Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mystic Fire Video
• VHS Release Date: December 22, 1998
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 1561764256
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,529 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The legendary Chinese monk, poet, and scholar Xuan Zang traveled the Silk Road to India and back approximately 1,400 years ago in search of the teachings of Buddha. When he returned to China, he brought with him Buddhist manuscripts and is thus credited with having brought the religion to his homeland. In this documentary, the route taken by Xuan Zang is followed by a film crew, and the fascinating history of Central Asia, and the life of the traveling monk, is seen to be resonating to the present day. In a marketplace square at night, a Chinese communist propaganda film is shown in the open air, and that scene is the background for the narrator's brief but insightful lecture on the nature of Buddhism. Ancient sites visited by Xuan Zang are seen today, including meditation cells carved into rock walls in the desert and remote monastery ruins that were once enormous art galleries containing thousands of murals. The fabled cave temples where hundreds of Buddhist scrolls, including the famous Diamond Sutra, were discovered in a phenomenal archaeological find, is visited. Xuan Zang is a revered figure in the East to this day, with thousands of people visiting shrines in his honor, and this innovative documentary pays appropriate homage to his life of pilgrimage and study. -- Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pilgrim's Progress, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Secret Heart of Asia - Buddha on the Silk Road [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Buddha on the Silk Road. Xuan Zang, the famous 7th century monk, scholar, diarist and poet who traveled the Silk Road in search of the original scriptures of the Buddhist Sutras. He brought the sacred teachings from India to China. We follow his trail to Bodhgaya, where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. On the way, we hear the tales of Xuan Zang still told by the villagers, discover sacred art treasures rescued from the desert and, explore the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang, and visit the monastery where Xuan Zang's ashes are preserved and his memory commemorated in prayer and song.