![Ultimate Journey, 2001](http://media.assettype.com/outlooktraveller%2Fimport%2Foutlooktraveller%2Fpublic%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Ftravelnews%2Ffiles%2F2014%2F01%2F020115115421-Thumbnail.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
Fascinated by Hsuan Tsang&rsquos story, he retraced the monk&rsquos journey, visited Lumbini and Sarnath, saw the imposing ruins of Nalanda&rsquos great Buddhist university and, in Bodhgaya &mdash where the Buddha found enlightenment and Bernstein struggled with the rigorous metaphysics of the Diamond Sutra &mdash spotted banners reading &ldquoCoca-Cola Welcomes His Holiness The Dalai Lama&rdquo.
The monk took home ideas about the attainment of serenity that would affect China profoundly, and Bernstein a reverence for the Buddhist civilisation of the seventh century&mdashand also notes for a travel book that, for me, ranks with Robert Byron&rsquos 1937 classic Road to Oxiana.