| Shanti Stupa | |
| Coordinates: | 25.0122°N 85.7458°W |
| Location Country: | India |
| Location: | Ratnagiri Hills, Rajgir, Nalanda District, Bihar, India |
| Founded By: | Nichidatsu Fujii |
| Founded: | 1969 |
Vishwa Shanti Stupa (English: 1= World Peace Stupa) is a large white Peace Pagoda in Rajgir, Nalanda District, Bihar, near Gitai Mandir. Statues of the Buddha are mounted on the stupa in four directions. It also has a small Japanese Buddhist temple with a large park. There is a temple near the stupa where prayers are conducted for universal peace. The initial pagoda was completed in 1969. New initiatives in 1993[1] resulted in the present form. It is one of around 80 Peace Pagodas which have been built around the world by the neo-Buddhist organisation Nipponzan Myohoji.[2] These were a dream of Nichidatsu Fujii, inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi, as a reaction to the atomic bombing of Japan, the first, and more well known Vishwa Shanti stupa, being built on Ratnagiri Hill in Rajgir.[3]
Located on about the top of 400 m high Ratnagiri Hills in the lush-green valley of Rajgir, the white stupa stands 120 ft tall with a total diameter of 103 ft. The stupa is studded with four gold gilded statues of Buddha, showing four important events of his life.