Hyecho

Hyecho (Korean pronunciation: [hjeːtɕʰo]; 704–787), Sanskrit: Prajñāvikram; pinyin: Hui Chao, was a Buddhist monk from Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

Hyecho studied esoteric Buddhism in Tang China, initially under Śubhakarasiṃha and then under the famous Indian monk Vajrabodhi who praised Hyecho as "one of six living persons who were well-trained in the five sections of the Buddhist canon."

On the advice of his Indian teachers in China, he set out for India in 723 to acquaint himself with the language and culture of the land of the Buddha.

Memoir of the pilgrimage to the five kingdoms of India

During his journey of India, Hyecho wrote a travelogue in Chinese named Wang ocheonchukguk jeon (hanja: 往五天竺國傳 ) which means, "Memoir of the pilgrimage to the five kingdoms of India."

The travelogue reveals that Hyecho, after arriving by sea in India headed to the Indian Kingdom of Magadha (present-day Bihar), then moved on to visit Kushinagar and Varanasi. However Hyecho's journey did not end there and he continued north, where he visited Lumbini (present-day Nepal), Kashmir, the Arabs. Hyecho left India following the Silk Road towards the west, via Agni or Karasahr, to China where the account ends in 729 CE.