Vihara

Referring to the act of leisurely strolling as well as a garden or dwelling place in Pali and Sanskrit, vihara is a Buddhist monastery and place of religious education. It typically comprises multiple residential cells for monks, connected to an open central court and an entrance porch. Initially serving as places of rest for wandering monks, the earliest surviving viharas are rock-cut structures accompanying early Buddhist cave temples in India dating to the second century BCE. These evolved into large centres of learning known as mahaviharas, such as Nalanda in India and the Shalban Vihara in Bangladesh.