NALANDA UNIVERSITY : CRADLE OF BUDDHIST LEARNING OF ANCIENT INDIA || HISTORY VLOG #1

Hello friends !
Here comes my first vlog and today we are exploring the ruin of great Nalanda University of ancient India with well informative guide Mr Anil Kumar (Strongly recommend him if you are visiting Nalanda , you may have seen him in other Videos). Hope you people like it and please share it yours friends to let them know about the rich tradition of Nalanda. From the 05th CE to 1193 CE, this Buddhist vihara was one of the greatest centres of higher learning of all times. Nalanda flourished under the patronage of not only Buddhist emperors like Harsha and later the Pala dynasty, but also received the support of the Gupta rulers. Before it was destroyed by the Turkish hordes of Bakhtiyar Khilji, Nalanda was spread over a large area near the village of Baragaon, 10 km North of Rajgir in Bihar. It hosted scholars, monks and scientists from the world over who flocked to the vihara, the largest knowledge centre of its time.
The Nalanda University library was so large that it is said to have been ablaze for over 06 months after the invaders set it on fire. It was the secular and spiritual knowledge of India which was ransacked and destroyed. However, by a twist of fate (or good karma), Tibetan monks and lamas along with some abbots of the vihara had transferred Nalanda’s knowledge to cold storage on the Roof of the World where it was preserved.Founded in the 5th century AD, Nalanda is widely recognised as one of the ancient world’s great universities and an important Buddhist centre of academic excellence. When Chinese scholar and traveller Xuan Zang visited sometime between 685 and 762 AD, about 10,000 monks and students lived here, studying theology, astronomy, metaphysics, medicine and philosophy.It was the first residential university of the world, and attracted scholars from all over the Buddhist world. A Unesco World Heritage site, the well preserved ruins of this ancient seat of learning make it an important destination on the Buddhist tourism circuit.
The master Nagarjuna (Gonbo Lhudup) hailed from this institution, as did many other important philosophers and logicians. Although Tibetans became interested in Buddhism and began to study it as early as the 8th century, Buddhism did not really take hold in Tibet until a century later. A sound basis for Buddhism, the systematic establishment of Buddhist study and practice, therefore begins only in the 8th century. Two important Indian masters came to Tibet at this time at the invitation of the Tibetan Emperor Trisong Detsen: Guru Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita (zhiba-tsho) Shantarakshita, who was very well known even in India, was mainly responsible for the exoteric teachings and giving monastic ordination. He was a great master, one of the great scholars of Nalanda Monastery and he can be considered the individual chiefly responsible for introducing the Buddhadharma to Tibet.Given that Buddhism was introduced into Tibet by one of the great scholars of Nalanda, it makes sense to say that the Tibetan tradition has basically followed the Nalanda tradition up to present day. All of us who have been trained in the classical, Tibetan tradition have studied these same texts, texts that we learned by heart. All of these root texts were written by the masters of Nalanda: Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Arya Asanga, Vasubandhu, and so forth. Of course, alongside the root texts, we also study commentaries. There are many Indian and Tibetan commentaries, and we also read these works, but the fundamental texts all come from Nalanda. So the influence of the Nalanda tradition on Tibet is very clear.Tibetan Buddhism has entirely been borrowed from India, more precisely from Nalanda. The ‘Nalanda path’ prevailed in Tibet after a long debate — the famous Samye Debate which was held in Samye monastery between the Chinese and Nalanda schools of Buddhism. The debate took two years (792-794 CE) to reach its conclusion. Hoshang, a Chinese monk, was defeated by Kamalashila, who defended the Indian view. At the end, the Tibetan king issued a proclamation naming the ‘Indian path’ (from Nalanda) as the orthodox faith for Tibet.
His Holiness Dalai lama likes to quotes Nagarjuna who never accepted any philosophical concept without testing it. He did not even accept the Buddha’s sayings until he was able to check their veracity, using his profound mind as a tool. He never believed in blind faith. This testing mind is the foundation stone of the Nalanda tradition. The Dalai lama, who does not hide his admiration for Nagarjuna, also quotes ‘his boss’, the Buddha himself: “My followers should not accept my teachings out of faith and devotion, but after investigation and experimentation.'”
I hoped you enjoyed this vlog and feel inspired to visit Nalanda ! Sending my love xxx
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