Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part C (2025)

Foreign travellers have been visiting Kashmir for centuries, and their travelogues provide fascinating insights into the region’s history, culture, and tradition. Accounts by Fa Hien, Hiuen Tsang, Itsing Ou-Kong, and Hyecho highlight admiration and critique while documenting the complex interplay of cultures that characterised Kashmir. A prominent example is Hyecho, an 8th-century Korean Buddhist monk, who undertook a pilgrimage to India and Central Asia between 723-727 CE. His travelogue, Wang ocheonchukguk jeon (An Account of Travels to the Five Indian Kingdoms), records his visit to Kashmir, then a major Buddhist centre with monasteries such as Harwan, Jayendra Vihara, Parihaspur Mahavihara, and Dharmanarayana Vihara of King Asoka. Buddhism flourished in Kashmir under Mauryan patronage in the 3rd century BCE and continued through the Kushan Empire, when Emperor Kanishka convened the Fourth Buddhist Council, producing seminal texts like the Mahāvibhāṣā. Kashmir became a hub of Buddhist scholarship, nurturing philosophers such as Vasubandhu, whose Abhidharmakośa advanced Yogacara thought, and Kumarajiva, whose translations spread Mahayana Buddhism to China. As monks, texts, and ideas travelled across India, Central Asia, and China, Kashmir shaped religious and intellectual exchanges along the Silk Road. Hyecho’s observations offer critical perspectives on Buddhism’s decline in some regions, alongside the rise of Hinduism and Islam, while also documenting a thriving Buddhist community that practiced both Mahayana and Hinayana. His account remains a vital historical resource, opening avenues for further research in cultural, religious, and intellectual history, art, linguistics, and comparative studies.