History & Background
Built in the late 8th century by the second ruler of the Buddhist Pala dynasty, Dharmapala, Somapura Mahavihara was one of the most important centers of Buddhist learning in South Asia for nearly 400 years, drawing scholars and monks from as far as Tibet and Southeast Asia before declining and eventually being abandoned by the 12th century. Rediscovered and excavated by British and later Pakistani and Bangladeshi archaeologists starting in the 1920s, its cruciform central temple, rising in terraces and covered with thousands of terracotta plaques depicting Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain themes, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.