Sun Shuyun: Ten Thousand Miles Without A Cloud

Reviewed by JIM EAGLES

This is a stunning story of three great journeys. First, is the 7th-century journey of Xuanzang, a Chinese monk who travelled the Silk Road to India to learn about the Buddha's teachings at first hand.

Second is the spiritual journey of Sun Shuyun, a child of Mao's cultural revolution, who comes to question the slogans she and her classmates once parroted so enthusiastically, and hopes to find alternatives to Maoism in the Buddhism practised in secret by her beloved grandmother.

And third is the physical journey Sun makes, tracing the footsteps of Xuanzang, through the wilds of Central Asia and the sacred places of Buddhism.

Those journeys intertwine to create a wonderful tapestry of life in the China and India, and along the perilous route connecting them, as it was 1400 years ago and as it is today.

The round trips of both monk and latterday disciple start and finish in the ancient Chinese capital of Xian, best known for its terracotta army but also home to the Wild Goose Pagoda, where Xuanzang lived for much of his life.

Sun's description of it mingles Xuanzang's records of the majestic imperial city of his day, her own view of the hectic modern city of today, and conversations with the few remaining monks about life under Mao and the relevance of Buddhism in the 21st century.

The destination for both journeys is the Indian state of Bihar, spiritual home of Buddhism but a place where the Buddha is almost forgotten.

There, like millions of pilgrims before her, Sun marvels at Bodh Gaya, site of the Bhodi tree under which Buddha received enlightenment, Benares, where he first preached, Kashinagar, where he died, and Rambhar Stupa, where he was cremated.

Once again, she discusses Buddhism with monks from throughout the world, learning about the state of the faith in other countries and coming to understand the different things Buddhism means to different people. And once again she uses the descriptions in Xuanhang's journal to appreciate what those places were like in Buddhism's heyday, descriptions so accurate they were used by English archaeologist Alexander Cunningham to locate the Buddhist relics after they had been lost for hundreds of years.

In between those pivotal points is 10,000km of the Silk Road, the link between two often hostile empires, a dangerous but fascinating place, where bandits and snowstorms, rebels and bureaucrats, all pose a threat.

Little remains today of that once crucial highway, but Sun does discover magnificent Buddhist caves, ancient pagodas, the remnants of the once-vital silk industry and, everywhere, people struggling to keep Buddhism alive, often inspired by the story of Xuanzang.

Xuanzang's epic journey led to a revival of Buddhism in China. But what of Sun's?

By the end of her pilgrimage she has a greater appreciation of China and two of the great forces that have shaped it - Buddhism and Maoism - and has come to accept one of Buddha's fundamental messages: you can change your life by changing the way you look at it.

Her readers gain all that, too, plus the inspiration to follow in the footsteps of monk and disciple and see some of the marvellous places they kept alive through their writings.

* Perennial, $24.99