yogacara school of Buddhism.

Xuanzang reportedly has a dream that persuades him to journey to India.

The Tang Dynasty and Eastern Türk Göktürks are waging war at this time; therefore Emperor Taizong of Tang has prohibited foreign travel.

Xuanzang persuades some Buddhist guards at the gates of Yumen and slips out of the empire via Liangzhou (Gansu), and Qinghai province in 629.

The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, having embarked on his journey to the monasteries of Southern Asia, travels across the Gobi Desert to Kumul (Hami), thence …

…following the Tian Shan westward in 630 to arrive in Turpan.

Here he meets the king of Turpan, a Buddhist who equips him further for his travels with letters of introduction and valuables to serve as funds.

Moving further westward, …

…Xuanzang escapes robbers to reach Yanqi, then …

…tours the non-Mahayana monasteries of Kucha.

Further west, …

…Xuanzang passes Aksu before turning northwest …

…to cross the Tian Shan's Bedel Pass into modern Kyrgyzstan.

Xuangzang skirts Issyk Kul …

…before visiting Tokmak on its northwest, and meets the great Khan of the Western Türk, whose relationship to the Tang emperor is friendly at the time.

After a feast, …