Nalanda World Peace Bell

Nalanda is the site of the greatest monastic university of the ancient Buddhist world, where countless Panditas and Vidyadharas trained and studied. From the outset, the monastery at Nalanda produced a lineage of outstanding masters who set standards of excellence for those who followed. The most famous of those masters was Nagarjuna, disciple of Rahulabhadra, also known as the Siddha Saraha. According to Taranatha, Asanga, renowned for transmitting the treatises of Maitreya and of the higher Abhidharma, also lived at Nalanda for twelve years towards the end of his life.

By the end of the fourth and fifth centuries Nalanda had become the major center for the lineages of Nagarjuna and Asanga. From these lineages stemmed the two major Mahayana philosophical schools of the Madhyamika and Cittamatra. Nalanda was also the site of the development of logic and epistemology in later centuries. With the royal patronage of the Gupta and Pala dynasties, the site rapidly expanded into an extensive complex of temples, shrines and lecture and residential halls.

The site itself is huge, and villages all around the central enclosure have evidence of ancient remains. Often these take the form of beautiful statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas uncovered during farming and construction and placed in local temples. At the centre lies the park run by the Archaeological Survey of India, containing the main stupas of Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, the remains of monasteries and temples and the Nalanda Museum, which houses a collection of bronze and stone statues excavated from the area.

In 2008, LBDFI- India obtained approval from the Archaeological Survey of India to install a Dharma Bell in the museum gardens directly across from the main entrance to the Nalanda archaeological site. The bell was installed and dedicated on June 25th in the presence of a number of senior monks and local politicians. Once again, the Lion’s Roar of the Dharma can sound again in this ancient and venerable place.

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