China Gets Its Own Nalanda While India Struggles To Revive The Ancient University

China has overtaken India in the sphere of soft power diplomacy as it has managed to build and operationalise its own version of Nalanda University, while India struggles to bring to reality the plan formulated about a decade ago to revive the ancient campus in Bihar, the New Indian Express has reported.

A part of the global team that first promoted the idea of reconstructing Nalanda University in 2006, China managed to build a sprawling campus spread across 618.8 acres secretly. The plan came to light only after China’s education ministry formally announced the enrollment for the new university in late last month.

“In 2011, China had given a million dollar as donation for reconstruction of Nalanda. It appears now that China was working in parallel to create a Buddhist university. Such sprawling campus cannot be built in one or two years. They must have started construction in 2012,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

The Chinese Nalanda, a sea-facing structure located on scenic Nanshan Mountains, will offer courses in three languages – Pali, Tibetan and Chinese. The university currently has six departments, including Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist Architectural Design. China has appointed monk Yin Shun, abbot of Lumbini-based Zhong Hua Buddhist temple, as the dean of the university

China has plans to link the university to ancient Buddhist centres in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Cambodia, neutralising India’s leverage in soft power diplomacy. China’s effort to promote Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha located in Nepal, is a part of this strategy, which aims to counter India’s Sarnath and Bodhgaya, where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment.