Somapura Mahavihara

Paharpur Buddhist Bihar

Paharpur Buddhist Monastery or Sompur Vihara or Sompur Maha Vihara is an ancient Buddhist monastery now in ruins. Shri Dharmapala Dev (61-621), the second king of the Pala dynasty, was building this monastery in the late eighth or ninth century. This huge structure was discovered by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 179 AD. According to UNESCO, Paharpur Vihara or Sompur Buddhist Vihara is the second largest Buddhist monastery in the southern Himalayas. In size it can be compared to Nalanda Mahavihara in India. It has been a very famous Buddhist teaching center for 300 years. Not only from different parts of the subcontinent, but also from China, Tibet, Myanmar (then Burma), Malaysia, Indonesia, etc., Buddhists used to come here to acquire religious knowledge. Atish Dipankar Srigyan was the Acharya of Bihar in the 10th century AD.

In 1985, UNESCO recognized it as a World Heritage Site.