Note 25 — Chapter IX · FUNERAL OF THE PANCHEN RINPOCHE.—VISIT TO THE GREAT LAMASERY OF SAMYE AND TO YARLUNG.
Reading edition
Written Bsam-yas. I do not believe that this interpretation of the word Samye is correct. San yang, it is true, means “three styles” in Chinese, but Chinese yang would never be pronounced ye in Tibetan. Waddell, op. cit., 266, translates the name, “the academy for obtaining the heap of unchanging meditation.” Nain Singh visited Samye (he calls it Sama-ye Gomba) in 1873. “It is surrounded by a very high circular wall, 1½ mile in circumference, with gates facing the four points of the compass. On the top of this wall the Pundit counted 1030 chhartans (chorten) made of burnt bricks.… The interiors of the (stone) walls of these temples are covered with very beautiful writing in enormous Hindi (Sanscrit) characters.…” Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc., xlvii. p. 114. Sarat Chandra says that a work, entitled ‘Pama Kahthang’ (‘Peme Katang’?), contains a full description of this famous lamasery. See also Waddell, op. cit., 266–268. ↑