Samye Monastery

Visiting Samye Monastery is an all day event for the time being. With the various road checkpoints, additional permit to enter Shannon Provence and terrible road conditions in the direction of Lhasa, make this an over night trip. Most groups will first drive to Tsedang on the Friendship Highway. Samye happens to be on the other side of Yarlung Tsangpo River (Bramhaputra). Some maps map not show this road yet. Samye is closer to Lhasa than Tsedang but not by road. Because of the road conditions currently, it is best to sleep the night in Tsedang and travel to Samye the following morning. The road condition to Lhasa is bad and under serious construction. However the road has recently been paved for the trip from Tsedang to Samye.

The Monastery itself is small but beautiful. A very active monastery, they have their own food store and restaurants in a compound before the entrance. I’ve even seen monks in here buy supplies. Samye is different than most monasteries in Tibet. It is very spread out on a flat plain instead of being built on a mountain or the side of a mountain.  During my visit, I was fortunate to see monks practicing a dance for a festival that would be coming up.

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