[Buddha-l] Nalanda ancient Buddhist seat of learning to riseagain?

[Richard Hayes]

On Aug 6, 2010, at 11:48 AM, JKirkpatrick wrote:

> Yes--it's a wonder, isn't it. The Thais also say that the Buddha
> visited Thailand, or whatever it was in his day.

That seems quite likely. I reckon he may have passed through Thailand on his journey from his native Korea when he went to Nalanda university as a foreign exchange student. 

> After posting, I read further down in the article, to find that
> HHDL was not invited to be a part of this, um, revival........for
> political reasons.

That's perfectly understandable. If I recall the gist of the Kalacakra, the Dalai Lama is to lead the forces of Dharma in the war against Islam. Inviting him to Nalanda would surely strain diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan. Come to think of it, reconstructing Nalanda is sure to be seen as undoing the good work of Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, the Turkic general who kindly undertook the project of burning Nalanda University to the ground. 

These days we are much more civilized. We leave the destruction of universities to their presidents and boards of regents.