A few influential historical Buddhist pilgrims are:
- King Ashoka the Great (250 BC).
- The Chinese pilgrim monks Faxian (399 - 412 CE), Xuanzang (630 - 646 CE), and I Ching (673 - 687 CE).
- The Tibetan monk Dharmaswamin (Chag Lotsawa) (1235 CE)
- The Sri Lankan national Anagarika Dharmapala (1891).
Ashoka the Great
Asoka (Devanāgarī:: Aśoka, Prakrit Imperial title: Devanampriya Priyadarsi (Devanāgarī) "He who is the beloved of the Gods and who regards everyone amiably") and Dhamma (Devanāgarī) "Lawful, Religious, Righteous") (304 BC – 232 BC) was an Indian emperor, of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled from 273 BC to 232 BC. Often cited as one of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests. His empire stretched from present-day Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of Persia in the west, to the present-day Bengal and Assam states of India in the east, and as far south as the Mysore state. His reign was headquartered in Magadha (present-day Bihar state of India). He embraced Buddhism from the prevalent Vedic tradition after witnessing the mass deaths of the war of Kalinga, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. He was later dedicated in the propagation of Buddhism across Asia and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha.
His name "aśoka" means "without sorrow" in Sanskrit. In his edicts, he is referred to as Devānāmpriya (Devanāgarī: Devānaṃpiya or "The Beloved Of The Gods", and Priyadarśin (Devanāgarī)/Piyadassī or "He who regards everyone amiably".
Science fiction novelist H. G. Wells wrote of Asoka:
In the history of the world there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'their highnesses,' 'their majesties,' and 'their exalted majesties' and so on. They shone for a brief moment, and as quickly disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day.
Along with the Edicts of Ashoka, his legend is related in the later 2nd century Aśokāvadāna ("Narrative of Asoka") and Divyāvadāna ("Divine narrative"), and in the Sinhalese text Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle").
An emblem excavated from his empire is today the national emblem of India.
Faxian (Traditional Chinese: Pinyin：Fǎxiǎn); also romanized as Fa-Hien or Fa-hsien) (ca. 337 - ca. 422) was a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to Nepal, India and Sri Lanka to acquire and take back to China Buddhist scriptures between 399 and 412 . His journey is described in his work A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. He is most know for his pilgrimage to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.
On Faxian's return to China he landed at Laoshan in modern Shandong province, 30km east of the city of Qingdao. After landing, he proceeded to Shandong's then-capital, Qingzhou, where he remained for a year translating and editing the scriptures he had collected.
His work is not only one of the world's greatest travel books, but is filled with invaluable accounts of early Buddhism, and the geography and history of numerous countries along the so-called Silk Roads at the turn of the 5th century CE.
Xuanzang (Chinese: 玄奘; pinyin: Xuán Zàng; Wade-Giles: Hsüan-tsang, pronounced Shwan-dzang) was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator that brought up the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period.
He became famous for his seventeen year overland trip to India and back, which is recorded in detail in his autobiography and a biography.
During his travels he studied with many famous Buddhist masters, especially at the famous center of Buddhist learning at Nālanda University. When he returned, he brought with him some 657 Sanskrit texts. With the emperor's support, he set up a large translation bureau in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), drawing students and collaborators from all over East Asia. He is credited with the translation of some 1,330 fascicles of scriptures into Chinese. His strongest personal interest in Buddhism was in the field of Yogācāra (瑜伽行派) or Consciousness-only (唯識).
The force of his own study, translation and commentary of the texts of these traditions initiated the development of the Faxiang school (法相宗) in East Asia. Although the school itself did not thrive for a long time, its theories regarding perception, consciousness, karma, rebirth, etc. found their way into the doctrines of other more successful schools. Xuanzang's closest and most eminent student was Kuiji (窺基) who became recognized as the first patriarch of the Faxiang school.
Xuanzang was known for his extensive but careful translations of Indian Buddhist texts to Chinese, and subsequent recoveries of lost Indian Buddhist texts from translated Chinese copies. He is credited with writing or compiling the Cheng Weishi Lun as a commentary on these texts. He also founded the short-lived but influential Faxiang school of Buddhism. Additionally, he was known for recording the events of the reign of the northern Indian emperor, Harsha.
I Ching or Yi Jing (Yìjìng, Yiqing, I-Tsing or YiChing) 635-713) was a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk, originally named Zhang Wen Ming (張文明). The written records of his travels contributed to the world knowledge of the ancient kingdom of Srivijaya, as well as providing information about the other kingdoms lying on the route between China and the Nalanda Buddhist university in India. He was also responsible for the translation of a large numbers of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese.
The Tibetan monk Dharmaswamin (Chag Lotsawa) (1235 CE)
Anagarika Dharmapala (17 September 1864 - 29 April 1933) was a leading figure in initiating two outstanding features of Buddhism in the twentieth century. He was a pioneer in the revival of Buddhism in India after it had been virtually extinct there for several centuries, and he was the first Buddhist in modern times to preach the Dharma in three continents: Asia, North America, and Europe.
Dharmapala was the first anagarika - that is, a celibate, full-time worker for Buddhism - in modern times. It seems that he took a vow of celibacy at the age of eight and remained faithful to it all his life. Although he wore a yellow robe, it was not of the traditional bhikkhu pattern, and he did not shave his head. He felt that the observance of all the vinaya rules would get in the way of his work, especially as he flew around the world.
