Turkic raiders under Bakhtiyar Khalji sack the monasteries of Bihar, and Nalanda is burned and abandoned; the destruction closes organized Buddhism in its Indian homeland, whose monks and manuscripts flee to Nepal and Tibet in the same decades.
Tagged: Persecution Buddhist Mahayana Vajrayana
The Event
- Date
- c. 1193 (approximate)
- Era
- Classical; Standard periodization of Buddhist history
- Location
- Nalanda; today Bihar, India
- Traditions
- Buddhism
- Streams
- Mahayana, Vajrayana
- Key figures
- Bakhtiyar Khalji
Connections
- Nalanda at its height; ended
Primary Sources
- Tabaqat-i Nasiri
Secondary Sources
- Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Cambridge, 2nd ed. 2013)
- Snelling, The Buddhist Handbook (Inner Traditions, 1998)
Provenance: HIST-0421; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
- Asanga and Vasubandhu History Event
- Buddhism introduced to Japan History Event
- Emergence of the Mahayana History Event
- Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution (China) History Event
- Life of the Buddha History Event
- Nagarjuna History Event
- Nalanda at its height History Event
- Reign of Ashoka History Event