Samding Monastery () "The Temple of Soaring Meditation" is a 13th century
gompa built on a hill along a narrow peninsula that juts into
Yamdrok Lake, southwest of Lhasa and about east of Nangkatse, in
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
. It is associated with the
Bodong, the
Nyingma
Nyingma (, ), also referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school was founded by PadmasambhavaClaude Arpi, ''A Glimpse of the History of Tibet'', Dharamsala: Tibet Museum, 2013. ...
, and the
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 is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
. Samding Monastery is the seat of
Dorje Pakmo, the highest female incarnation in Tibet, and as
Vajravarahi she is the consort of the wrathful deity
Hayagriva
Hayagriva ( IAST , ) is a Hindus, Hindu deity, the horse-headed avatar of Vishnu. The purpose of this incarnation was to slay a Danava (Hinduism), danava also named Hayagriva (A descendant of Kashyapa and Danu), who had the head of a horse a ...
, a
Heruka.
[''The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide'', (1988) p. 268. Keith Dowman. .]
Dorje Pakmo is the third highest-ranking person in the 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 name because it was used as a burial place for monks.
In 1716, the Khenmo (abbess) became famous when she turned herself and her nuns into sows to prevent a Mongolian raid on the nunnery (McGovern gives 1717 for this event). Monks as well as nuns both live in the monastery under Khenmo Dorje Pakmo, who also lives in Lhasa.
Samding was destroyed by China 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).] 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.
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
Shangpa Kagyu monasteries and temples