Samye Monastery

The first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, established in the 8th century AD. On the banks of the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo in Tibetan) river.

The low satellite-photo resolution available for this area is unfortunate: Samye's overall design is a mandala, with its central temple representing Mount Meru, and the temples arranged concentrically around it representing the oceans & continents that surround Meru in Buddhist cosmology. At the center of the main temple is a pole the that represents the center of the universe.