Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud

A book written by Sun Shuyun (a Chinese lady educated at Oxford) on the
journey of Hieun Tsang (Xuanzang). She retraces the steps of this
legendary traveller, who travelled from China to India and back facing great danger and
adversity, in search of The Buddha's original texts.

She travels not by foot or horse, but train and occasionally air. She
talks about the history of Chinese Buddhism, the rise of Communism and
consequent demolition of thousands of Buddhist monasteries (out of
200,000 only a hundred remained). The desecration of frescoes and murals
by the muslims, theft of the murals by European explorers (which
ultimately were destroyed in the World War). One also
learns of the spread of Islam thru many Chinese parts, and the genocide
of Muslims by the Han Chinese. Shuyun shares her life, stories about her
Buddhist grandmother, and parents (Commie father who relents in the end)
and aunt in Xinjiang (the Chinese version of Siberia).
An interesting read - a mix of history, culture, Buddhism, Mao and her own
search.
"The mind in meditation, like the sky.
Ten thousand miles without a cloud."