Jetavana Monastery ［祇園精舎］ ( Jetavana-vihāra;  Gion-shōja): A monastery in Shrāvastī, India, where Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have lived and taught during the rainy season for the last twenty-five years of his life. Sudatta, a wealthy lay patron of the Buddha and his Order, built it as an offering on land provided by Prince Jetri. Jetavana Monastery was one of the two major centers of the Buddha’s propagation activities, the other being Bamboo Grove Monastery in Rājagriha. The story of Jetavana Monastery is related in the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra, the Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish, and other sutras. The wealthy merchant Sudatta, seeking the most suitable land on which to build a monastery for the Buddha and his disciples, sought to purchase a piece of land called Jetavana (Jetri’s Grove). Prince Jetri was unwilling to part with the land and told Sudatta in jest that he would sell it if the merchant could cover the area in question with gold. When he saw Sudatta actually begin to do so, he was astonished, and on learning his purpose for wanting it, the prince gave him both the land and the grove and helped him build the monastery.