“If you still desire to know, use the opportunity to experience your memory crystal. I
wish for you to see and understand it for yourself. It’s not just the souls of you two, you
also have relationships with many other souls at that time,” Lord Phoche replied,
raising another point.

“Alright, after that, Benjasila followed the Buddha to Savatthi, along with her family,
who sold all their possessions and moved there permanently to support their daughter
and the Buddha. Later, another temple was built by a generous wealthy woman, who
used gold coins obtained from selling her most valuable jewelry. She had forgotten it at
Jetavana Temple but did not wish to take it back, so she announced its sale to use the
money for good deeds. However, no one could afford to buy it because of its extremely
high value, so she decided to buy it herself and used all the money to build a temple,
transforming the place into a paradise like Tavatimsa heaven, because it was full of
various flowers, both perennial and annual, blooming in both summer and winter. She
named that temple Buppharam Temple. And because the temple’s founder was a
woman, the monks residing there were mostly nuns, one of whom was Benjasila, who
moved there from the time it was first built.”

“At that time, after Master Bavari passed away, she moved to reside at Jetavana Temple,
where the Buddha was also staying. Because the Buddha stayed in Savatthi the longest,
this city became known as the center of his Dharma dissemination. Ascetics, monks,
and seekers from all directions traveled there to converse with him without ceasing.
This city was therefore considered the center of Dharma dissemination in that era of
the Buddha.

Later, the Buddha assigned everyone who had attained the truth to travel and
propagate these principles to various places. Some traveled to distant lands, but most
returned to their original hometowns. One of them was Sariputta and Nanda, who
chose to travel to a small district located on the upper plains, before going up to
Savatthi. That place was Sariputta’s birthplace. At that time, traveling downstream
from Savatthi often involved using rafts along the Irrawaddy River, or the Yom River as
it is known today, as Master Bavari had done, because it was the most energy-efficient
way to travel. Later, this place became the largest monastic university called
Nakananda.”

“I’ve heard of this largest monastic university, but isn’t it called Nalanda?” I asked.

“The real name is Nakananda. The word ‘Naka’ or ‘Nag’ means one who is ready or
intends to learn about being Buddha. The word ‘Nanda’ comes from the name of
Nanda, who was the Buddha’s half-brother and was known as a senior monk with
profound mastery of bodily and mental restraint because he used to be infatuated with
sensual pleasures, but eventually attained the truth, so he clearly understood the
negative consequences of letting the mind flow with desires,” Lord Phoche explained.

“Where is Nakananda located?” I interjected because I wanted to know.

“After the two monks traveled by raft for 5 days, on the 6th day, they arrived at a small,
peaceful community called Tambon Chaliang. It was an old community with people
living there for a long time. This district was about 110 kilometers away from Savatthi
if traveling on foot through forests and mountains, but almost twice as far, about 190
kilometers, if traveling by raft along the Irrawaddy River. It was only 32 kilometers east
of Veluvana Vihara, Rajagaha, or Uttaradit Province today. This district was under the
administration of the Magadha kingdom, with Rajagaha as its capital.”

“Initially, the two monks’ purpose in establishing a community there was only to
propagate the Dharma according to the Buddha’s teachings. However, because the
location of this community was like a gateway opening to Savatthi and Rajagaha,
travelers, merchants, and even monarchs had to stop at this community to prepare
supplies. When they learned that Nanda, who was a relative of the Buddha, had
established a community in this district, coupled with the fact that a wealthy man from
Rajagaha named Dhananjaya had moved there because he saw its strategic location,
they jointly supported Nanda’s community. This wealthy man, Dhananjaya, was the one
who brought prosperity to this place later, by organizing and structuring its
administration, until it became a small city called Mueang Saket Noi, which was its
informal name because the wealthy man Dhananjaya’s ancestors came from the city of
Saket, and at that time, Saket was considered the most prosperous and powerful.”

“Where is the real Saket located?” I interjected.

“It’s Roi Et Province today,” Lord Phoche replied.

“So, Mueang Saket Noi and Nakananda are the same place?” I asked.

“Yes, they are the same place. In the early days, it was not yet established as a city, only
a stopover community. Therefore, when merchants, travelers, and the wealthy man
Dhananjaya donated money to build residences for the monks living in this area,
coupled with the influx of people from all directions to see the Buddha, but who gained
clarity and attained the truth from Nanda’s unique methods, they settled there to teach
others. This was because Nanda had created a process that enabled people to
effectively express the Buddhahood within themselves. Over time, more and more
people came to live there, so eventually, there were as many as ten thousand
dormitories for those studying to be Buddha and for the teaching monks. There were
nearly ten assembly halls that could accommodate hundreds of people at a time, a large
library that collected knowledge, and ten refectories for the ordained monks to eat
every day, spread across an area of nearly 10 square kilometers. Most of the funding
came from the wealthy man Dhananjaya, but all the buildings were made of wood. The
only permanent structure that existed there before was a Dvaravati-style stupa of
Hinduism, built with laterite stone plastered with cement, located on the banks of the
Irrawaddy River. Today it is called Wat Chao Chan.”

“As this place became more prosperous, over a thousand years after the Buddha’s
passing, those wooden buildings deteriorated and collapsed, and there were frequent
fires. The only evidence that villagers had ever seen was the discovery of hundreds of thousands of wooden posts used as the foundations of those wooden buildings.
Villagers therefore called this area ‘Saen Tor,’ which means ‘thousand stumps.’

Later, about a thousand years later, a city was built over some parts of ‘Nakananda,’ and
temples were built according to traditional customs, that is, building Buddha images,
ordination halls, and pagodas with brick and mortar. There are therefore many temples
close together here. The image of the monastic university ‘Nakananda’ is therefore not
the same as what existed in the Buddha’s time. All the structures were built later, such
as the city walls surrounded by water. The Irrawaddy River was used on the east side, a
natural canal on the north side, and two more sides were dug, the west and south sides.
Over ten temples were built within those city walls, and many more outside the city
walls. Today, this place is called Mueang Sawanakhlok or Mueang Si Satchanalai, in
Sukhothai Province.”

“So, the Nakananda University was actually located here?” I asked.