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I think most people have at least heard of the Chinese epic Journey to the West a.k.a. Monkey or The Monkey King, which describes the journey of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (a.k.a. Tripitaka) to India to bring back more intact versions of the Buddhist scriptures (the "Greater Vehicle", as opposed to the "Lesser Vehicle" which was already known in China).

The story is a dramatisation of real events, with real lands replaced by fictional and fantastic ones: Xuanzang really existed, and made his epic journey to India and back between the years of 629 and 645 AD. He travelled as far west as Peshawar and the Hindu Kush, before returning and being received with honour by the Taizong Emperor in Chang'an (the then-capital, modern Xi'an).

The WI I propose here is that Xuanzang converts to another religion while in India and brings it to China on his return. Hinduism is the obvious one but was I believe already known to Chinese travellers and had not set them alight. Islam would be interesting but it's really pushing it given that Islam hadn't broken out of Arabia yet at this point (I suppose you could really push it by having an early Muslim trader out of Arabia meet him at an Indian seaport). Then there's Thomasine Christianity: Nestorian Christianity would already have been known in China, but India's version might be sufficiently different to make an impact.

Any ideas on this score?
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