Samye Gompa on the Tsangpo south of Lhasa, dating to the 8^th century, is the oldest Tibetan Monastery. It was founded by Padmasambhava, the mythical first Buddhist missionary to Tibet. A national Tibetan treasure it was like Ganden destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The monks were rusticated to work in a commune established on its grounds. Cornelius and Marc had seen it in 1989 under reconstruction. Since then almost all of the sacred buildings, the central meditation Hall and the four chörten had been built new, by local craftsmen with Chinese and Tibetan money.

Map 2, Lhasa, Tsetang (on the right edge of the map) and Samye (just west of Tsetang and then north across the river)

(click on map to enlarge) 

With the three Landcruisers we drove to Tsetang where we spent this and the following night in a modest "Chinese" Hotel, equipped with color televisions but with no water in the bathrooms or toilets.... Our truck carrying the camping equipment and the gasoline for the entire four-week trip (!) would join us only in Shigatse, three days later.

 The Tsangpo. Between the Lhasa Airport and Tsetang an asphalted road had just been finished for the Chinese dignitaries attending the Liberation Celebrations in 1995.

 A ferry, flat barges equipped with noisy tractor outboard-motors transport pilgrims and tourist across the shallow Tsangpo. What looked like a fifteen-minute ride turned out to be a one-and-a-half-hour ocean voyage, because the prams were more often stuck on submerged sandbanks than afloat. Of course, we were charged an exorbitant fare—ten times the local price....

Imperious Marianne surveys the voyage.... 

 ...while Marc and Cornelius study my notes.

On the left bank a truck was eagerly waiting for the victims. A long negotiation over the price of the truck began between Pujung, our Tibetan guide and the truck drivers.  

We had already climbed in, when the negotiations came to a complete impasse.... 

.... Our revolutionary committee finally decided that we would walk. Of course, the truck drivers knew that that hike would take over an hour, and when they passed us simply stopped. Pujung, our inexperienced leader, gave in, he paid, and we all piled in again.

 The spires of the meditation hall and the four chörten at the cardinal points of the mandala.

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 We first had lunch among children and dogs who were waiting for the proverbial crumbs of the rich foreigners.

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 Meanwhile Cornelius, Peter and Jeroen had climbed Ütse, a steep hill overlooking the place, from which one discovers that Samye is a large mandala. A circular wall surrounds the monastery buildings and the four cardinal chörten

Prayer flags on Ütse.

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 The view from the roof of the meditation hall, the abbots residence and one of the new chörten in the distance.

The "new" Black Chörten, a faithful replica of its predecessor — cast in concrete with the money of a rich Tibetan from Kham, the Chinese part of Tibet. 

 The circular wall is now again crowned by a row of small chörtens. The building on the left is waiting for its renewal. The commune still occupies many of the former houses of the monks.

 The truck returning to the ferry with a motley group of pilgrims.

A woman from Kham(?) placing a mani stone at the foot of the White Chörten.

 The beams and posts of the main meditation hall are covered with colorful paintings, here a White Tara. All of this was re-painted from scratch by artisans following traditional, memorized patterns.  

 An old man sewing precious Chines brocades for the decoration of the interior of the meditation hall.

 One of the chörten marking the four corners of the roof of the meditation hall.

We spent another night at the Chinese "hotel" in Tsetang and next morning set out for Yamdrok Tso and Gyangtse.