Samding Monastery () "The Temple of Soaring Meditation" is a
gompa
A Gompa or Gönpa ( "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (), is a Buddhism, Buddhist ecclesiastical fortification of learning, lineage and sādhanā that may be understood as a conflation of a fortification, a vihara and a ...
built on a hill on a peninsula jutting into
Yamdrok Lake
Yamdrok Lake (also known as Yamdrok Yumtso or Yamzho Yumco; ; ) is a freshwater lake in Tibet, it is one of the three largest sacred lakes in Tibet. It is over long. The lake is surrounded by many snow-capped mountains and is fed by numerous sm ...
about east of Nangkatse. It is located southwest of Lhasa, at an altitude of , on a barren hill about above the lake at the neck of a narrow peninsula jutting out into the water. It is associated with the
Bodong
Bodong refers to the peace pact or treaty, used by the Kalinga people in Kalinga Province, northern Philippines. These peace rites are usually accompanied by Kalinga songs such as the ''ading'', ''wasani'' and the ''dandanag''. It is a unique jud ...
and
Shangpa Kagyu
The Shangpa Kagyu (, "Oral Tradition of the man from Shang") is known as the "secret lineage" of the Kagyu school of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism and differs in origin from the better known Dagpo Kagyu schools. The Dagpo Kagyu are the line ...
schools of
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
.
Samding is the seat of
Dorje Pakmo, the consort of the wrathful deity
Heruka
:''Heruka is also a name for the deity of the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra.''
''Heruka'' (Sanskrit; Tibetan: ), is the name of a category of wrathful deities, enlightened beings in Vajrayana Buddhism that adopt a fierce countenance to benefit sentient ...
, who was the highest female incarnation in Tibet,
[''The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide'', (1988) p. 268. Keith Dowman. .] and the third highest-ranking person in the lamaist hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
Closer to Lhasa, there is another branch of Samding Monastery on the small island of Yambu in Rombuza Tso or "corpse-worm bottle lake" (which, apparently, received this unusual name because it was used as a burial place for monks).
The abbess became famous when she turned herself and her nuns into sows to prevent a Mongol raid on the nunnery in 1716 (McGovern gives 1717 for this event). It was destroyed after 1959 but is in the process of being restored.
[''Lhasa and Central Tibet'' by Sarat Chandra Das (1902), p. 139. Reprint: Mehra Offset Press, Delhi (1988).]
Unusually, monks as well as nuns both lived in the monastery under the abbess, Dorje Pakmo, although she now lives in Lhasa. Samding gompa was destroyed after 1959 but is in the process of being restored.
Description of the monastery
Further reading
*
Notes
References
External links
TBRC yar 'brog bsam sdings, monastery
{{Authority control
Bodongpa
Buddhist monasteries in Tibet
Buddhist nunneries in Tibet
Buddhist temples in Tibet