Three high-profile events this month, including the Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, will converge on a far-reaching proposal to build an international university at Bihar’s ancient seat of learning, Nalanda.

For the prosperous East Asians, including the Communist Chinese, who are rediscovering Buddhism, the Nalanda project is a labour of love and a spiritual debt.

For Bihar it could be that single big idea to kickstart economic reconstruction in the long neglected state and put it back at the heart of a re-integrating Asia.

If New Delhi and Patna can get their act together in the coming months, the East Asian enthusiasm for the Nalanda university project and the development of Buddhist circuit could change the face of not just Bihar but much of the Eastern Subcontinent that is home to the largest number of world’s poor.

Highlighting the new Chinese enthusiasm for Buddhism and the enduring links with the Indian civilisation are two Buddhist monks who arrive in Nalanda in the next few days.

The monks, one from mainland China and the other from Taiwan, are retracing the steps of Xuan Zang (better known in India as Hieun Tsang) who visited India in the seventh century when the Nalanda school was at the height of its intellectual influence all across Asia. Traveling overland, the two monks will be at Nalanda in the next few days.

After traveling overland from China to Bihar, the monks will fly into New Delhi, in time for President Hu’s arrival in the third week of November. Sources familiar with the preparations for Hu’s visit suggest the Chinese President will meet the monks and also formally endorse the Nalanda project.

Once China is on board, the rest of Asia is expected to join in what could be unprecedented multi-national Asian project to build the Nalanda University. Meanwhile, an international seminar on the Nalanda University, kicking off in Singapore next Sunday, is expected to focus on the many themes of the project.

The Singapore government, especially its foreign minister George Yeo, had been at the forefront of the Asian initiative on the Nalanda project. Singapore sees the university as the cutting edge of the important effort to re-establish the ancient links between the Subcontinent and East Asia.

Singapore believes an international university, with centres of excellence on science, religion, and humanities, all of which flourished in ancient Nalanda, could become the symbol of renewed cultural vigour in Asia along with its widely admired prosperity.

While Nalanda is yet to wake up to what’s in store for it, in a secluded corner, workers are now racing to meet the December deadline for completion of a Xuan Zang Memorial Hall being built jointly by the Indian and Chinese governments.

“We are rushing to complete the memorial since it is likely to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister in December,” said the Registrar of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, S. P. Sinha.

The story of Xuan Zang Memorial Hall began in 1960-61. The Chinese government had handed over a cheque of Rs 5.7 lakh as its contribution for the project. However, it came to a halt in 1962 following the Chinese aggression. After lying abandoned for many years, it was completed by the CPWD in 1984 and in 2001 it was handed over to the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, an institute dedicated to Buddhist studies under the Government of India’s Department of Culture.

But it remained abandoned till China once again developed interest in it. “Now the Chinese government is investing around Rs 3-4 crore to decorate the memorial hall. They have despatched materials in 12 containers which are due to reach within a couple of days,” said Sinha.

Apart from the two monks, a team of 30-40 members from the Chinese Central Television have taken the ancient Silk Route, the route taken by Xuan Zang, and are scheduled to reach Nalanda on November 18 to produce an 8-hour documentary on the traveller.

If things go well, it is likely that the Nalanda university project could eventually be offered for participation of the other Asian nations at the East Asia Summit.

While the project is drawing strong support from the Asian leaders, the huge amount of finance required will come in only if India can credibly signal that backward Bihar can indeed host such an international venture.

N.K. Singh, an economic administrator who served in many capacities in New Delhi over the years, is currently coordinating the Nalanda project in Bihar.

Currently the Deputy Chairman of the Bihar State Planning Commission, Singh is aware that building an international university in Nalanda must be part of a grander scheme to build infrastructure of every possible kind in Bihar.