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Buddhism gave a sublime culture and a spiritual wisdom to China affecting a total facelift. Before Buddhism reached China, there was total chaos and confusion. Buddhism gave basic lessons of culture and civilization to this country. The harbingers and missionary carriers of Buddhist thought and culture who transported and transmitted this ethico-spiritual and sublime thought to China had to pass through a very hostile terrain and exceedingly inhospitable climate. Most of the Indian monks who migrated to China did so during the five centuries following the third century CE.During that time a stream of Chinese monks arrived in India to study Buddhism in its homeland, and to collect authentic Buddhist texts. Many of the records have perished, some are known only by their titles, while brief extracts or stray passages from others appear in China's vast literature. Only three records are preserved in full: Fa-hsien's Fo-ku-chi, Hiuen-tsang's Hsi-yu-chi and I-tsing's Nan-hai-ki-kuei-nai-fa-chuan. While nearly all the Chinese monks eventually returned home, most of the Indian monks who went to China remained there. Much less is known of the Indian monks who went to China than of the Chinese pilgrims who visited India. The Chinese had a deeper interest in objective observation and in recording history. The book presents every aspect of Indian society from 1" to 10 century CE as described in Chinese travelogues.