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Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment
In 629, the revered Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang set out across Asia in search of the Ultimate Truth, and to settle what he called “the perplexities of my mind.” From the Tang dynasty capital at Xian through ancient Silk Road oases, over forbidding mountain passes to Tashkent, Samarkand, and the Amu-Darya River, across Pakistan to the holiest cities of India–and back again–his sixteen-year journey was beset with every hardship imaginable. Pilgrimage complete, Hsuan Tsang wrote an account of his trek that is still considered one of the classics of Chinese literature.
In 1998, Richard Bernstein, venerated journalist and Time magazine’s first Beijing bureau chief, retraced the steps of Hsuan Tsang’s long and sinuous route, comparing present and past. Aided by modern technology but hampered by language barriers, harried border crossings, hostile Islamic regimes, and the accidental U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Bernstein follows the monk’s path not only in physical but in contemplative ways. Juxtaposing his own experiences with those of Hsuan Tsang, Bernstein has crafted a vivid account of two stirring adventures in pursuit of illumination. Inspiring and profoundly felt, Ultimate Journey is a marvelous amalgamation of travelogue and history, cultural critique and spiritual meditation.
In 1998, Richard Bernstein, venerated journalist and Time magazine’s first Beijing bureau chief, retraced the steps of Hsuan Tsang’s long and sinuous route, comparing present and past. Aided by modern technology but hampered by language barriers, harried border crossings, hostile Islamic regimes, and the accidental U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Bernstein follows the monk’s path not only in physical but in contemplative ways. Juxtaposing his own experiences with those of Hsuan Tsang, Bernstein has crafted a vivid account of two stirring adventures in pursuit of illumination. Inspiring and profoundly felt, Ultimate Journey is a marvelous amalgamation of travelogue and history, cultural critique and spiritual meditation.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Richard Bernstein
47 books30 followersRichard Paul Bernstein was an American journalist, columnist, and author. He wrote the Letter from America column for the International Herald Tribune. He was a book critic at The New York Times and a foreign correspondent for both Time magazine and The New York Times in Europe and Asia.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 18, 2019
This was a tough book to review and I vacillated between 3 and 5 stars throughout. I also thought a few times about not finishing.
I suppose this was a travel journal but unlike any other I’ve read. There were really no interesting details about his own experience, virtually no humor, just nothing all that exciting.
So why did I keep reading? I like history and this book brimmed with it. I learned a lot about how China came to be Buddhist, the sites and holy people and not so holy people in the countries in which the author traveled - and I discovered I’d NEVER want to do a trip like his. I also was thrilled to finally have someone confirm that Buddhism is a religion with laws and evangelicals and strains of imagined supremacy.
The author wasn’t looking for any spiritual lessons and so you shouldn’t expect that. Nor did he travel in the manner of the monk he’s following, but you still get a good idea of how and where the monk traveled and there are - again - fascinating history lessons throughout, even when these details get dense and tough to follow.
I suppose this was a travel journal but unlike any other I’ve read. There were really no interesting details about his own experience, virtually no humor, just nothing all that exciting.
So why did I keep reading? I like history and this book brimmed with it. I learned a lot about how China came to be Buddhist, the sites and holy people and not so holy people in the countries in which the author traveled - and I discovered I’d NEVER want to do a trip like his. I also was thrilled to finally have someone confirm that Buddhism is a religion with laws and evangelicals and strains of imagined supremacy.
The author wasn’t looking for any spiritual lessons and so you shouldn’t expect that. Nor did he travel in the manner of the monk he’s following, but you still get a good idea of how and where the monk traveled and there are - again - fascinating history lessons throughout, even when these details get dense and tough to follow.
May 6, 2010
If I had come at this book as primarily an account of the spiritual journey of a 7th century Buddhist monk (which is how the publisher has packaged it) I probably would not have liked it as much as I did. I knew, going in, that this was more about the author’s travels through Central Asia and China, and that was what I was in the mood for at the time. As it is, 4 stars seem a bit too generous, but 3 stars, too stingy.
Journalist Richard Bernstein follows the route of the monk Hsuang Tsang from China to India. The monk hoped to study the original Buddhist texts and strengthen his knowledge of Mahayana Buddhism. Bernstein hopes to go on a big trip before age finally catches up with him.
Bernstein details the problems of crossing borders and dealing with corrupt officials and thieving cabdrivers. He tells how hard it can be to find decent food or accommodations in Central Asia, the crowded conditions on Indian public transit, not to mention the loneliness of travel, the sense of “Why am I doing this?” At times, Bernstein can grate a bit.
There are little bits of easily digested Buddhist history. I was interested in the notion that most of Central Asia had been a collection of Buddhist kingdoms, stretching from Afghanistan to China and down into India. These states were weakened by a rising China and ultimately destroyed by the spread of militant Islam.
An interesting book, overall. It made me want to read other things about the region and about Buddhist history.
Journalist Richard Bernstein follows the route of the monk Hsuang Tsang from China to India. The monk hoped to study the original Buddhist texts and strengthen his knowledge of Mahayana Buddhism. Bernstein hopes to go on a big trip before age finally catches up with him.
Bernstein details the problems of crossing borders and dealing with corrupt officials and thieving cabdrivers. He tells how hard it can be to find decent food or accommodations in Central Asia, the crowded conditions on Indian public transit, not to mention the loneliness of travel, the sense of “Why am I doing this?” At times, Bernstein can grate a bit.
There are little bits of easily digested Buddhist history. I was interested in the notion that most of Central Asia had been a collection of Buddhist kingdoms, stretching from Afghanistan to China and down into India. These states were weakened by a rising China and ultimately destroyed by the spread of militant Islam.
An interesting book, overall. It made me want to read other things about the region and about Buddhist history.
August 1, 2020
This book was recommended to me by my old friend Col, who has spent some years in India and presumably is familiar with some of the ground covered. Both of us had mused about "sometime" retracing the old silk road from China to the West. Alas, I think we both may have left our jaunt a little late. But this book has done quite a lot towards dampening any lingering enthusiasm I may have had for the adventure. Bernstein muses, towards the end of his book (p323) about the realities of travel..and the "vexing details of existence---- finding a place to stay, getting your underwear washed, obtaining a map, dealing with taxi drivers and street touts, and knowing whether and how much to tip". ....It kind of brings it all back to me how wearying this sort of thing can become. What he doesn't mention at this spot is the 8 hrs of travel in a bouncing jeep over hot dusty roads, the countless hours spent on hard bench seats on buses...breathing in the cigarette smoke of other passengers...etc etc.
The tale is something of a pilgrimage for Bernstein....a "coming of age" for him (at 50) in retracing (more or less) the route of a famous Buddhist priest around the years 630-645AD who travelled to India to seek true knowledge about Buddhism and to study the original holy documents. This priest, Hsuan Tsang, was really quite a guy. Apparently both a formidable scholar and with the incredible toughness to undertake this journey. If my memory serves me correctly his fame and influence reached Japan because I remember seeing in one of the famous Japanese temples at Nara (the Great Buddha) that the lotus petals around the base of the great Buddha are engraved in a style (which I was informed) could be traced back to India and there was some mention of Hsuan Tsang's pilgrimage.
Bernstein's book is a clever mixture of personal travel anecdotes:....."I sat next to a former soldier of the Soviet army who wore his medal-emblazoned army jacket. He was large, had skin like a raw beet, thinning grey hair, and plastic glasses held together with scotch tape, and he smelled powerfully of garlic. He smiled at me, shook my hand, and showed me a Russian magazine he was reading."....... and personal reminisces about his Jewishness, his (late-in-life) desire to make himself a full man in terms of the Talmud by having a wife and children and his reactions to people, food and places along the way. He's combined this with some reflections about Buddhist philosophy and the truths which the monk presumably was seeking. As he indicates, he had a hard time reconciling the self-annihilating arguments and claims like "suchness does not become, nor does it cease becoming" with his own experience of the much more pragmatic jewish laws inherited via his father. ...."The irreverent thought has occurred to me that much of Buddhist philosophy consists of slippery word-play which enables the philosopher to have things any which way". I'm inclined to agree with Bernstein on this. In fact it's relatively easy to come up with slippery word plays like: "From the void is the action and the action of the void is inaction." And it seems a bit like superstring quantum theory where you can pretty much prove anything ..but which really proves nothing.
In respect of his travel writings, Bernstein demonstrates his professional skills as a journalist and book critic for the NYTimes...he is captivating and entertaining and his notebook was obviously filled with descriptive notes taken along the way. (After all he was intending all along to write a book about this jaunt...the book was not an afterthought). I had some trouble pinning down the exact time of his travels but, from a few facts in the book, plus the publishing date, one can assume that the travel was undertaken around 1999. I wonder, as China has increasingly modernised and the Uigurs have become more restive, how things have changed in the last 20 or so years. Maybe the trains are now better.
Whilst we are mentioning trains....which seem to generally be hot and uncomfortable for Bernstein....and the buses which always seemed crowded, hot and uncomfortable......one should spare a thought for the monk who seemed to be doing a fair bit of this journey, either on foot or on horseback. And, where the monk took 17 years, Bernstein seemed to have fitted it into about 12 weeks..to enable him to get back to his job at the NY Times. Also, he only approximates the monk's actual travels and, in this respect, I felt just a little cheated. I guess, in some cases....such as Afghanistan....it was going to be very difficult or impossible to retrace the monk's steps.....but the monk himself did not seem to let difficulties stop him. So although we are treated to details of a thousand grotty wayside hotels and untold meals of hot-pot ...I never really got a great feeling for what it would have been like for the monk to be travelling into the unknown. (Or was it unknown?......It seems that the monk's fame had preceded him in most places and he seemed to be given a celebrity arrival party in many places and farewelled with armed escorts and elephants along the way. Though, equally, there was lots of hardship. And I guess, it's never going to be easy crossing a mountain pass at 25,000 feet...with or without elephants.)
Clearly, Hsuan Tsang did not have a wife and kids waiting for him at home...so he was able to take the odd couple of years off in Srinigar, Kashmir to learn Sanskrit and Sanskrit grammar and the rules of Buddhist logic....before proceeding on his way.
Overall, I found the book vaguely dissatisfying; it is neither just a travelogue, nor is it a confessional "coming of age" or epiphany; nor is it a straight history of Hsuan Tsang's travels; nor is it a philosophical/religious tract. It has elements of all four woven together. Entertaining? Yes? Did I learn from it? Yes? But, I was left with the odd feeling that here was a professional writer who had taken three months off work to write a book and it all had to fit within the 12 weeks or so....and the tussles over visas were going to be as much a part of the tale as the Monk's desperate walk through the desert without water. (I noticed that Bernstein did not try to emulate the feat). And Bernstein did have the advantage of speaking Chinese; of having Zhongmei (an influential local) with him for the Chinese part of the trip and of having a number of Journalisti/correspondent contacts to draw on from time to time.....Plus he had spent years in the area as a correspondent himself for Time Magazine.
Overall, an interesting read, but slightly dissatisfying. He has, however, cured me of any lingering desire to retrace the route old silk road unless I did it with a well-oiled tour group. I would have appreciated some illustrations of the various places and the book lends itself to a much more pictorial version. I give it four stars.
The tale is something of a pilgrimage for Bernstein....a "coming of age" for him (at 50) in retracing (more or less) the route of a famous Buddhist priest around the years 630-645AD who travelled to India to seek true knowledge about Buddhism and to study the original holy documents. This priest, Hsuan Tsang, was really quite a guy. Apparently both a formidable scholar and with the incredible toughness to undertake this journey. If my memory serves me correctly his fame and influence reached Japan because I remember seeing in one of the famous Japanese temples at Nara (the Great Buddha) that the lotus petals around the base of the great Buddha are engraved in a style (which I was informed) could be traced back to India and there was some mention of Hsuan Tsang's pilgrimage.
Bernstein's book is a clever mixture of personal travel anecdotes:....."I sat next to a former soldier of the Soviet army who wore his medal-emblazoned army jacket. He was large, had skin like a raw beet, thinning grey hair, and plastic glasses held together with scotch tape, and he smelled powerfully of garlic. He smiled at me, shook my hand, and showed me a Russian magazine he was reading."....... and personal reminisces about his Jewishness, his (late-in-life) desire to make himself a full man in terms of the Talmud by having a wife and children and his reactions to people, food and places along the way. He's combined this with some reflections about Buddhist philosophy and the truths which the monk presumably was seeking. As he indicates, he had a hard time reconciling the self-annihilating arguments and claims like "suchness does not become, nor does it cease becoming" with his own experience of the much more pragmatic jewish laws inherited via his father. ...."The irreverent thought has occurred to me that much of Buddhist philosophy consists of slippery word-play which enables the philosopher to have things any which way". I'm inclined to agree with Bernstein on this. In fact it's relatively easy to come up with slippery word plays like: "From the void is the action and the action of the void is inaction." And it seems a bit like superstring quantum theory where you can pretty much prove anything ..but which really proves nothing.
In respect of his travel writings, Bernstein demonstrates his professional skills as a journalist and book critic for the NYTimes...he is captivating and entertaining and his notebook was obviously filled with descriptive notes taken along the way. (After all he was intending all along to write a book about this jaunt...the book was not an afterthought). I had some trouble pinning down the exact time of his travels but, from a few facts in the book, plus the publishing date, one can assume that the travel was undertaken around 1999. I wonder, as China has increasingly modernised and the Uigurs have become more restive, how things have changed in the last 20 or so years. Maybe the trains are now better.
Whilst we are mentioning trains....which seem to generally be hot and uncomfortable for Bernstein....and the buses which always seemed crowded, hot and uncomfortable......one should spare a thought for the monk who seemed to be doing a fair bit of this journey, either on foot or on horseback. And, where the monk took 17 years, Bernstein seemed to have fitted it into about 12 weeks..to enable him to get back to his job at the NY Times. Also, he only approximates the monk's actual travels and, in this respect, I felt just a little cheated. I guess, in some cases....such as Afghanistan....it was going to be very difficult or impossible to retrace the monk's steps.....but the monk himself did not seem to let difficulties stop him. So although we are treated to details of a thousand grotty wayside hotels and untold meals of hot-pot ...I never really got a great feeling for what it would have been like for the monk to be travelling into the unknown. (Or was it unknown?......It seems that the monk's fame had preceded him in most places and he seemed to be given a celebrity arrival party in many places and farewelled with armed escorts and elephants along the way. Though, equally, there was lots of hardship. And I guess, it's never going to be easy crossing a mountain pass at 25,000 feet...with or without elephants.)
Clearly, Hsuan Tsang did not have a wife and kids waiting for him at home...so he was able to take the odd couple of years off in Srinigar, Kashmir to learn Sanskrit and Sanskrit grammar and the rules of Buddhist logic....before proceeding on his way.
Overall, I found the book vaguely dissatisfying; it is neither just a travelogue, nor is it a confessional "coming of age" or epiphany; nor is it a straight history of Hsuan Tsang's travels; nor is it a philosophical/religious tract. It has elements of all four woven together. Entertaining? Yes? Did I learn from it? Yes? But, I was left with the odd feeling that here was a professional writer who had taken three months off work to write a book and it all had to fit within the 12 weeks or so....and the tussles over visas were going to be as much a part of the tale as the Monk's desperate walk through the desert without water. (I noticed that Bernstein did not try to emulate the feat). And Bernstein did have the advantage of speaking Chinese; of having Zhongmei (an influential local) with him for the Chinese part of the trip and of having a number of Journalisti/correspondent contacts to draw on from time to time.....Plus he had spent years in the area as a correspondent himself for Time Magazine.
Overall, an interesting read, but slightly dissatisfying. He has, however, cured me of any lingering desire to retrace the route old silk road unless I did it with a well-oiled tour group. I would have appreciated some illustrations of the various places and the book lends itself to a much more pictorial version. I give it four stars.
March 23, 2020
I recently re-read this book. I have to say, it was as bad this time as I recalled from my last reading around ten years ago. There is something mildly ironic about the author's self-absorbed and slightly neurotic approach. He can't decide how to get over his mid-life crisis. Should he take up Shaker furniture building? Or maybe follow in the footsteps of China's greatest monk-translator... well, he just doesn't know what to do. Until he meets a Chinese woman in a movie theater and he feels it must be Kismet.
Just bizarre.
After telling us he is an atheist--or is hew Jewish-- he lands in Xian and is met by his girlfriend. It turns out he lived in beijing as a reporter--but his knowledge of China's history seems weak... he is pompous and at times really disrespectful to the country he is traipsing around in. One never really gets a taste for the monk and the author is very weak in explaining Buddhist philosophy and hopeless in languages and translation. He is barely coherent.
I don't know... he seems to be quite full himself and clueless. If you are interested in the monk, don't miss Sally Hovey Wriggins very engaging and erudite book, The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang. Her treatment of the religions and translation issues is superb. She also is better on the influence of the heart sutra and the journey of the monk. If you are looking for a fun travel "in the footsteps" book, don't miss Mishi Saran's Chasing the Monk's Shadow-- a more intelligent and savvy traveler.
Just bizarre.
After telling us he is an atheist--or is hew Jewish-- he lands in Xian and is met by his girlfriend. It turns out he lived in beijing as a reporter--but his knowledge of China's history seems weak... he is pompous and at times really disrespectful to the country he is traipsing around in. One never really gets a taste for the monk and the author is very weak in explaining Buddhist philosophy and hopeless in languages and translation. He is barely coherent.
I don't know... he seems to be quite full himself and clueless. If you are interested in the monk, don't miss Sally Hovey Wriggins very engaging and erudite book, The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang. Her treatment of the religions and translation issues is superb. She also is better on the influence of the heart sutra and the journey of the monk. If you are looking for a fun travel "in the footsteps" book, don't miss Mishi Saran's Chasing the Monk's Shadow-- a more intelligent and savvy traveler.
December 14, 2017
The journey that Bernstein takes is certainly a cool one in theory, but he does it in a very boring way, and never really connects with what he is trying to relive (the journey of the monk Huan Tsang). The history is cool to learn, and it's very neat to read about the local cultures that Bernstein interacts with. But he comes off as the most typical, annoying American traveler of all time. He takes the most expensive methods of traveling through desolate areas, constantly talks down about the Buddhism that he is really exploring, and always brings up his own religious apathy. Not to mention he constantly paints himself above the locals. It's just plain annoying.
January 7, 2018
Writing a review about this book is hard, because I simultaneously enjoyed it and found so many problems with it. I enjoyed it mainly for the travel aspect. Following the author on his journey around Asia was fascinating. That said, this book doesn't know what it wants to be. Bernstein rambles a lot. About the monk, about Buddhism, about history, about his nostalgic memories of the past and his newfound understanding about his future desires. Berstein is overly sentimental about Hsuan Tsang, a fascinating historical figure whom he ruins with his sentimentality. Phrases such as, "I couldn't help but wonder that Hsuan Tsang walked this same path many lifetimes ago, and I felt a sense of awe." are use over excessively. It was a bit much once, and hearing similar sentiments over and over again got to be overbearing. Give me a break. That kind of verbiage isn't good history or good writing. Bernstein also consistently writes about the cultures he is visiting and is a guest in with an air of condescendence. Perhaps it's because he's product of mid-20th century America, when people didn't think about the way they talked about non-western cultures. That said, there were so many instances when simple observations on his part made me wince. Again, not good writing. Thoughtless writing. And what the heck is up with Brave King? Why can't Bernstein call this man by his Chinese name?
This book seems to have been written mostly for Bernstein's benefit. To prove to himself that he not only conquered his goal to march in Hsuan Tsang's footsteps (or, more adequately, fly and bus), but that he could write a book about it, too. It's nostalgic and sentimental and so not politically correct in a way that a good travel account/history/memoir shouldn't be. And what even is it? A travel account, a history, or a memoir? I don't know. Bernstein had an interesting concept going for him, but he doesn't succeed. Plus, when I picked up the book, I thought he was actually going to retrace Hsuang Tsang's steps by walking, at least part of the way. I was a little let down when I realized that wasn't the case. Hsuang Tsang's journey may have been ultimate, but Bernstein's? It borders more on indulgence. I wondered a few times while reading who at Knopf decided this was a good idea to publish.
I give it 3 stars for the travel aspect. Bernstein goes to a lot of off-the-beaten path places, and, despite all my grievances with the book, I loved getting a sense of his surroundings in each place.
This book seems to have been written mostly for Bernstein's benefit. To prove to himself that he not only conquered his goal to march in Hsuan Tsang's footsteps (or, more adequately, fly and bus), but that he could write a book about it, too. It's nostalgic and sentimental and so not politically correct in a way that a good travel account/history/memoir shouldn't be. And what even is it? A travel account, a history, or a memoir? I don't know. Bernstein had an interesting concept going for him, but he doesn't succeed. Plus, when I picked up the book, I thought he was actually going to retrace Hsuang Tsang's steps by walking, at least part of the way. I was a little let down when I realized that wasn't the case. Hsuang Tsang's journey may have been ultimate, but Bernstein's? It borders more on indulgence. I wondered a few times while reading who at Knopf decided this was a good idea to publish.
I give it 3 stars for the travel aspect. Bernstein goes to a lot of off-the-beaten path places, and, despite all my grievances with the book, I loved getting a sense of his surroundings in each place.
October 2, 2009
Thought I was getting into another exciting spiritual journey here. Not at all.
An awful and tedious book. How much more interesting must the supposed subject of the book, the 7th century Chinese monk Hsuang Tsang, than Bernstein himself? How much more sympathetic are the impoverished Kazakhs, Afghans, Uzbekhs, Indians etc. that Bernstein complains endlessly about than the author himself.
This really could be read as a study of the impossibility of travel, especially for a cramped, cyncical, bourgeois person like Bernstein. There is more about his meals and how much money he spends along the way than anything about Buddhism or the character of the land and spirit of the journey.
An awful and tedious book. How much more interesting must the supposed subject of the book, the 7th century Chinese monk Hsuang Tsang, than Bernstein himself? How much more sympathetic are the impoverished Kazakhs, Afghans, Uzbekhs, Indians etc. that Bernstein complains endlessly about than the author himself.
This really could be read as a study of the impossibility of travel, especially for a cramped, cyncical, bourgeois person like Bernstein. There is more about his meals and how much money he spends along the way than anything about Buddhism or the character of the land and spirit of the journey.
May 8, 2011
I really enjoyed parts of this book although I wish I'd known more about Asia before starting. The beginning was a bit tedious and hard to get through but once he got going on the journey and his girlfriend took off the book started to pick up. I feel grateful for his comment in the beginning about how to pronounce some of the Chinese words, however, I still felt I stumbled over a lot of the names of people and places adding to the slowness in the beginning. There were some great descriptions of what he encountered but I think adding a few photos would have been a good idea, I found myself on google images a lot throughout the book. All and all it was a good book and has inspired me to read more on buddhism in both China and India.
November 17, 2008
The first few chapters in "Han" (as opposed to ethnic minority) China were slow going, but once the author's Chinese girlfriend heads back to Beijing for work, the memoir aspect takes a back seat, and the travel narrative gears up. Most the adventure is spent off the tourist trail, although there are indications that such won't be the case for much longer, given the expanding "adventure travel" market. Strikes a great balance between the historical story, and modern day findings. Recommended - I'd have given it 3.5 stars if possible (I'm resisting four as I found the author's personal details distracting).
March 25, 2009
I bought this book several years ago from my university's bookstore, but didn't get around to reading it until now. In it, Bernstein follows Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang's route through China and India in search of the meaning of Buddhist texts.
I did have a bit of trouble getting into this book. It started with a lot of history and some theory that can be tough to wade through if you're not accustomed to reading that sort of thing (which I'm really not). As he gets further into China, there is more of a travel journal in the mix. All told, it is a good combination of the three that keeps the book flowing nicely.
I did have a bit of trouble getting into this book. It started with a lot of history and some theory that can be tough to wade through if you're not accustomed to reading that sort of thing (which I'm really not). As he gets further into China, there is more of a travel journal in the mix. All told, it is a good combination of the three that keeps the book flowing nicely.
June 22, 2008
I liked it, but I felt like I wasn't really smart enough to get all of it. I liked the juxtaposition of the author's travel over the explination of Buddhism, but felt like I wanted to know more of the Monk's travel. I felt that, though he was the impetus for the journey, not enough time was devoted to the Monk or his own journey. More that he was a side note.
March 27, 2010
Superb book; I loved his writing and his observations of the people on his trip. Would read it again
January 16, 2011
So far, I like the way that personal narrative and contextual information (historical, cultural, geographic)is balanced in this book.
August 18, 2011
Very cool non-fiction piece about a journalist who retraces the journey of a Buddhist monk across modern-day China.
September 13, 2016
One of my favorite travelogs.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews