We learn that Atisa, at 31, on being ordained to the highest bhikshu order and also given vows of a Boddhisatva by Dharma Rakshita, decided to visit Acharya Chandrakirti in Suvarnadvipa, the then greatest Buddhist scholar in the far east.

After a strenuous journey via the Lankan coast, he resided there for 12 years in order to completely master the original teachings of the Buddha of which the key was believed to have been possessed by the high priest alone. Upon his return to India, the Magadhan Buddhists acknowledged him as their chief and upon the request of Naya Pala, he accepted the post of High Priest of Vikramshila. His influence at Vikramshila was such that he even actively negotiated peace when Magadha was attacked by the king of Karnya (identified as Kalachuri King Karna or Lakshmikarna by R.C. Mazumdar). Around the same time in Tibet, King Lha Lama Yes’e hod, a devout who founded the monastery of Thoding at Tholin (the lofty place) in Purang, made special efforts to invite Atisa by sending scholars, with a view to reform Buddhism and to clean it from the admixture of Tantrik and Bon mysticism.

To be continued...