The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2116 page)

(
bsam.yas
). The first monastery in Tibet and scene of the great debate in which
Kamala
la
defeated the Chinese emissary Mah
y
na, thus ensuring that Indian rather than Chinese Buddhism would be the model for the development of religion in Tibet. The Samyé monastery was commissioned by King Trisong Detsen (790–858) and its building begun by
ntarak
ita
, formerly abbot of N
land
, and completed with the assistance of
Padmasambhava
. The building itself, said to have taken seven years before Padmasambhava's arrival and five years after, was architecturally important for having set the pattern for all future monasteries in Tibet. Modelled after Odantapur
in Bihar (itself destroyed by Muslims in 1193), it contained one large and twelve small temples, four large and 108 smaller
chörtens
, all surrounded by a high wall, thus representing in
ma
ala
form the ideographic Buddhist universe. During the cultural revolution it was completely destroyed by the Chinese.

 
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