Ultimate Journey : Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search ofEnlightenment

by Richard Bernstein

Release Date: 05 February, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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Not a travelogue, but an enjoyable pen-Ultimate journey

As Bernstein quotes in the book, "No ship ever takes you away from yourself." And just as Conrad's journeys in the Congo were deeper than just a boat ride, Bernstein's travels through China, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and India are not only a travelogue, but a personal journey at age 50. Most American school children are familiar with Marco Polo, who traveled from Europe to Asia. Some Jewish children are familiar with Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish explorer. But nearly none are familiar with Hsuan Tsang, a Monk who lived in 603-664, who was the greatest land traveler in history. Nearly all Asian children know of his esteemed adventures. Hsuan Tsang wrote "The Great Tang Chronicles of The Western World", based on his over fifteen years and 10,000 miles of journeys, journeys made by foot, horse, camel, and elephant. While Marco Polo sought riches, Monk Hsuan Tsang sought the source of reality and Buddhist Wisdom (although his emperor sought details to help craft military and political policies). Fast forward over 1,300 years. The author, raised on a chicken farm, is a book critic for The New York Times. He is a former Harvard Chinese History student, was a Peace Corps volunteer (in China), and was Time Magazine's Beijing bureau chief. When he turned fifty years of age, Bernstein, unmarried (half a man as the Talmud wrote) and antsy, moody and difficult to please, decided to fulfill some promises that he made to himself. These included sailing to Tahiti, reading Proust, writing a novel, making furniture, and, oh, yes, following the 5,000 mile route of Hsuan Tsang from China to Southern India. And so, Bernstein gets some time off from The Times, packs a bag, flies to Hong Kong and Xian China, and embarks on Hsuan Tsang's trek (although his Chinese American girlfriend does join this commitment-phobe for part of the trip). A great read for 2001.

[Jewish readers will especially want to read Chapter 16, in which Bernstein, arriving in West Bengal on a Friday afternoon, seeks out the Calcutta synagogue he had noted on an earlier visit in 1970. Seeking to satiate a desire for tribal attachment, he finds the Sephardic services at the Canning Street shul (no longer on Synagogue Street), and is the tenth man for the Shabbat minyan]

Middle-Life crisis meets Buddhism

In 629 AD, a Buddhist monk named Hsuan Tsang, unnerved by his homeland's centuries of political and religious struggles, left China to search for and reinterpret the original texts of Buddhism. Sixteen long years later, journeying through Samarkand, Pakistan and finally to India, he returned in triumph with the True Teachings of the Buddha, and wrote an epic which is considered one of China's greatest literary masterpieces.

Bernstein, a book critic for the New York Times and former Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine, recreates Hsuan Tsang's long and sinuous route. Middle-aged, unmarried, feeling a spiritual loneliness most of us who follow a "non-practicing" faith in the West could relate to, he sets out with the conviction that his journey can bring back the youthful vitality and hope he had felt while in India nearly 30 years ago.

Ultimate Journey holds a great balance of travelogue, Chinese history and Buddhist teachings, all with great precision, pace and excitement. Though Bernstein does not know much about Buddhism, he does know Chinese, and vividly recreates Hsuan Tsang's world and the troubles plaguing him. He faced many of the same perils as Hsuan Tsang, and juxtaposes these experiences throughout the book. Hostile Mongol regimes are replaced with hostile Islamic regimes, mountain ranges are just as inaccessible, language and cultural barriers remain, and border crossings are just as real and difficult as those of 1400 years ago.

The book is a great interpretation of East Asia as seen through a Westerner's eyes. He is at times elitist, ignorant of local customs, and often whines about middle age and lost youth, which I got tired of reading after a while. But then, who at times hasn't mourned their lost youth or felt some ping of spiritual void while sitting in a cubicle with a cold cup of coffee and a looming deadline for a client's project? He is honest, spilling his fears and dreams, and pining for his girlfriend, the Chinese dancer Zhongmei Li .

While Hsuan Tsang's journey ended with his triumphant return on an elephant and cartloads of Buddhist texts, Bernstein ends with a few mediocre tourist sites in China and Zhongmei back in his arms. Not a world-shattering event, but I think he finally found what he was looking for.