This is Samye itself, the main temple, with its gilded roof shining in the early morning light. Samye is a walled complex of temples and stupas, arranged in the form of a mandala offering. Much was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and it was rebuilt mainly through the efforts of the late Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. There is a tremendous amount of history here. Outside the main temple is a pillar with a proclamation from King Trisong Detsen (the 8th century king) that from now onwards Buddhism was to be the religion of Tibet. We visited the temple where the ‘seven examined men’ – the first seven indigenous monks were ordained by the Indian abbot Shantarakshita. It was also at Samye that the debate was held before the King that decided that Tibet would follow the Indian form of Mahayana Buddhism rather than Chinese Ch’an. I would have liked to spend longer here, but we heard that the route we had planned to take to our next destination was blocked, so we needed to leave early. If you’re planning a trip to Tibet, you need to take into account that travel is always rather uncertain.
This is our group meditating together in the small room at the top of the Gyantse Kumbum. Gyantse is a town in south-western Tibet. It is famous for the Kumbum, a kind of multi-storeyed mandala. As you work your way up through the different levels you find murals and statues connected with the different levels of Tantra. So the lower levels have mainly peaceful figures, then higher up are more wrathful forms. On the upper levels are Highest Tantra images of figures in Yab-Yum –sexual union, denoting a state of mind in which wisdom and compassion, bliss and emptiness, are united. Right at the top is this small room, which just holds two images of Vajradhara, the form in which the Buddha Shakyamuni is said to have taught the Tantras. Once again, being students of Dagyab Rinpoche gained us access to the top levels when others were being turned away. We spent a short time meditating there. In general our trip wasn’t very meditative, as we had a full programme. However I found that seeing so many Buddhist images, sometimes hundreds in a day, had a very good effect on my mind.
The murals and statues in the Gyantse Kumbum are particularly fine. They were preserved during the Cultural Revolution by the Chinese Prime Minister of the time, Chou En-Lai, who ordered the Red Guards not to touch the Kumbum. Obviously, much was destroyed in Tibet, and of course in China itself, in that awful paroxysm of dogma and devastation that engulfed China in the mid-1960s. I took with me a guidebook written in the 1980s by the English Buddhist Stephen Batchelor. It showed many photos of monasteries and temples that had been reduced to piles of stone and rubble. It was another factor in me wondering if I wanted to go to Tibet and confront all that suffering. But actually I saw very few ruins. Many valuable and sacred things were destroyed and cannot be brought back. But the Cultural Revolution is over forty years ago now. There has been much rebuilding, and painting and sculpting of new images. Some money has come from within China for this, and much has been raised by exiled lamas in the West to restore their home temples and monasteries in Tibet. There is more to do. Close to Lhasa we visited Drepung monastery, which used to be the biggest monastery in the world, a small town in itself. Part has been refurbished, but large areas are still closed off. But generally I felt I was seeing signs of regeneration, and I felt some hope for the future.
This is Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse, west of Lhasa. These young monk dancers are rehearsing, in their usual robes, the moves that they will make on the following day in the masked dances. Tashilunpo is the seat of the Panchen Lama. It is a very large place, with gilded roofs. There was a big crowd watching the dance rehearsals. I had the impression that at the moment religion can be openly practised, provided that it is not linked to politics: questions of Tibetan independence, or allegiance to the Dalai Lama. The Chinese authorities regard His Holiness as an ‘enemy of the Motherland’. Whilst many temples had images of the previous Panchen Lama, I only saw one picture of the Dalai Lama in the entire time we spent in Tibet.
There seemed to be plenty of young monks and nuns around in the places we went to. They receive some ‘political education’ from the government, but they are able to openly recite prayers and do pujas. (In visiting a monastery on the Lingkor, Vijayamala and I came upon a group of monks performing a fire puja to the tantric deity Chakrasamvara. They were all dressed in the traditional head-dresses and brocades.) A major issue is the quality of the teaching available. A whole generation of teachers was either exiled or persecuted, and this is still having its effect.