Atiśa

Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (Bengali: অতীশ দীপংকর শ্রীজ্ঞান, romanized: otish dipônkor sriggan; Standard Tibetan: ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ།; Chinese: 燃燈吉祥智; pinyin: Rándēng Jíxiángzhì) (982 - 1054 CE) was a Bengali Buddhist religious leader and master from the Indian subcontinent. He was one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra. In 1013 CE, he traveled to the Srivijaya kingdom and stayed there for 12 years and came back to India. He is recognised as one of the greatest figures of classical Buddhism, and Atisa's chief disciple Dromtön was the founder of the Kadam School, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism, later supplanted by the Geluk tradition in the fourteenth century, adopting its teaching and absorbing its monasteries.In 2004, Atiśa was ranked number 18 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time. He was highly interested and respectful of ancient India's legendary educational feats, including the establishment of Vikramshila and Nalanda, two of the nation's most glorious centres of learning.