Srinagar, July 16 -- By Iqbal Ahmad

The summer of 2001 brought me a visitor I never expected.

A Taiwanese photojournalist reached Srinagar with a single assignment: retrace the path of Xuanzang, the seventh-century Chinese pilgrim my own people had called Hiuen Tsang for generations.

His larger expedition had planned a full team for Kashmir, but the security situation of that period convinced the others to stay home.

He came alone.

A local travel agency hosting him reached out to me, since I was already deep into research on the Kushans, and asked whether I might guide him toward the sites Xuanzang once described.

Our first conversation nearly failed before it started.

He kept repeating a name, "Xuanzang," that meant nothing to my ...