Taiwanese drama on a Buddhist’s journey

A Taiwanese opera is in town. The musical called ‘One Step, One Mind’ is a two-and-a-half-hour play that will be enacted by 20 performers of Trinity Culture Center, led by internationally feted director Yang Ching-liang from Taiwan, reports HT Correspondent.

A Taiwanese opera is in town. The musical called ‘One Step, One Mind’ is a two-and-a-half-hour play that will be enacted by 20 performers of Trinity Culture Center, led by internationally feted director Yang Ching-liang from Taiwan.

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The play tells the story of Master Xuanzang, or Hieun Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator who came from China to India in the early 7th century.

The drama depicts the monk’s journey on foot from present-day Xian to what they called “the West” some 1,400 years ago. Xuanzang followed the Buddhist trail from Afghanistan to Nalanda in Bihar, and back, over 16 years. He learnt Sanskrit and translated hundreds of Buddhist texts into Chinese. He also left a vital historical account of his journeys along the Silk Route.

The play tries to communicate the Mahayana spirit of Buddhism through music, dance and drama. It traces the monk’s physical journey as well as his inner, spiritual one.