Nalanda Buddhist College

Founded in 1757, the Nalanda monastery was built when the ancient Nalanda University in India was already a holy and sacred place where Bhutanese Buddhists would try and make pilgrimage to annually. Given the difficulty of doing so, Nalanda monastery was built as an alternative. The activity and occupation of the monastery has waxed and waned over the centuries and at times it has sat empty. Eventually the uncle of His Majesty, the Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Lopen Yoenten Gyaltsen requested permission from the King to open an official Buddhist Shedra (institute). In 1991 His Majesty gave permission for Nalanda Monastery to become a Shedra.

This monk was kind enough to open the temple for us. The photograph begins to capture what we felt in his presence. He seemed to emanate kindness, compassion and an inner peace that Dorji, Margaret and I all could appreciate. He had been at Nalanda for eight years and was happy to converse with us. Currently, there are nearly two hundred monks here, ranging in age from upwards of eight years old. Monks receive the first three years of their formal training before moving on to other monasteries for their further training. This young monk discussed the difficulties of attracting and retaining monks, describing a dissatisfaction among many contemporary monks with the quality of their masters and the instruction they receive.