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427c. 427 – c. 1200 · Nalanda

Nalanda, the great Buddhist university

Brick foundations of the monastery ruins at Nalanda, Bihar
Photo: Sumitsurai. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For about 800 years Nalanda was the leading centre of Buddhist learning in Asia, teaching philosophy, logic, grammar and medicine to students from as far as China, Korea and Tibet. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang studied there in the 7th century and described its libraries. It declined and was sacked around 1200. Excavated brick monasteries and temples cover a large site.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Nalanda Mahavihara archaeological siteRows of monastery cells and the great Sariputta stupa.Map ↗

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