Unique Design, Green air-cooling system for Nalanda University

Architects building the Nalanda International University at the ancient seat of learning in Bihar have decided to use the desiccant enhanced evaporative (Devap) air-cooling system. This is the first time such a system will be used in India.

The Devap system works by using “dessicant” material that removes moisture from the air using heat, as also evaporative technologies that bring about cooling by using up to 90 percent less energy than conventional means.

“We plan to use the Devap system in Nalanda International University for the first time in India, as it gels with the concept of the ancient seat of learning,” said Rajeev Kathpalia, principal architect of the Ahmedabad-based company Vastu Shilpa Consultants, selected last month to design the university.

Kathpalia said the Devap system had not been tried in India till now. “It will be an experiment in Nalanda,” Kathpalia told IANS, adding that it had shown satisfactory results in the US and Japan.

Kathpalia, along with B.V. Doshi, the firm’s principal architect, visited the site at Rajgir, some 100 km from Patna, where the university will be built, and discussed the design with Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal.

Sabharwal said construction work on the 446-acre plot, located 12 km from the ruins of the ancient seat of learning, would begin by December.

She said the first phase of the varsity, an initiative of the Indian government and supported by the East Asia Summit, would be completed in two years.

The university will begin its academic session from 2014, initially offering masters degrees in ecology, environment and historic studies, Sabharwal said.

Kathpalia pointed out that the buildings would be designed on the concept of “net zero” energy consumption. The university would generate its own energy using photo voltaics. It would also collect the biomass of neighbouring villages to generate its own electricity and harvest rainwater.

The university, which will have seven schools, will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda university. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism, along with social sciences.
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India's ancient Nalanda university returns to life !!

Nalanda University was an eminent centre of learning long before Oxford, Cambridge and Europe's oldest university Bologna were founded. Nalanda University in northern India drew scholars from all over Asia, surviving for hundreds of years before being destroyed by invaders in 1193.

The idea of Nalanda as an international centre of learning is being revived by a group of statesmen and scholars led by the Nobel prize winning economist, Amartya Sen, The group wants to establish a new world-class residential university with top students and researchers from around the world, on a site close to ruins of the ancient Buddhist institution in the Indian state of Bihar.

The new Nalanda International University will focus on the humanities, economics and management, Asian integration, sustainable development and oriental languages.
Old foundations ,but building a top university from scratch, let alone one in a poor under-developed part of India, is a tall order. Some doubt that an international university can flourish in such an under-developed area.

"Are top students and faculty going to be attracted to rural Bihar?" says Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College in the United States.
Amartya Sen Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is the university's first chancellor

Amartya Sen, the university's chancellor, is undaunted.

"Our job is to get the new Nalanda University going and establish the teaching. This is just the beginning - the old Nalanda took 200 years to come to a flourishing state. We may not take 200 years but it will take some decades."

"After Nalanda was destroyed in the 1190s it lingered on for a while - from time to time some people noticed that there was some teaching going on in the following couple of hundred years, but it wasn't anything like the university it had been. There is now absolutely nothing. We have to start from scratch."

In 2006, India, China, Singapore, Japan and Thailand announced the plan to revive the university based on the vision of the old Nalanda. And it was backed by the East Asia Summit which also includes South East Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US.
International staff

The new university will be built in Rajgir, 10 kilometres from the ancient site with buildings planned on old Buddhist principles.

For now temporary premises have been secured and the postgraduate university has already published invitations to research fellows and scholars from around the world.
Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama has spoken of the historic importance of Nalanda

The first two faculties will be history and ecology and the environment with the first intake of students due next year.

Prof Sen says there will be active co-operation with Yale's school of forestry studies, Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University department of history, Seoul University in South Korea and Peking University in China.

This international outlook could boost India's higher education sector which is seen as inward looking and less internationalised than other countries in Asia, including China.

The new Nalanda will be "Asian in inspiration, Asian in motivation but it is not Asian in terms of its knowledge or the range or expertise or personal involvement. If the knowledge works in Asia, it ought to work in Africa or Latin America as well," said Prof Sen.

If all goes well, it will do Nalanda's ancient reputation proud despite the intervening 800 years.
'Soaring into the clouds'

Founded around the 5th Century, Nalanda once had over 10,000 students, mostly Buddhist monks, many of them from China, Japan, Korea and countries across south-east, central and western Asia.

The Chinese monk Xuanzang, who studied there in the 7th Century, left behind an eye-popping account of the thriving, wealthy university, describing a nine-storey library "soaring into the clouds."

Shanghai-based author Mishi Saran followed Xuanzang's route across Asia in her book Chasing the Monk's Shadow.
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    It could show that India is present in Asia not only economically and militarily but also intellectually”

Prof Sukh Deo Muni

"Xuanzang was looking to study with the people who knew the (Buddhist) texts best. Nalanda was already reaching the heights of its power and prestige. It was known in Korea and Japan - its reputation had spread through the Asian trade routes," she said.

"When Xuanzang was at Nalanda, it was a vibrant place, packed with scholars, with seminars, teaching and debate. It was a kind of Buddhist Ivy League institution - all the deepest ideas about Buddhism were explored and dissected at Nalanda," said Ms Saran.

The influence of those scholars has survived to this day. While at the Jaipur literary festival in Rajasthan in January, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said "the source of all the [Buddhist] knowledge we have, has come from Nalanda."

The new Nalanda hopes to match the intellectual rigour, but will not be a religious institution.

"Nalanda was not only interested in Buddhism. Even at that time it took from universal principles. It had secular studies, public health, it was interested in logic, astrology and mathematics and languages," said George Yeo, a former Singaporean Foreign Minister and head of the Nalanda international advisory panel.

Nonetheless, the "spirit of Nalanda" is part of the attraction. Nearby, the Buddha achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.
'Severe doubts'

But Prof Altbach, an expert on world-class universities, has "severe doubts" about the location.

"The site of an academic institution is important," he said. Nalanda "may attract a certain number of big thinkers, but academics like to be where the infrastructure is. They want culture and amenities and coffee shops, and a wider community of intellectuals than that on campus".

Yet Bihar, has also emerged as India's fastest growing state with economic growth of 12% last year.
Orwell's birthplace, Bihar State, India The writer George Orwell was also born in Bihar, northern India

"The countryside looked arid and impoverished. Today there are lush fields. The shops are fuller, the saris have become brighter," said Mr Yeo.

The university itself will help to develop the region, working with some 60 surrounding villages to improve livelihoods in agriculture and tourism, according to Nand Kishore Singh, a member of parliament from Bihar and a member of Nalanda's governing body.

The next two faculties to be put in place will be information technology, and management and economics which will help develop job opportunities "to enable Bihar to catch up with the rest of India", said Prof Sen.

Already a huge amount of infrastructure is planned for Bihar, including roads and an international airport at Gaya, with the Bihar State government fully committed to the university project.

But "building a top-class university is extraordinarily expensive, especially in a rural and undeveloped location, even with assistance of foreign donors and the central government", said Prof Altbach.
Soft power, hard cash

While the land has been provided by the state of Bihar, the Nalanda's supporters estimate around $1bn (£650m) will be needed. Even that is seen as a modest sum compared to some of the world's major universities.

Australia is funding a dean-level chair of ecology and environment. Singapore will design, build and donate library costing up to $7m (£4.5m). Thailand will contribute $100,000 (£65,000), and China has announced $1m (£650,000) in aid for construction.

"I don't see any dearth of money in the region but they are nowhere near the $1bn endowment, so far not many countries have come forward with their huge purses," said Sukh Deo Muni, a former Indian envoy to Laos and visiting professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
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New Look of reviving old Nalanda University !!

 Efforts to re-establish and re-invent the historic and famed Nalanda University in Rajgir, located 12 km away from the monument zone of Nalanda in Bihar, moved ahead.

Plans to build a new campus took shape a few days ago when the international jury comprising four architects from Singapore, Japan, China and India and three members from the University chose the winning design from an international competition.

Of the eight proposals submitted by pre-qualified architectural firms, including five from abroad, the jury selected the design drawn by Vastushilpa Consultants, a well known architecture firm based in Ahmedabad for its “conceptual planning, clarity of thought and ability to take forward the vision of Nalanda.”

Nalanda University, conceptualised as a standalone international institution, would be constructed on a 455-acre site to accommodate 2,500 students and 500 teachers. The University has proposed seven schools of learning including Historic Studies, Buddhist Studies and Information Technology, but only two of them — Historic Studies and Environment Studies — would be built in the first phase.

Rajeev Kathpalia, one of the two principal architects of Vastushilpa Consultants in a telephone interview said that their design ‘envisions the new campus as an institution of future, a beacon of sustainable practices and a model of integration with local community.’ He also explained that they have planned buildings as a close-knit group and located amid a tranquil agrarian landscape. More than half the site is intentionally kept open to take care of the aquifers and recharge them. The overall aim is to create an integrated ecosystem where flow of air, water and energy are channelled in an almost natural way, he added.

Balakrishna Doshi, a Padma Shri awardee, is the senior partner and founder of Vastushilpa Consultants.

Nalanda flourished as an important centre of learning for about 800 years. It fell into ruins in the 13th century, and the British archaeologists discovered the historic remains in the 19th century.

Following the decision to revive the university at the Second East Asian Summit in 2007, the Indian government established Nalanda University in 2010 after passing an Act in Parliament. Many Asia-Pacific countries have extended support for the project. Last year, the University floated the international competition seeking designs for the proposed campus.
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Nalanda University project takes major step forward !!

In a major step towards realising the ambitious Nalanda International University, coming up in Rajgir in Bihar, an international jury has selected the architectural design of an Ahmedabad-based firm for the varsity.

The design of Ahmedabad-based company Vastu Shilpa Consultants was selected by a jury that comprised top architects from Singapore, China, Japan and India.

Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal, addressing the media here Thursday, said 79 proposals had been received and eight final entries were shortlisted.

B.V Doshi, principal architect of the firm, said they based their design in such a way that "it would give a glimpse of what Nalanda stood for - as a centre of knowledge, a centre of understanding life and its processes".

Rajeev Kathpalia, of the firm, said while designing the university, they kept in mind the soil, the environment and the manner in which Nalanda University was constructed.

The first phase of the varsity, an initiative of the government of India supported by the East Asia Summit, would be completed in two years, said Sabharwal.

The university, located around 100 from Patna and 12 km from the ruins of the ancient seat of learning, is to begin its academic session 2014, with masters classes in ecology, environment and historic studies, she said.

The varsity would come up at Rajgir on a 446-acre plot.

Kathpalia said the buildings would be designed on the concept of "net zero" energy consumption. The university would generate its own energy, using photo voltaics. It would also collect the bio mass of neighbouring villages to generate its own electricity and use the rainwater for its use.

The Detailed Project Report had estimated the cost to be Rs.1,560 crore.

"Nalanda university has got funding from some East Asia Summit members. The government is committed to seeing the project through, and will pitch in with funds," an official unwilling to be named told IANS.

The university, which will have seven schools, will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda university. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with social sciences.

Master plan for Nalanda International University finalized !!

The much awaited master plan for the Nalanda International University will be designed by Gujarat based Vastu Shilpa Consultants.

The decision was taken on Monday in New Delhi by a high-power jury set to finalise the architectural design.

The jury included former chief planner of Singapore town Liu Thai Ker, Professor Osamu and Ishiyama of Japan University, Li Xiaodong of Tsinghua University (China) and Neelkanth Chhaya of CEPT University (Ahmedabad).

“All eight shortlisted models were invited. After a comprehensive scrutiny, the jury opted the model of Vastu shilpa Consultants,” Dr Gopa Sabharwal, vice chancellor of Nalanda University said.

The university is set to come up on 446 acres of land in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient university in Nalanda. The university will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda University. The project took shape in 2006 at the initiative of the then President APJ Abdul Kalam.

The ancient university at Nalanda was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers. It existed until 1197 and attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.

Nalanda University’s design in final stage !!

The much awaited Master Plan for the Nalanda International University at the ancient seat of learning in Bihar is in its final stage, the vice chancellor said Saturday.

“A high-power jury is set to finalise the architectural design in New Delhi May 6,” vice chancellor Gopa Sabharwal said.

The jury includes architects Liu Thai Ker of Singapore, Li Xiaodong of China, Osamu Ishiyama of Japan and Neelkanth Chhaya of India.

She said the jury that visited the site of the proposed university in Nalanda district Friday will assess the proposals of eight architectural firms before making a final selection.

According to her, 79 proposals were received to finalise the design for the university. “Eight companies were shortlisted after a comprehensive scrutiny,” she said.

Janata Dal-United MP N.K. Singh, a member of the Nalanda Mentor Group headed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, said it was decided to select the best design as it will reflect a grand architecture.

“The main aim is to revive the glory of the ancient university, and the ancient university was an architectural marvel,” he said.

The university is set to come up on 446 acres in Rajgir, 10 km from the site of the ancient university in Nalanda, about 100 km southeast of Patna.

The university will be fully residential, like the ancient Nalanda university. It will offer courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with social sciences.

The project took shape in 2006 at the initiative of then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The ancient university at Nalanda was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers. It existed until 1197 and attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.
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Monks came forward and saved Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the past while it was driven out from India !!

Nalanda is believed to be the world’s first University and the largest Buddhist one at that. Situated in east of Patna in India it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey in its heyday. Subjects covered included science, astronomy, medicine and chiefly metaphysics and philosophy. Nagarjuna, a Mahayana philosopher and Dharmapala, the Brahmin scholar taught there. Hieun-Tsang, famous Chinese traveller and scholar stayed there. The university library had been the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge anywhere and its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes. Do you know what had happened to all that treasure and Buddhism in India after that?

First about what happened to Nalanda University. A Man named Bakhtiar Khilji, a military General of Qutb-ud-din Aybak, Turkic king who ruled a part of India from Delhi ransacked Nalanda and set fire to it in 1193. The university is said have burned for months.

Why do a military General want to desecrate and burn a peaceful and a serene monastery? To answer that question you’ll have understand the religion of the General and his gang who burned it; Islam. You’ll have to understand the mentality of Islamists. And for that you have to download copy of the Koran and read it. To assist you, let me say, over 60% of the Koran is not about Muslims but non-Muslims who their prophet named as unbelievers. Therefore non-Muslims like us have the rights know what Koran tells Muslims about us, unbelievers.

We ought to know that Koran tells Muslims about inferiority of non-Muslims. They must know that Koran compares non-Muslims to vile animals and Allah’s dark plans for their eternal torture. They must know Koran dehumanizes non-Muslims, describing them as “animals” and beasts; like in 98:6, 8:55, 7:166, 7:179 and etc. They must know that Koran tells Muslims not to take Non-Muslims as Friends; like in 58:22, 4:144, 5:51, 3:118 and etc. They must know Koran orders Muslims to fight unbelievers; 9:123 etc. They must know Koran tells Muslims that Allah curse other religions; like 48:28 etc. They must know that Non-Muslims are to be fought until religion is only for Allah; like in 8:39, 2:193 and etc. They must know that Koran says that people of other religions are to be violently punished in this world; like in 9:30, 4:76 and etc. non-Muslims must know that 19% of the Koran is devoted to violent conquest and subjugation of non-Muslim.

Monks at Nalanda never knew any of those Koran teachings. Indeed they may have been concern only about, as this writer says ‘compassion and love’ to others. And monks fled and Buddhism disappeared from India in the face of a crazy attacker.

It is absurd to expect this writer know about historical Muslim fanaticism or what had happened at Nalanda, when he considers all Muslims are peace loving egalitarians like smooth talking Imtiaz Bakir Markar. I am sure writer is clueless what Muslims had done to their own kind in this country. Would he otherwise preach us that all Sri Lankan Muslims are peace lovers?

Let me tell him first that Muslims in Sri Lanka are increasingly being coached under Wahhabis who themselves were indoctrinated in Medina and King Abdul Aziz Universities of Saudi on true Islam meaning Interpreting the Koran correctly. Bin Laden is a true Islamist. I bet the one who set the Boston bomb must be a true Islamist as well.

Whether we like it or not, Wahhabi Islam has become the trend in Sri Lanka for sometime now. We can feel of it more now from the Arab like cultural invasion. Wahhabis despise Sufis and for they think Sufis are not true Islamists.

A Sufi named Abdullah opened a Meditation Centre at Kattankudy in 1996. Wahhabis made an arson attack on the building on May 29 the same year. Abdullah died on Dec 6th 2006. Just nine days later, a Wahhabi mob invaded the Meditation Centre, knocked down the minaret and removed the body of Abdullah’s body and burned it. The houses of 117 Sufis were destroyed by the fire. Many Sufis fled the district, two were injured, and one lost an arm. Peace loving people. It won’t be long before Wahhabis take on Sinhala Buddhists on some pretext.

Now tell us; how do you compare that bit of Muslim act unleashed on a group of the same sect to action against all Muslims by all Buddhist organisations put together, eh? You are making a mountain out a molehole.

We have come to know true characters of candle light vigils. We don’t mind they stand with Wahhabis, only if they know what Wahhabis’s inside is like. Are you telling us that Monks have to be quiet when Mullahs of Wahhabi infested ACJU were roping every Sinhala manufacture to pay them millions and hang Halaal badge on their own produce? What do you mean by “hijacking the ideals of Buddhism”?

You may not know, but whenever there was a threat to the nation, Monks had come forward to tell us the truth and remind of the past and save the nation. That is exactly what BBS is doing now. Find an old book or a pamphlet and learn how Monks in this country saved Buddhism in the past while it was driven out from India.
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