Samye (Tibetan: བསམ་ཡས་, Wylie: bsam yas, Chinese:桑耶寺), full name Samye Mighur Lhundrub Tsula Khang (Wylie: Bsam yas mi ’gyur lhun grub gtsug lag khang) and Shrine of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence,[1] is the first Tibetan Buddhist and Nyingma monastery built in Tibet, during the reign of King Trisong Deutsen. Shantarakshita began construction around 763, and TibetanVajrayana 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 site is in the present administrative region of Gra Nang or Drananga Lhoka.
According to the Blue Annals, completed in 1476, the temple was constructed between 787 and 791 under the patronage of King Trisong Detsen.[2] Earlier in date is the Testament of Ba, 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.[3]
The plan was supposedly modeled on the design of Odantapuri in what is now Bihar, India.[4] 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. 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.[5] As at the Tōdai-ji, the Samye temple is dedicated to Vairocana. A seminal text of Vairocana is the Mahavairocana Tantra, composed in India in the seventh century and translated into Chinese and Tibetan soon after.[6] The history of Samye is dealt with in this section; for the art and architectural features and their history, see below.
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.[7] 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).[8]
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. The text has been translated as follows:[9] "Queen Rgyal mo brtsan, mother and son, made this bell in order to worship the Three Jewels of the ten directions. And [they] 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 and other accounts, such as that compiled by Bsod-nams-rgyal-mtshan (1312–1374), the Indian monk Śāntarakṣita made the first attempt to construct the monastery while promoting his sutra-centric version of Buddhism.[10] 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 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,[11] Padmasambhava performed the Vajrakilaya dance and enacted the rite of namkha to assist Trisong Detsen and Śāntarakṣita clear away obscurations and hindrances in the building of Samye:
The great religious master Padmasambhava performed this dance in order to prepare the ground for the Samye Monastery and to pacify the malice of the lha [local mountain god spirits] and srin [malevolent spirits] in order to create the most perfect conditions."[12] He went on to say that after Padmasambhava consecrated the ground he erected a thread-cross — a web colored thread woven around two sticks — to catch evil. Then the purifying energy of his dance forced the malevolent spirits into a skull mounted on top of a pyramid of dough. His tantric dance cleared away all the obstacles, enabling the monastery to be built in 767. The dance was memorialized by the construction of Vajrakilaya stupas — monuments honoring the ritual kilya (purba) daggers — at the cardinal points of the monastery, where they would prevent demonic forces from entering the sacred grounds.[13])
The abovementioned quotation makes reference to the relationship of the kīla to the stupa and mentions torma and namkha. Moreover, the building of Samye marked the foundation of the original school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Nyingma. 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:
When Padmasambhava consecrated Samye Monastery with the Vajrakilaya dance, he tamed the local spirit protector, Pehar Gyalpo, and bound him by oath to become the head of the entire hierarchy of Buddhist protective spirits. Pehar, later known as Dorje Drakden, became the principal protector of the Dalai Lamas, manifesting through the Nechung Oracle.[14]
One of the key events in the history of Samye was the debate between Buddhist schools hosted by Trisong Detsen in the 790s. Adamek (2007: p.288) provides a circa five-year range when Moheyan of the East Mountain Teaching of Chan Buddhism and Kamalaśīla may have debated at Samye in Tibet:
As is well known, the fate of Chan in Tibet was said to have been decided in a debate at the Samye monastery.[15]
Broughton identifies the Chinese and Tibetan nomenclature of Moheyan's teachings and identifies them principally with the East Mountain Teaching:
Mo-ho-yen's teaching in Tibet as the famed proponent of the all-at-once gate can be summarized as "gazing-at-mind" ([Chinese:] k'an-hsin... [...] [Tibetan:] sems la bltas) and "no examining" ([Chinese:] pu-kuan [...] [Tibetan:] myi rtog pa) or "no-thought no-examining" ([Chinese:] pu-ssu pu-kuan... [...] [Tibetan:] myi bsam myi rtog). "Gazing-at-mind" is an original Northern (or East Mountain Dharma Gate) teaching. As will become clear, Poa-t'ang and the Northern Ch'an dovetail in the Tibetan sources. Mo-ho-yen's teaching seems typical of late Northern Ch'an. Mo-ho-yen arrived on the central Tibetan scene somewhat late in comparison to the Ch'an transmissions from Szechwan.[16]
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.[17]
Architectural features of the monastery and their history
Samye Monastery is laid out on the shape of a giant mandala; in its center lies the main temple representing the legendary Mount Meru. Other buildings stand at the corners and cardinal points of the main temple, representing continents and other features of tantric Buddhist cosmology. The three-storied main building has been designed with the first floor in Indian style, the second in Chinese style and the third in Khotanese (Tibetan) style. The original building was completed in 780 CE.
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[citation needed], fires in the mid 17th century[citation needed] and in 1826[citation needed], an earthquake in 1816[citation needed], 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[citation needed]. Heinrich Harrer quoted his own words he said to the 14th Dalai Lama of what he saw in 1982 from his airplane en route to Lhasa,
"On our approach, in the Brahmaputra valley, the first terrible sight we saw confirmed all the bad news about Tibet's oldest monastery, Samye; it was totally destroyed. One can still make out the outer wall, but none of the temples or stupas survives."[18]
Each time it has been rebuilt, and today, largely due to the efforts of Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama from 1986 onward, it is again an active monastery and important pilgrimage and tourist destination.[19] Samye still preserves the original design of Trisong Detsen the 8th century Tibetan monarch (Van Schaik 2013:36).
Recent events
Imprisonment and suicide
In 2009, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (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 to Tibet. They were held at the Lhoka Public Security Bureau (PSB) Detention Centre.
The TCHRD also reported that on 19 March 2008, a visiting scholar from Dorje Drak 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.[20]
Statue of Padmasambhava dismantled by Chinese Authorities
In May 2007, a 30ft (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.[21]
↑ Dorje (1999), 172; Pasang, Wangdu, Hildegard Diemberger, and Per K. Sørensen. Dba' Bzhed: The Royal Narrative Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha's Doctrine to Tibet(Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000), 63, note 201.
↑ Willis, Michael. "From World Religion to World Dominion: Trading, Translation and Institution-building in Tibet," in Religions and Trade Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, edited by Peter Wick and Volker Rabens (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 231-59. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004255302_010
↑ Stephen Hodge, The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra, With Buddhaguya's Commentary (London RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
↑ The term is explained in Willis, Michael. " Offerings to the Triple Gem: Texts, Inscriptions and Ritual Practice," in Relics and Relic Worship in Early Buddhism, edited by Janice Stargardt (London, British Museum, 2018). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1249658
↑ Doney, Lewis. (2014). Emperor, Dharmaraja, Bodhisattva? Inscriptions from the Reign of Khri Srong lde brtsan. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3560274. Also see Hugh Richardson. A Corpus of Early Tibetan Inscriptions (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1985).
↑ Sørensen, Per K. (1994). The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies: Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: An Annotated Translation of the XIVth Century Tibetan Chronicle: rGyal-rabs gsal- bai me-long. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3559806
↑ Rene de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Tibetan Religious Dances (The Hague:Mouton, 1976) p.113
↑ Yeshe Tsogyel, The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava, 2 vols., trans. Kenneth Douglas and Gwendolyn Bays (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, (1978) p.384
↑ Pearlman, Ellen (2002). Tibetan Sacred Dance: a journey into the religious and folk traditions. Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions. ISBN0-89281-918-9, p.94
↑ Adamek, Wendi Leigh (2007). The mystique of transmission: on an early Chan history and its contexts. Columbia University Press. ISBN0-231-13664-1, ISBN978-0-231-13664-8. Source: (accessed: Saturday April 17, 2010), p.288
↑ Harrer, Heinrich (1985) [1984]. Return to Tibet: Tibet After the Chinese Occupation. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN9780140077742. OCLC13856937. On our approach, in the Brahmaputra valley, the first terrible sight we saw confirmed all the bad news about Tibet's oldest monastery, Samye; it was totally destroyed. One can still make out the outer wall, but none of the temples or stupas survives.
Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche and the Lotus Born from Oḍḍiyāna, was a semi-legendary tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries. He is considered the reincarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha as foretold by the Buddha himself. According to early Tibetan sources including the Testament of Ba, he came to Tibet in the 8th century and designed Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen. He, the king, and Khenpo Shantarakshita are also responsible for creating the Tibetan Canon through translating all of the Buddha's teachings and their commentaries into the Tibetan language.
Nyingma can be referred to as Ngangyur, is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school was founded by Padmasambhava as the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Pali and Sanskrit into Tibetan occurred in the eighth century. The establishment of the Tibetan Buddhism and the Nyingma tradition is collectively ascribed to Khenpo Shantarakshita, Guru Padmasambhava, and King Trisong Detsen, known as Khen Lop Chos Sum.
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 the establishment of the Nyingma or "Ancient" school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Shechen Monastery is one of the "Six Mother Monasteries" of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It was originally located in Kham, Tibet, but was destroyed in the late 1950s during the Cultural Revolution and was rebuilt in Nepal in 1985.
Vairotsana was a lotsawa or "translator" living during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, who ruled 755-97 CE. Vairotsana, one of the 25 main disciples of Padmasambhava, was recognized by the latter as a reincarnation of an Indian pandita. He was among the first seven monks ordained by Śāntarakṣita, and was sent to Dhahena in India to study with Śrī Siṅgha, who taught him in complete secrecy. Śrī Siṅgha in turn entrusted Vairotsana with the task of propagating the semde and longdé sections of Dzogchen in Tibet. He is one of the three main masters to bring the Dzogchen teachings to Tibet, the two others being Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra, and was also a significant lineage holder of trul khor.
The Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dargye Ling(བོད་ཡིག ཐེག་མཆོག་རྣམ་གྲོལ་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་།), informally known as Namdroling Monastery is the largest teaching center of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in the world. Located in Bylakuppe, part of the Mysuru district of the state of Karnataka, the monastery is home to a sangha community of more than five thousand monks and nuns and qualified teachers, a junior high school named Yeshe Wodsal Sherab Raldri Ling, a Buddhist philosophy college or shedra for both monks and nuns, a home for the elderly, and a hospital.
Tradruk Temple in the Yarlung Valley is the earliest great geomantic temple after the Jokhang and some sources say it predates that temple.
Palyul Monastery, also known as Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choling Monastery and sometimes romanized as Pelyul Monastery, is one of the "Six Mother Monasteries" of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded in 1665 by Rigzin Kunzang Sherab in Pelyul in Baiyü County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China's Sichuan province, on the eastern edge of Tibet in Kham. The monastery is the seat of the Nam Chö Terma of Terton Mingyur Dorje. Drubwang Padma Norbu was the 11th throneholder of the Palyul lineage. Upon his mahaparinirvana in March, 2009, Karma Kuchen Rinpoche became the 12th throneholder.
Tritsuk Detsen, better known by his nickname Ralpachen, was the 40th king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet. He reigned after the death of his father, Sadnalegs, in c. 815, and grew the empire to its largest extent. He was murdered by his younger brother Langdarma in 838. Ralpachen is one of Tibet's three Dharma Kings, and referred to as "son of God" in the ancient Tibetan chronicle Testament of Ba.
Tridé Songtsen, better known by his nickname Sénalek Jingyön or Sadnalegs for short, was the youngest son of King Trisong Detsen of Tibet.
Kim Hwasang, also known in Chinese as Wuxiang, was a Korean master of Chan Buddhism who lived in Sichuan, China, whose form of Chan teaching was independent of East Mountain Teaching and Huineng. His teachings were amongst the first streams of Chan Buddhism transmitted to Tibet.
Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, also known as "Khen Rinpoche," was a teacher, a scholar, a lama, and a Dzogchen master in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was considered by Penor Rinpoche to be one of the most learned living Nyingma scholars. Palden Sherab founded the Orgyen Samye Chokhor Ling Nunnery, the first nunnery in Deer Park (Sarnath).
Dampa Sangye was a Buddhist mahasiddha of the Indian Tantra movement who transmitted many teachings based on both Sutrayana and Tantrayana to Buddhist practitioners in Tibet in the late 11th century. He travelled to Tibet more than five times. On his third trip from India to Tibet he met Machig Labdrön. Dampa Sangye appears in many of the lineages of Chöd and so in Tibet he is known as the Father of Chod, however perhaps his best known teaching is "the Pacification". This teaching became an element of the Mahamudra Chöd lineages founded by Machig Labdrön.
Gyalpo spirits are one of the eight classes of haughty gods and spirits in Tibetan mythology and religion. Gyalpo, a word which simply means "king" in the Tibetic languages, in Tibetan mythology is used to refer to the Four Heavenly Kings and especially to a class of spirits, both Buddhist and Bon, who may be either malevolent spirits or oath-bound as dharmapalas.
Neten Chokling Rinpoche, is also referred to as the 4th Neten Chokling Rinpoche.
The Yarlung Valley is formed by Yarlung Chu, a tributary of the Tsangpo River in the Shannan Prefecture in the Tibet autonomous region of China. It refers especially to the district where Yarlung Chu joins with the Chongye River, and broadens out into a large plain about 2 km wide, before it flows into the Tsangpo River. It is situated in Nedong District of the Shannan Prefecture and includes the capital of the prefecture, Tsetang, one of Tibet's largest cities, 183 km southeast of Lhasa.
Orgyen Lingpa, was one of the greatest Tibetan tertöns or treasure-finders of the 14th century.
At the age of twenty-three he is said to have discovered an extensive treasure inventory at Samye Monastery in the Red Stupa."
He discovered texts, images, ritual objects and jewels, chiefly at Shetak, Yugang Drak, and Drachi Drakpoche. Of the 100 texts that were revealed by him, the Katang Denga are the most important to have survived. These five volumes chronicling the period of the Emperor Trisong Detsen include the Pema Katang, the most authoritative legendary biography of Guru Rinpoche. Orgyen Lingpa was born at Yarje in 1323.
Gos Trisang Yalag was an officer of Tibetan Empire.
Tsepangsa Magyal Dongkar was an Empress consort of Tibet in the eighth century. She was empress of Trisong Detsen, the famous Dharma king. Unlike her husband, she was a follower of Bon.
Atsara Salé was an 8th-century practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism from South India. A student of both the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal and the great master Padmasambhava, the co-founders of Tibetan Buddhism. He is known for being one of Yeshe Tsogyal's main consorts along with Padmasambhava, and for writing one of Yeshe Tsogyal's biographies.
References
Dorje, Gyurme. (1999). Footprint Tibet Handbook with Bhutan. 2nd Edition. Footprint Handbooks Ltd. ISBN0-8442-2190-2.
Dowman, Keith. (1988) The Power-places of Central Tibet. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London & New York. ISBN0-7102-1370-0.
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. ISBN0-89281-918-9
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