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Tibetan Buddhism at Samye Monastery

Type Object Region Tibet Time c. 775–800

Centered on the 8th-century Samye Monastery in Tibet, this marks the institutional taking root of Buddhism in Tibet.

Timeline

  1. c. 775–779Samye Monastery · TibetTibetan emperor Trisong Detsen built Samye Monastery under the direction of Shantarakshita, with Master Padmasambhava presiding over the consecration; the monastery was laid out according to Indian Nalanda and Tibetan cosmological models, with a translation college and monastic community, marking the birth of Tibet's first formal Buddhist monastery.
  2. c. 780–792Samye Monastery · TibetSamye established a translation center where Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan translators collaborated on Sanskrit Buddhist texts; the first Tibetan monks received ordination there, forming the prototype of the Tibetan monastic community and translation system.
  3. c. 792–800Samye Monastery · TibetA debate was held at Samye between the Indian gradualist and Chinese suddenist schools; after the gradualists prevailed, Tibet adopted Indian Buddhism as orthodox, Chan influence waned, and the direction of Samye Tibetan Buddhism was thereby established.

Sources