Samye Monastery

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		-- Attractions: -- Graveyard for Tibetan Kings -- Mindroling Monastery -- Samye Monastery -- Trandruk Monastery -- Yamdrok Yumtso Lake -- Yumbu Lakhang

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Samye Monastery

Laying in Dranang, the monastery was completed in 779 under the patron of Trisong Detsen. Samye's construction, although Buddhism had been transmitted into Tibet, there was no formal Buddhist priest or Buddhist rituals. Trisong Detsen decided to invite Santarakshita and Padmasambhava, both Buddhist adepters in India, to promote Buddhism in Tibet. Padmasambhava chose the construction site while the design was done by Santarakshita. After the construction was completed, Buddhism became the official religion in Tibet. Learned monks from inland China and India were invited to Tibet to translate Buddhist sutras into Tibetan. Trisong Detsen selected seven nobles to be the first monks in Tibet. Samye became the first formal monastery that established triratna, referring to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, or Buddhist priesthood.

Samye means Unimaginable in Tibetan. It was said that when Tritsong Detsen asked suggestion about the construction of the monastery, Padmasambhava, exerting his magic power, showed the king an image of a monastery in his palm. That is the origin of the name.

The monastery combined styles of Chinese, Tibetan and India. The layout was designed completely according to ideally universe in Buddhist scriptures. Utse, the Great Hall symbolizing Sumeru in perfect Buddhist universe, is the largest structure in the monastery, which is circled by the sun chapel and the moon chapel. Four stupas of different styles, colored in red, white, black and green to represent four Heavenly Kings, stands at four corners of the hall. Four larger halls and eight smaller ones, evenly distributed around Utse, are deemed as the oceans in that universe. The monastery is secluded from the outside world by a circular wall, with thousands of Buddha statues sitting on it, which represents a mountain near the border of the universe.

Utse is a unique building, which has three floors. The ground floor is Tibetan, with a turning wheel cloister full of extraordinarily splendid murals. Before the hall, visitors will see a stone stele, which was erected to memorize Trisong Detsen's vow of his piety to Buddhism. Inside there are several chapels in which different deities are enshrined. The holiest one is a Sakyamuni statue carved out of a huge rock from sacred Mt. Hepori. The second floor is a sutra hall in Chinese style which houses about

472 Chinese stone Buddhas. The southeast corner is an apartment Dalai Lamas used to live during his visit to Samye. The Indian style top roof houses Arhats of Indian features. The hall is totally covered with murals, depicting life of Sakyamuni, Padmasambhava, the Great Fifth, Samye's panorama layout and Tibetan history.

Southwest of Utse is the sutra translation center, where hundreds of translators from Tibet, India, inland China translated huge volumes of sutra into Tibetan. Murals in the center record the grand event. Now it is turned into a college where lamas rest and debate sutras.

Although Samye trove has a colossal collection of artifacts, its murals are prestigious throughout Tibet. Samye has many valuable murals which won't be seen anywhere else, for example, murals telling Padmasambhava's life (ground and second floors of Utse), history of Samye (south cloister on the second floor of Utse) and other murals reflecting the local folklore. The Samye murals are actually an encyclopedia of Tibetan culture and religion.

Chimpuk Cave lies 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Samye Monastery. The place is another pilgrimage site where is prestigious for the reason that most predominant Buddhist masters had religious cultivation experience in the caves distributed on the hill. At the end of the first transmission due to Lang Darma's suppression, many Buddhist sutras were buried at Chimpuk and uncovered in the second transmission, so it has a significant status among Buddhists. Once there were hundreds of caves for Buddhist disciplinants while only about 40 left, however still there are some pious Buddhists living in those caves. the pilgrimage site also has a humane climate and beautiful scenery.