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Samye (, ), full name Samye Mighur Lhundrub Tsula Khang (Wylie: ''Bsam yas mi ’gyur lhun grub gtsug lag khang'') and Shrine of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence is the first Tibetan Buddhist and
Nyingma Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and trans ...
monastery built in Tibet, during the reign of King
Trisong Deutsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
. Shantarakshita began construction around 763, and Vajrayana founder Guru Padmasambhava tamed the local spirits for its completion in 779. The first Tibetan monks were ordained there. Samye was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution then rebuilt after 1988. Samye Monastery is located in the Chimpu valley (''Mchims phu''), south of Lhasa, next the Hapori mountain, in the
Yarlung Valley The Yarlung Valley is formed by Yarlung Chu, a tributary of the Tsangpo River in the Shannan Prefecture in the Tibet region of China. It refers especially to the district where Yarlung Chu joins with the Chongye River, and broadens out into a la ...
. The site is in the present administrative region of Gra Nang or Drananga Lhoka.


History

According to the
Blue Annals The ''Blue Annals'' (), completed in 1476, written by Gö Lotsawa Zhönnu-pel (, 1392–1481), is a Tibetan historical survey with a marked ecumenical (Rimé movement) view, focusing on the dissemination of various sectarian spiritual traditions t ...
, completed in 1476, the temple was constructed between 787 and 791 under the patronage of King
Trisong Detsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
. Earlier in date is the
Testament of Ba ''The Testament of Ba'' (Tibetan or ; Wylie transliteration: or ) is an account written in Old Tibetan of the establishment of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet and the foundation of the Samye Monastery during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 755 ...
, the oldest account of the construction of the temple. This records that the foundations were laid in the 'Hare Year'. This corresponds to 763 or 775, with the completion and consecration of the main shrine taking place in the 'Sheep Year'. This is thought to correspond to 779. The plan was supposedly modeled on the design of
Odantapuri Odantapuri (also called Odantapura or Uddandapura) was a prominent Buddhist Mahavihara in what is now Bihar Sharif in Bihar, India. It is believed to have been established by the Pala ruler Gopala I in the 8th century. It is considered the sec ...
in what is now
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Ben ...
, India. The arrangement of the temple with a main shrine in the middle with fours shrines, each with a different color representing the cardinal points, and the whole surrounded by a circular wall, represents the Buddhist universe as three dimensional
mandala A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...
. This idea is found in a number of temples of the period in South East Asia and East Asia such as the Tōdai-ji in Japan. As at the Tōdai-ji, the Samye temple is dedicated to Vairocana. A seminal text of Vairocana is the
Mahavairocana Tantra Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...
, composed in India in the seventh century and translated into Chinese and Tibetan soon after. The history of Samye is dealt with in this section; for the art and architectural features and their history, see below. The Samye pillar or རྡོ་རིང་ and its inscription There are many traditions about Samye compiled after the tenth century. One of the few documents belonging to the eighth century proper—but not carrying an actual date—is an inscription on the stone pillar (རྡོ་རིང་) preserved in front of the temple. This records the building of temples at Lhasa and Brag Mar (i.e. Samye), and that the king, ministers and other nobles made solemn oaths to preserve and protect the endowments of the monastery. The term used for these endowments is 'necessities' or 'meritorious gifts' (Tib. ཡོ་བྱད་ Sanskrit ''deyadharma''). The Samye bell inscription A second dynastic record at Samye is on the large bronze bell in the entrance to the temple. This gives an account of the making of the bell by one of the queens of King
Trisong Detsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
. The text has been translated as follows: "Queen Rgyal mo brtsan, mother and son, made this bell in order to worship the Three Jewels of the ten directions. And
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...
pray that, by the power of that merit, ''Lha Btsan po'' Khri Srong lde brtsan, father and son, husband and wife, may be endowed with the harmony of the sixty melodious sounds, and attain supreme enlightenment." Histories of Samye after the Dynastic Period According to post-dynastic accounts such as the
Testament of Ba ''The Testament of Ba'' (Tibetan or ; Wylie transliteration: or ) is an account written in Old Tibetan of the establishment of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet and the foundation of the Samye Monastery during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 755 ...
and other accounts, such as that compiled by Bsod-nams-rgyal-mtshan (1312-1374), the Indian monk
Śāntarakṣita (Sanskrit; , 725–788),stanford.eduŚāntarakṣita (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)/ref> whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particul ...
made the first attempt to construct the monastery while promoting his sutra-centric version of Buddhism. Finding the Samye site auspicious, he set about to build a structure there. However, the building would always collapse after reaching a certain stage. Terrified, the construction workers believed that there was a demon or obstructive
tulku A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor. High-profile examples ...
in a nearby river making trouble. When Shantarakshita's contemporary Padmasambhava arrived from northern India, he was able to subdue the energetic problems obstructing the building of Samye. According to the
5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was the 5th Dalai Lama and the first Dalai Lama to wield effective temporal and spiritual power over all Tibet. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being a key religious and temporal leader ...
, Padmasambhava performed the Vajrakilaya dance and enacted the rite of namkha to assist
Trisong Detsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
and Śāntarakṣita clear away obscurations and hindrances in the building of Samye: The abovementioned quotation makes reference to the relationship of the kīla to the stupa and mentions
torma Torma (Skt: Balingta, Tib: Tor-ma, Wylie: gtor ma) are figures made mostly of flour and butter used in tantric rituals or as offerings in Tibetan Buddhism. They may be dyed in different colors, often with white or red for the main body of t ...
and namkha. Moreover, the building of Samye marked the foundation of the original school of Tibetan Buddhism, the
Nyingma Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and trans ...
. This helps explain how Padmasambhava's Tantra-centric version of Buddhism gained ascendance over the sutra-based teaching of Śāntarakṣita. Pearlman succinctly charts the origin of the institution of the
Nechung Oracle The Nechung Oracle is the personal oracle of the Dalai Lama since the second Dalai Lama. The medium currently resides in Nechung Monastery established Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The Nechung Oracle was the designated head of the Nechung mon ...
: The Great Debate One of the key events in the history of Samye was the debate between Buddhist schools hosted by
Trisong Detsen Tri Songdetsen () was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and th ...
in the 790s. Adamek (2007: p. 288) provides a
circa Circa is a word of Latin origin meaning 'approximately'. Circa or CIRCA may also refer to: * CIRCA (art platform), art platform based in London * Circa (band), a progressive rock supergroup * Circa (company), an American skateboard footwear compan ...
five-year range when Moheyan of the East Mountain Teaching of
Chan Buddhism Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and S ...
and Kamalaśīla may have debated at Samye in Tibet: Broughton identifies the Chinese and Tibetan nomenclature of Moheyan's teachings and identifies them principally with the East Mountain Teaching: The great debate of the Council of Lhasa between the two principal debators or dialecticians, Moheyan and Kamalaśīla is narrated and depicted in a specific cham dance once held annually at Kumbum Monastery in
Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest pop ...
.


Influences

The 18th century Puning Temple built by the
Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...
of Qing China in
Chengde Chengde, formerly known as Jehol and Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated about 225 km northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by ...
, Hebei was modeled after Samye.


Architectural features of the monastery and their history

Samye Monastery is laid out on the shape of a giant
mandala A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...
; in its center lies the main temple representing the legendary
Mount Meru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/ Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spir ...
. Other buildings stand at the corners and cardinal points of the main temple, representing continents and other features of tantric Buddhist
cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
. In corners are 4 chörtens - white, red, green (or blue) and black. There are 8 main temples: * Dajor ling བརྡ་སྦྱོར་གླིང་ (brda sbyor gling) * Dragyar ling སྒྲ་བསྒྱར་གླིང་ (sgra bsgyar gling) * Bétsa ling བེ་ཙ་གླིང་ (be tsa gling) * Jampa ling བྱམས་པ་གླིང་ (byams pa gling) * Samten ling བསམ་གཏན་གླིང་ (bsam gtan gling) * Natsok ling སྣ་ཚོགས་གླིང་ (sna tshogs gling) * Düdül ling བདུད་འདུལ་གླིང་ (bdud 'dul gling) * Tamdrin ling རྟ་མགྲིན་གླིང་ (rta mgrin gling) The original buildings have long disappeared. They have been badly damaged several times — by civil war in the 11th century, fires in the mid 17th century and in 1826, an earthquake in 1816, and in the 20th century, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. As late as the late 1980s pigs and other farm animals were allowed to wander through the sacred buildings. Heinrich Harrer quoted his own words he said to the
14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
of what he saw in 1982 from his airplane en route to Lhasa, Each time it has been rebuilt, and today, largely due to the efforts of
Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen (born Gönbo Cêdän; 19 February 1938 – 28 January 1989) was the tenth Panchen Lama, officially the 10th Panchen Erdeni (), of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan Buddhis ...
from 1986 onward, it is again an active monastery and important pilgrimage and tourist destination.


Recent events


Imprisonment and suicide

In 2009, the
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is a Tibetan non-governmental nonprofit human rights organization. The TCHRD investigates and reports on human rights issues in Tibet and among Tibetan minorities throughout China. It is ...
(TCHRD) reports that, according to the information they have received, nine monks studying at Samye Monastery had been sentenced to prison terms varying from two to fifteen years for participating in the protest on 15 March 2008 held at the Samye government administrative headquarters in Dranang County. The monks were joined by hundreds of Tibetans demanding religious freedom, human rights for Tibetans and the return of the
Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Da ...
to Tibet. They were held at the Lhoka
Public Security Bureau A Public Security Bureau (PSB) () of a city or county, or Public Security Department (PSD) () of a province or autonomous region, in the People's Republic of China refers to a government office essentially acting as a police station or a local ...
(PSB) Detention Centre. The TCHRD also reported that on 19 March 2008, a visiting scholar from
Dorje Drak Dorjidak Gompa ( "Indestructible Rock Vihara") or Tupten Dorjidak Dorjé Drak Éwam Chokgar () is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and one of the Nyingma school's "Six Mother Monasteries" in Tibet. It is located in the Lhoka (Shannan) Prefecture ...
Monastery, Namdrol Khakyab, committed suicide, leaving a note speaking of unbearable suppression by the Chinese regime, citing the innocence of other monks of the monastery, and taking full responsibility for the protest.


Statue of Padmasambhava dismantled by Chinese Authorities

In May 2007, a 30 ft (9 metre) gold and copper plated statue of Guru Rinpoche, known as Padmasambhava, at Samye Gompa, and apparently funded by two Chinese devotees from Guangzhou in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, was reportedly demolished by Chinese authorities."Demolition of giant Buddha statue at Tibetan monastery confirmed by China." Downloaded from: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=46,4316,0,0,1,0 on 28 October 2010.


See also

* Cham dance


Gallery

File:Samye Monastery cropped.JPG, A view of Samye from above File:Entering the impressive Samye Monastery through its protective wall.jpg, The protective wall of Samye


Notes


References

* Dorje, Gyurme. (1999). ''Footprint Tibet Handbook with Bhutan''. 2nd Edition. Footprint Handbooks Ltd. . * Dowman, Keith. (1988) ''The Power-places of Central Tibet''. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London & New York. . * Rene de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, ''Tibetan Religious Dances'' (The Hague:Mouton, 1976) * Yeshe Tsogyel, ''The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava'', 2 vols., trans. Kenneth Douglas and Gwendolyn Bays (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1978) * Pearlman, Ellen (2002). ''Tibetan Sacred Dance: a journey into the religious and folk traditions''. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions.
Luke Wagner and Ben Deitle (2007). ''Samyé''


External links



- Sacred Destinations

- by Travel China guide {{Authority control 770s establishments Religious organizations established in the 8th century Buddhist temples in Shannan, Tibet Nyingma monasteries and temples Sakya monasteries and temples Shannan, Tibet Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Tibet Buddhist schools in Tibet