Pala Dynasty

The Pala dynasty ruled in northeastern India from the eighth to the twelfth century, and is known for its patronage of the great north-Indian monastic universities of Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri. Pala kings and queens were patrons of Buddhist art. Pala period sculpture, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and sites inspired Newar and Tibetan artistic production in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. A famous Pala period Indian scholar figure was Atisha, who traveled and taught in Sumatra and in Tibet, where his teachings led to the founding of the Kadam tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.