🇮🇳 The world's first university + Gion-bo-sha

I was fortunate to visit Nalanda Mahavihara, the world's first university, and was shocked! Because this is also the place where Master Xuan Tao crossed mountains and rivers to obtain Buddhist scriptures. The campus is magnificent and vast, with several temples, classrooms, monks' rooms, restaurants, kitchens, libraries, halls, pagodas... everything you need. At its peak, the university had a collection of more than 9 million volumes of books and cultivated countless top talents. Unfortunately, the Islamic army invaded Nalanda in the early 20th century and destroyed it completely; fortunately, the current ancient ruins were recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2016 and have been preserved. Another famous Buddhist holy site that often appears in Buddhist scriptures is Jetavana Vihara, located in Śrāvastī. This interesting period of history began when the richest man at the time, Anathapindika, donated all his wealth to the Buddha three times (the amazing thing is that he was able to make the money back very quickly), and bought this garden from Prince Jeta of Sravasti to donate it to the monks as a monastery for long-term practice and residence. At first, Prince Jeta made harsh selling conditions to make things difficult for the old man. He demanded that the entire ground of the garden be covered with gold before he would sell it (which was an impossible task because the garden was so vast and boundless when I saw it in person). Unexpectedly, the prince finally met the elder's request to pave the land with gold, and he had to agree to sell the land to the elder. Later, the prince insisted that the trees in the garden were planted by him over the years, so he donated the trees to the Buddha and the Sangha in his own name. Therefore, Jetavana Monastery is also known as "Jetavana Grove". Only after visiting these Buddhist holy sites in person did I suddenly realize that the stories in the Buddhist scriptures are not myths, but real historical events. Very shocking! After I came back and read the Buddhist scriptures again, I had a completely different state of mind. It was really worth the trip! #Nalanda #Only Tree for Lonely Garden #Gion Abode