The above story is an incident 40 years after the ransack, when a tibetan by name Dharmaswamin, found one teacher still conducting classes. They say, it had upto 2000 teachers at one time.

Nalanda, the greatest ever Buddhist university, with its hundreds of monks and thousands of books, was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji’s Turki troops around 1200 AD.

Here is an interesting article, that says the Last Lesson taught in Nalanda was a Sanskrit Grammer class, with only two students in the last class – That is out of seventy who went to hiding, only two returned. The nonagenarian teacher asked them to go home, declaring he has taught them all he knew.

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/full_story.php?content_id=31704

Incredibly, it was by Nalanda’s last student: A Tibetan monk called Dharmaswamin. He visited Nalanda in 1235, nearly forty years after its sack, and found a small class still conducted in the ruins by a ninety-year old monk, Rahul Sribhadra. Weak and old, the teacher was kept fed and alive by a local Brahmin, Jayadeva. Warned of a roving band of 300 Turks, the class dispersed, with Dharmaswamin carrying his nonagenarian teacher on his back into hiding. Only the two of them came back, and after the last lesson (it was Sanskrit grammar) Rahul Sribhadra told his Tibetan student that he had taught him all he knew and in spite of his entreaties asked him to go home. Packing a raggedy bundle of surviving manuscripts under his robe, Dharmaswamin left the old monk sitting calmly amidst the ruins. And both he and the Dharma of Sakyamuni made their exit from India.

Followers of other religions have been known to adopt some Buddhist practices such as mindfulness and meditation and blend it with their own beliefs. I’m pretty sure that Catholic Monk Thomas Merton did so as have many Jews and probably others as well.

Thanks for the article.

Here is a picture from the Jain temples in Mt. Abu. Look how intricate are those stone (I think it is marble) carvings.

http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Rajasthan/MtAbu/DilwaraTemples06.jpg

What about the giant Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan? http://chaplaindanny.blogspot.com/2009/02/taliban-trying-to-destroy-more-buddhist.html
I don’t have any artifacts, just lots of books on all religions. If I had a garden statue, I would choose a statue St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment, then a Buddha.