Facts about Tibet’s first Monastery.
1) Samye, Tibet’s first monastery, was likely completed in 775 and inaugurated in 779, although the Tibetan historian Buton gives construction dates of 787-799 and the Tang Annals state it was built in 763.
2) The Indian pandita Śāntarakṣita of Zahor was invited to Tibet by King Tri Songdetsen in order to establish the monastery
3) According to legend, Padmasambhava was brought in to subjugate local deities that opposed its construction.
4) The name Samye (bsam yas), meaning “inconceivable” is said to derive from its being even more glorious than Tri Songdetsen had hoped for
