In many of the previous posts what you find is a pictorial commentary on the descriptions of the town of Sarnath that Xuang Zhuang left in his _A Record of the Regions to the West of the Great Tang Dynasty_ after his trip to India in the seventh century. There are also a few pictures of the procession of Buddha's relic on elephant! There is also a picture of the river Ganga. I have intentionally used Chinese to write, but later I learned that my blog was blocked in China. And now I heard it is visible again, so in the future you might find more pictures of the Buddhist sites in India with Chinese commentary.

I left the States in mid-August, and after spending two months with my parents in Shanghai, I made my first trip to India on Oct. 27. I have adapted to the new environment quite well, and I find people to be very friendly, and I have made some new friends, some of whom have been especially helpful. The first month was spent in Sarnath near Varanasi, and I was able to attend a Tibetan class on the "Perception" chapter of Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika. I also arranged some Sanskrit classes as well.

I then came to the town of Visakhapatnam to review Sanskrit grammar with my teacher Sastry. Instead of reviewing, I should say I am learning the grammar/language again following his book. He told me that I am supposed to learn the grammar/paradigms in a way that I will never forget for the rest of my life. My idea of memorization is to be able to repeat something without looking at the book, but his is that when one says the paradigm no thinking should be involved, and one must recite very fluently. So this will go on for about a month ...