Qualla: Samye Monastery https://qualla.com/samye en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Samye Monastery https://qualla.com/samye Samye Monastery: Introduction https://qualla.com/samye/ Photo credit Barry Rogge, CC BY 2.0. The first floor is Indian. The second is Chinese. The third is Tibetan. Samye Monastery, completed in 780 CE on the banks of the Tsangpo River, announced its ambitions in its architecture: this would be a place where the Buddhist traditions of three civilizations converged. It was Tibet's first monastery, the site of its first monk ordinations, and the stage for a philosophical debate that would shape Tibetan Buddhism for a thousand years.

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Image: Barry Rogge | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/wj1n-samye-monastery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Samye Monastery: A Cosmos in Stone https://qualla.com/samye/ Photo credit Preston Rhea, CC BY-SA 2.0. Samye is not merely a monastery. It is a mandala made physical. The entire complex is laid out in the shape of a giant cosmological diagram, with the central Uze temple representing the legendary Mount Meru, the axis of the Buddhist universe. Eight main temples stand at the corne...

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Image: Preston Rhea | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/wj1n-samye-monastery-a-cosmos-in-stone.mp3 0:06 2 full Samye Monastery: The Great Debate https://qualla.com/samye/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Around 792 CE, King Trisong Detsen convened a debate at Samye that would determine the direction of Buddhism in Tibet. On one side stood Kamalashila, representing the Indian tradition of gradual enlightenment through study and meditation. On the other was Moheyan, a Chinese monk ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/wj1n-samye-monastery-the-great-debate.mp3 0:06 3 full Samye Monastery: Destroyed and Rebuilt, Again and Again https://qualla.com/samye/ Photo credit yuen yan, CC BY-SA 2.0. Samye has been devastated and reconstructed so many times that its survival seems almost willful. Civil war damaged it in the 11th century. Fires swept through in the mid-17th century and again in 1826. An earthquake struck in 1816. The Cultural Revolution delivered the most syst...

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Image: yuen yan | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/wj1n-samye-monastery-destroyed-and-rebuilt-again-and-again.mp3 0:06 4 full Samye Monastery: Silence, Protest, and Consequence https://qualla.com/samye/ Photo credit Photo taken by Fanghong, CC BY-SA 3.0. Samye's modern history carries a weight that its ancient walls cannot fully contain. In March 2008, hundreds of Tibetans gathered at the monastery's government administrative headquarters in Dranang County, demanding religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. Nine monks ...

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Image: Photo taken by Fanghong | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/j/1/n/samye-wp/wj1n-samye-monastery-silence-protest-and-consequence.mp3 0:06 5 full