The Blend Sutra

Hiuen Tsang returned to China in 647 AD. Now, we honour him

Call it the new Hindi-Chini bhai bhai effect. With 2006 being declared as India-China friendship year, the results are showing at the university town of Nalanda, Bihar.

A temple dedicated to the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, lying in ruins for long, has been given a fresh lease of life thanks to a joint India-China effort. Not just this, plans are afoot to replicate the ancient and defunct Nalanda university, where Hiuen Tsang spent considerable time in the 7th century AD.

The current focus, however, is on the Hiuen Tsang temple/memorial. October is the deadline, and it's only the final touches that's left. For this, a 31-member team of craftspersons, artists and technicians will be in Nalanda from October 20. Murals from Luoyang near Xiang, Hiuen Tsang's birthplace, have been flown in and are now awaiting clearance from Calcutta customs. The Indian delegation, headed by Ravindra Pant, director of the modern Nalanda University, has almost finished the task cut out for it.

The memorial has been built by Indian craftsmen, but the Chinese will decide the style of its murals and pillars.

"All that remains now is a huge entrance gate, courtesy the Chinese government, and a bell," notes Pant, who has been overseeing the work ever since he took over as director six years ago.

When Pant started out, the temple was a den of criminals. Buffaloes strayed


into its compound, and rural folk, who knew little about the famous Buddhist monk, whiled away their time there. Believed to be haunted, the temple's walls were crumbling. Now, a mammoth, gleaming and impressive monastery-like structure—over 56 feet tall—is being readied at a breathless pace. Much of the work has been done in the last one year although China and India had agreed to build a memorial to Hiuen Tsang 50 years ago.

According to Pant, care has been taken to keep the architecture as authentic as possible and every step has been a joint effort. For instance, the murals on the walls will be painted by the Chinese, while the memorial itself has been built by Indian craftsmen. The pillars in the memorial are maroon—the way the Chinese wanted it. A statue of Hiuen Tsang, cast in bronze and weighing 750 kg, stands guard at the entrance. Even the toilets are Chinese in style. Once completed, the temple will also house ancient manuscripts from Thailand, Sri Lanka and China.

Never has a temple/memorial evoked so much interest among the Chinese and the Indian governments as this one. Its completion before the end of this month is top priority for both governments. And for the moment, both are willing to forget that it has taken all of 50 years to build it. For India, its completion is to prove a point that despite a war between the two nations, it was time to deliver on a promise made way back in 1957. For the Chinese, who requested the Dalai Lama to hand over the remains of Hiuen Tsang kept in a gold vase to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the memorial is a test of true friendship.

It will also build cultural bonds at a time when India and China are strengthening economic ties. "It is symbolic of the renewal of bilateral friendship very much evident in the change of mood between the two countries now. Earlier attempts to finish the memorial did not really take off," an official of the Chinese embassy told Outlook. That the Indian government is taking a keen interest in the project is evident from a string of meetings that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has held with those involved in the restoration and are monitoring its progress.

According to a spokesperson of the cultural office of China, coordinating activities from the Chinese side, the memorial is important as Hiuen Tsang not only learnt Buddhism at Nalanda but also spread it in China after his 17-year-long stay in India from 630 AD."He was a noble soul. It is wonderful that both the countries are honouring him," he says. New Delhi is planning to build a similar temple built in Indian style at Luoyang in Henan province of east-central China.

The Chinese interest in Nalanda, where Hiuen Tsang spent almost 12 years in the company of several thousand scholar-monks, could well help the town develop as a major tourist attraction. It is already on the Buddhist map but the building of the temple could be a first step to laying new roads and developing infrastructure. This, many local people believe, could draw hordes of tourists from India and abroad.

Apart from the memorial, there is also an ambitious plan to restore some of Nalanda's lost sheen. To begin with, like the Nalanda University which housed artists and scholars, a new cultural village is on the drawing board. Fifty-two acres of land have been acquired to see the plan through. Also on the anvil is a new syllabus, offering subjects like applied Buddhist psychology, once the ancient university is resurrected. Pant says he is impressed by the old method of teaching, which he intends to put into practice very soon. An application is pending with the University Grants Commission for the registration of the new varsity, which will also draw Buddhist scholars from round the globe. Currently there are 30 monks researching at Nalanda, where Hiuen Tsang studied logic, grammar, Sanskrit and the Yogacara school of Buddhism, and returned with 650-odd Sanskrit texts.

Neither China nor India is confirming whether their respective heads of state will be in Nalanda to formally inaugurate the Hiuen Tsang temple. For the moment, Indian and Chinese teams are working towards the completion of the memorial. Of course, the last and final act will be when Hiuen Tsang's mortal remains, currently housed in Patna Museum, are formally moved to Nalanda