Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 DA R K A N G E L 06there are many smaller shrine rooms, as well as stupas containing smallmeditation cells, set about them. There are now walkways for visitorsthat go round the temples and a path that leads to the top of the remainsof the largest one. In places, the temples have been excavated to revealthat they grew slowly, like the stupas we saw elsewhere, enlarged bybuilding a bigger version on each previous one.The rest of the site consists of eleven Buddhist monasteries set out inan orderly row opposite the temples—each built to the same basic rectangulardesign as we had seen at Vaishali. However, more of the wallswere left here, and I could walk round and get a better feel for how themonks once lived. Although the cells were small, they were bigger thanat Vaishali; and as well as recesses with a large slab of stone for a bed,there were also smaller alcoves for the monks’ books. The cells facedinward onto a large pillared courtyard where once lectures and debateswould have taken place, the teacher sitting on a raised stone slab at oneend in front of the main shrine. At the opposite end was the porticoedentrance to the vihara. All the outside walls were very substantial;according to the Chinese pilgrims, the viharas were originally fourstoreys high with “spires that licked the clouds.”It was in these courtyards that Buddhist teachings and other studieswere taught and debated. The level of teaching was very advanced. Togain admission to Nalanda, potential students had to answer a series ofextremely difficult questions on Buddhadhamma. These were put tothem by the gatekeeper, a scholar of high repute who resided at the onemain gate in the wall that encircled the whole complex. Only those whoanswered quickly and accurately would be allowed to enter, and accordingto Hsuan Tsaing, “seven to eight out of every ten fail.” Nalanda wasthus more like a postgraduate college, and with such renown thatdegrees were often forged.As well as study, it is believed that bronze metalwork was also practicedat Nalanda. Today the museum attached to the site is full to overflowingwith ornate bronze statues of various different bodhisattvas,2 0 9