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.

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