Walk Nalanda with somebody who can read it
Ten metres of brick is a wall to most people and a lecture hall to a guide
What it is
The excavated monasteries and temples of the world's first residential university, with the site museum and the Xuanzang memorial. Eleven monasteries and six temples are exposed, in rows, with the students' cells, the wells and the drains still legible.
Why it matters
Nalanda taught ten thousand students for seven hundred years and was burnt. Without a guide it is a large field of foundations. With one it is the building a Chinese monk described in the seventh century, still standing to shoulder height, and you can find the room he said he slept in.
How it works
- Go early — the brick holds heat and there is no shade by ten.
- Take the museum first if you want the sculpture to mean anything.
- A licensed site guide is arranged by the office and is worth every rupee.
- Who it is for
- Anybody. Half a day on flat ground with very little shade.
- Best season
- Oct - Mar
- Difficulty
- Easy, but hot
- Cost
- Ticketed archaeological site. A licensed guide is charged separately.
- When
- Closed on Mondays, as most ASI sites are. Check before you go.
- Booking
- Tirtham books a guide who works this site.
- Book ahead
- A day
- Languages
- Hindi, English
What to bring
- Water
- A hat
- Cash for the ticket
Where
- Nalanda Mahavihara: The world's oldest residential university
- Archaeological Museum, Nalanda: Pilgrims and students come to see the Buddha and Bodhisattva images recovered from the mahavihara...
- Xuanzang Memorial Hall: Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian Buddhists come to venerate the relics of the pilgrim-scholar who...
- Telhara monastery: It is the third great Magadhan mahavihara after Nalanda and Vikramshila, named in the Chinese pilgrims'...
- Black Buddha: Buddhists come for the ancient image itself; local Hindus have worshipped the same figure as Bhairav...
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