Nava Vihara monastery, (near) Balkh, Velayat-e Balkh, AF

Raw data

"Nava Vihara (Sanskrit: "new temple" or "new monastery" (see vihara), has been arabized as Nau Behar or Navbahar) was a Buddhist stupa or monastery near the ancient city of Balkh, in the Greater Khorasan province of the Persian Empire (now in present-day Afghanistan).
The temple may have been an old Zoroastrian fire-temple, or it may have been converted to a Zoroastrian temple (sources differ). Balkh was also the birth place of Zoraster [ &] From the Memoirs of Xuanzang, we learn that, at the time of his visit in 630, there were in Balkh, or its vicinity, about a hundred Buddhist convents […]."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nava_Vihara

"017. Balkh: Bala Hissar (Citadel) […] Accounts from the 10th century AD onward indicate that Balkh was ringed with earthen walls, within which stood a fine citadel, mosque and other buildings necessary for Balkh to become an important trading center (a necessary stop on the Silk Road with links to India and China) and a center of education (in 980 AD the philosopher-scientist Ibn Sina was born in Balkh, as was the poet Ferdowsi). Those same earthen walls can still be seen over a length of some 10 kilometres, to the north of which lies a secondary fortified area, the Bala Hissar." - DoDLRMP and CEMML (2010:#017 Balkh: Bala Hissar (Citadel))

"The most famous Kushan king was Kanishka (ruled 78 - 102 CE), whose western capital was at Kapisha. He supported the Sarvastivada School of Hinayana. [….] Nava Vihara, the main monastery at Balkh, soon became the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia, comparable to Nalanda Monastery in central northern India. It emphasized study primarily of the Vaibhashika abhidharma and admitted only monks who had already composed texts on the topic. Since it housed a tooth relic of the Buddha, it was also one of the main centers of pilgrimage along the Silk Route from China to India." - Berzin (2001-2006a).

BALKH (Vazirabad)
Balkh is an ancient town that served as headquarters for Alexander the Great for two years after his invasion in 328 BC. Destroyed in 1221 by Genghis Khan[…] The ruins of [….] the Arch of Nawbahar and the remains of a Buddhist stupa are some of the town's attractions.
http://khorsheed.com/pages/021_e_misc_afghan.html

Input by: tmciolek, 24 Mar 2012.

Final data (and their sources)

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 20 km from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Nava Vihara monastery, Afhganistan.

General location of the Nava Vihara monastery, Afhganistan.
Lat 36.7649 Long 66.903
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://maps.fallingrain.com), 2012.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.7649+66.903+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Nava%20Vihara%20monastery,%20AF)&ll=36.7649,66.903&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en

Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • Afghanistan:Velayat-e Balkh

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names

4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx, Lat 36.7649 Long 66.903 - based on visual identification of the citadel site in satellite imagery, maps.google.com, tmciolek, 24 Mar 2012.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village

7. The settlement's alternative/historical names

8. The settlement's coordinates

9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Theravada - (Krishan 1996:81)

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

  • Sarvastivada - Berzin (2001-2006a).

11. Date-early

  • 6th century AD - (Litvinskii et al. 1996:178)

12. Date-intermediate

13. Date-late

[missing data]

14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

[missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

[missing data]

16. Additional notes

  • In 630 AD - about a hundred Buddhist convents, with 3,000 devotees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nava_Vihara
  • Navasangharama. "An ancient monastery near Baktra [Balkh - tmc], famous for three relics of Sakyamuni (a tooth, basin, and staff)." - Muller (1995a-present)

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

[missing data]

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Page tags: 20km afghanistan central-asia mapped n sarvastivada south-asia spot stupa theravada university xuanzang
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