Surrounded by the bright green and gold of barley fields, the braided channels of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, and mountains rising beyond, Samye is Tibet’s first Buddhist monastery. Founded in 775, the complex of chapels and stupa towers form a vast mandala – a symbolic and spiritual representation of the whole universe.
In the middle is a hall representing Mount Meru, the sacred mountain, the centre of everything. The ground floor of the hall is Tibetan in design, the first floor Chinese, the uppermost is Khotanese (the Silk Road kingdom on the edge of the Taklamakan desert). Walls are painted bright reds, yellows and whites, echoed in the vivid colours of prayer flags and sacred textiles, and gaudy images of demons – Tibetan Buddhism isn’t soft and quiet, it’s visceral and energetic. Pilgrims walk circuits around Samye, a thrum of muttered prayers and meditations hanging in the air.
