Die alttürkische Xuanzang-Biographie IV

Abstract

The Xuanzang biography was probably translated from Chinese into Old Turkic in the 10th century. It is the description of the journey that the monk Xuanzang undertook in the years 627 to 645 AD through Central Asia to India to study Buddhism in his country of origin. The Old Turkish translation is the only translation into a foreign language of this important Chinese work, which provides first-hand knowledge of the flowering of Buddhism in Tang Dynasty China. This biography is interesting for Old Turkish Buddhism because from the 11th century the main direction of Old Turkish Buddhism was the "Only Consciousness Doctrine" represented by Xuanzang.The biography consists of ten chapters, of which only chapters three to ten have survived in Old Turkic. All chapters of the Old Turkish version, with the exception of chapters four and six, were previously available in German (partly in Turkish). Now, with the volume that has just been published, chapter four is also available in a German or Turkish version. The original Chinese text is reproduced in the appendix in a version that shows which parts have been preserved in Old Turkic.