Nalanda - the first Buddhism university in the world.

Nalanda was founded nearly 2.000 years ago and originally was a Buddhist monastery. Moreover, it was also a school where scholars and students from as far away as Tibet, China, Korea, and Central Asia came to study Buddhism. Nalanda is known as the first Buddhism university in the world.

Therefore, historians often characterize Nalanda as a university - the first Buddhism university in the world. In the 3rd century CE, Emperor Ashoka, the most famous ruler of Ancient India, built a great temple at the site of Shariputra's chaitya in Nalanda to express his deep respect to Buddhism. From 5th century CE to circa 1200 CE, Nalanda flourished and became a centre of Buddhism studying in India and Asia.

However, Nalanda was ransacked and destroyed in circa 1200 CE by a Muslim army of Bakhtiyar Khilji. This army had slain all the monks who was staying at Nalanda and burn everything, including the library. Some legends told that the library of Nalanda was so big that it took 3 months for the fire to burn the entire library.