Samding Monastery is situated on the 4550 Meter hight ridge between two smaller lakes encircled by the southern and northern arms of Yamdrok lake. It takes 112 Kilometers from Lhasa and 10 Kilometers from Nangartse to reach the Monastery. The name of this monastery can be translate as “The Temple of Soaring Meditation”.
Samding Monastery is Associated with Shangpa Kagyu, The sub school of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is noted for its unusual tradition of being head by a female incarnated Lama called Dorji Phagmo. Dorje Phagmo is consider the consort of the wrathful deity Heruka. She is a highest female incarnated lamas in Tibet.
In the Year 1716 when Mongolian raid the Monastery, Dorje Phagmo turns the nuns and monks into pigs to help them escape. Her current incarnation lives and works for the government in Lhasa, yet she often travels to the Samding Monastery. During the eight-day of the fifth lunar month of Tibetan calendar, there is an annual Cham ritual dance in the monastery.
You will have a hike for about 45 minutes up to the ridge top cairns behind the monastery for the dramatic view of the surrounding three lakes of Gongmo-Tso, Dumo-Tso and Yamdrok Lake. The snowcapped Himalayan peaks on the south are Kula Gangti (7538m) and Gangkhar Phuensum (7570m), both bordering to Bhutan. Travellers can stay overnight in the monastery’s simple Guesthouse.
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