Dalai Lama voices commitment to revive ‘Nalanda-tradition’

Team Udayavani, Aug 11, 2018, 9:54 AM IST

Bengaluru: Ruing that India has lost the ‘Nalanda tradition’, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today expressed his commitment to revive the ancient Indian knowledge.

The Tibetan spiritual leader emphasised that modernIndia needed this ancient knowledge and hence, it should be revived.

The Dalai Lama said in the 7th century a Tibetanemperor introduced the Nalanda tradition of Buddhism based on reason and logical conclusion and got theSanskrit texts translated into Tibetan language in 300 volumes.

He rued that India lost the Nalanda tradition.

“My latest commitment is to revive the ancient Indian knowledge in modern India. We have already started some steps, some progress.” 

The Dalai Lama was speaking at a programme ‘Thank You Karnataka’, which is part of the Tibetan government in Exile celebrating ‘Thank You India for giving shelter to Tibetans.’ 

Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy was also present.

Nalanda was the biggest monastery and Buddhist learning centre which was destroyed by medieval-era invaders.

India, he said, was the only nation in this planet which can combine ancient Indian knowledge about mind, psychology and the way to tackle destructive emotions.

Explaining to the audience what Nalanda tradition means, the Monk said it never agrees but questions every doctrine with a logical approach and investigates.

He, however, clarified that he respected India’s seculartradition but what he was speaking of was Nalanda tradition,which is “an academic subject.” 

The spiritual leader reiterated that he was committed to remaining with China provided it gave them full right to preserveTibetan culture and language.

He pointed out that the deal would benefit both Chinese and Tibetans mutually.

“So far as money is concerned, remain within the limit of China. Mutually we can do immensely. Then, preservationthoroughly about our culture, knowledge,” Dalai Lama said.

He hailed India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for his assistance to build Tibetan monasteries and learning centres in India by allocating land in different parts of India.

The Dalai Lama expressed his gratitude towards the then Karnataka chief minister S Nijalingappa who gave a large chunk of land at four different places having five settlements.