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The earlie st monastery in Tibet--The Samye Monastery
 "Samye"is the transliteration of the Tiberan word meaning "inconceivable".It is said that Trisong Detsen invited Buddhist Padmasambhava to build monasteries and preach Buddhism in order to enlarge Buddhism. Padmasambhava used magic arts and a monastery appeared on his palm. Trisong Detsen was greatly astonished and thus named the monastery "samye"when completed.
The samye Monastery is located within ZhaLang County in shannan, north of the Yarlong Tsangpo River. It was originally built during the time of the Turfan King Trisong Detsen and covers an area of 9 hectares, The foundation was laid in 767 and it was completed in 779.It took 12 years to build the monastery. The building style is unique, in that it mixes Chinese, Tibetnan and Indian style architecture. The lowest is in Chinese style, the middle in Tibetan style and the to in Indian style. Viewed from the outside it appears to be in Tibetan building style. It has the most unique style of all the ancient Tibetan building. It is designed entirely in the form of the cosmos as imagined in the Buddhist Scriptures. After its completion it became the first monastery in Tibet to possess the Triratna: the Buddha, dharma and Sangha.
 The samye Monastery was put on fire many times. The building we see as the present, was fundamentally reconstructed during the time of the dalai Lama. murals and frescos inside are intact, thoroughly depicting and recording the origin of the Tibetan ethnic group and the traditional social and recreational activities of the Tibetan nationality.
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