About 80 monks chanted Buddhist prayers near a bronze statue of Xuan as Li and Ambika Soni cut a ribbon to open the memorial hall to visitors.
The hall is about a km away from the site of the partly excavated Nalanda University, one of the world's oldest universities, established in the 5th century.
The Chinese Foreign Minister said:"Xuan Zang is considered a symbol and an instrument of cultural exchange between the two great civilisations of India and China."
Ironically, before the memorial could be completed, India and China had fought a brief war in 1962 which soured relations between the two Asian neighbors for the next few decades.
In the recent years, relations have improved which were reflected by joint efforts to restore the memorial. The Nitish government is trying to attract religious tourists to the state from across the world, especially Southeast Asia, by developing Nalanda-Rajgir-Gaya-Bodhgaya as a relgious tourist circuit.
Source- TRIBUNE, Dated, February-13,2007
