Samye

Samye is the name of a built as a mandala temple and monastery complex in the district of Dranang Dzong ( Tib: gra nang rdzong གྲ་ནང་རྫོང་; Chinese: Zhānáng Xiàn扎囊 县), administrative region Lhokha on the north bank of the Yarlung River ( Brahmaputra ), about 60 km southeast of Lhasa located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

History

Samye ( " About all mental conception Going Beyond " ) is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Tibet and was built around 775 under the reign of the Tibetan king Thrisong Detsen (reigned 755-797 ) at the foot of the mountain Hepori. The great tantric master Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita, the abbot of the Indian monastic university of Nalanda, a notable scholar of Mahayana Buddhism, initiated the construction of the plant. Padmasambhava performed the dedication of the temple, with manifested different wonderful characters, according to tradition. Then the first Buddhist monks in Tibet were ordained at Samye. Officially built to test the suitability of the Tibetans for the monastic life, it marked a time when the conflict between Buddhists and followers of Bon - have not yet decided the beginning of the Buddhist monastery culture of Tibet - at the same time a power struggle between the monarchy and the nobility. Also because of these tensions may have probably taken place so far from Lhasa, the establishment of the first Tibetan monastery.

At the instigation of Thrisong Detsen 792-794 a council of representatives from Indian and Chinese orientations of Buddhism is said to have taken place, which is known as the Council of Samye or as a Council of Lhasa.

The Samye Monastery, was used in the 9th century during the first wave translation of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan as the central Übersetzungsort. From this translation time, the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism emerged and the foundations to spread the teachings of Buddha in later times was laid. The various temples also served as a place for teachings, empowerments, and meditation.

As early as the reign of the Tibetan king Langdarma (reigned about 936-942 ) the exercise of Buddhism in Tibet was banned, persecuted their followers and monks forced to come to the laity. Samye was orphaned at this time as a teaching center of Buddhism. In later centuries the displaced in its outer form of Buddhism in a new translation phase from the 11th century, was revived. This period led to the founding of the Kadampa, Kagyu, Sakya, and somewhat later, the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Samye Monastery took in this second phase of the spread of Buddhism in Tibet considered purely external one no comparable pre-eminence more.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) Samye was like all Tibetan monasteries desecrated and looted. Cultural heritage of inestimable value were destroyed. As the majority of the remaining 6,000 monasteries in Tibet Samye did not escape the complete destruction.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), one of the greatest Nyingma masters of the last century, who is also a teacher of the current Dalai Lama, the temple complex at the end of the eighties of last century inaugurated again. Today it is managed by the Nyingma and Sakya school together.

The monastery stands since 1996 on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China ( 4-90 ).

Plant

The temple complex forms around a large three-story central temple was designed in the style of India, Tibet, and China. In Lotus -born in the land of snow, it states: " The top floor of the three-story central temple was built in the Indian style, as India is the origin of the Dharma tradition. The middle floor was built in the Chinese style, as China was the matriarch. The lower floor was built in the Tibetan style, since Tibet was the patriarch. ". This temple was intended to give initiations into the secret teachings of Vajrayana at the time of Padmasambhava. It is surrounded on all four sides of temples, dedicated to the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Aryapala, Manjushri and Maitreya, with a total of eight smaller temples in between. At the four corners of the central temple each large stupas were built. The temple complex is surrounded by a circular wall, which carries a total of 108 small stupas. Because of these and other features Samye also bears the nickname The inconceivable. The various temples Samyes were filled with precious statues and variety of ritual objects.

According to tradition, Padmasambhava Enthroned Deity Pekar ( Pehar ) as the main protector of Samye. A temple within the investment Samyes is therefore known as the Temple Pekar. Pekar comes from the Mongolian Meditation School of Batha Hor and served in his role as protector Samyes 700 years, until he, according to legend, at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso by Nechung, near the Drepung monastery in central Tibet, changed. Successor in the role of the protector of Samye was the deity Tsiu Marpo.