the first seven Tibetan Buddhist monks were ordained
by S ́antaraksita, the famous abbot of the Indian
monastery Vikramas ́la. Soon after, the famous BSAM
YASDEBATEwas held, ostensibly to decide which form
of Buddhism Tibetans would follow, that of India or
that of China.
Bsam yas was built during the reign of King Khri
srong lde btsan (r. 755–797), the second of the three
great Buddhist kings of Tibet’s early imperial period.
This king had invited S ́antaraksita to Tibet to assist him
in establishing Buddhism as the state religion. Ac-
cording to traditional accounts, when the king began
work on his new monastery, local spirits who were op-
posed to the foreign religion created obstacles so nu-
merous that not even the building’s foundation could
be laid. S ́antaraksita, whose strengths lay in monastic
learning and not in battling demonic forces, could not
help. The king was forced to find someone trained in
the arts of Buddhist tantra. S ́antaraksita recommended
the renowned master, PADMASAMBHAVA, from the
kingdom of Uddiyana in northwestern India. Upon
Padmasambhava’s arrival, the great tantrikaquickly
subdued the troublesome spirits, forcing them to take
vows to forever protect Buddhism in Tibet.
Bsam yas played a central role in Khri srong lde
btsan’s lifelong project to make Buddhism the state
religion of Tibet. At the time of its construction, the
Tibetan empire was at the height of its power. In 763,
Tibetans even occupied the Chinese capital of
Chang’an, where they installed a puppet emperor for a
brief time. Bsam yas was built as a symbol of Tibet’s
newfound international prestige, and the central cathe-
dral’s three stories were designed in the traditional ar-
chitectural styles of India, China, and Tibet, respectively.
Bsam yas’s universalism was further reflected in the
layout of the whole monastic complex—a cosmogram
of the Indian world system. According to this system,
the central axis of Mount Sumeru is surrounded by
four continents, one in each of the cardinal directions.
Similarly at Bsam yas, around the central cathedral
were built four buildings, their shapes corresponding
to those of the continents.
The monastery was also built to represent a three-
dimensional MANDALAin a design modeled on the
great Indian Buddhist monastery of Otantapuri, lo-
cated in today’s Bihar. The particular mandala repre-
sented by Bsam yas seems to have been that of the
Buddha Vairocana. Recent scholarship has suggested
that the Tibetan imperial cult may have given special
prominence to this deity, and that this close associa-
tion was also reflected in the arrangement of Bsam yas.
According to early sources, a statue of Vairocana was
originally positioned on the second floor as the central
image; another Vairocana statue, this in his four-faced
Sarvavid form, was installed on the top floor.
The same layout can still be observed. Bsam yas was
severely damaged a number of times by fires (seven-
teenth century), earthquakes and more fires (nine-
teenth century), and Chinese invaders (twentieth
century), but the restorations seem to have remained
largely faithful to its original plan. The central cathe-
dral was rebuilt in 1989 following the most recent des-
ecrations, and renovations continued throughout the
1990s on other parts of the complex.See also:TibetBibliography
Chan, Victor. Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide.Chico, CA:
Moon, 1994.
Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Con-
version, Contestation, and Memory.New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2001.
Snellgrove, David, and Richardson, Hugh. A Cultural History of
Tibet(1968). Boston: Shambala, 1995.JACOBP. DALTONBSAM YAS DEBATEAmong Western scholars, the Bsam yas Debate has
generated more speculation than any other single event
in Tibetan history. Around 797 C.E., a philosophical
debate is said to have taken place at BSAM YAS(SAMYE),
the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. The debate was
held in order to decide, in effect, which form of Bud-
dhism would be adopted by the Tibetan royal court—
that of the Chinese CHAN SCHOOLor Indian Buddhism.
The debate was presided over by the Tibetan king, Khri
srong lde btsan (r. 755–797), and the two sides were
represented by the Chinese master HuashangMoheyan
(Sanskrit, Mahayana) and the Indian scholar Ka-
malas ́la, respectively. According to Tibetan sources,
the Indian side was declared the winner; Moheyan and
his disciples were banished from the country, and In-
dian Buddhism was established as the state religion.
The alleged victory for the Indian side has strongly
shaped Tibetans’ understanding of their own religious
heritage.BSAM YASDEBATE