Shannan Tour – Strategies of Photographing Samye Monastery

Shannan Tour – Location of Photographing Samye Monastery

The best location to enjoy and photograph the fine and ingenious layout of whole Samye Monastery is the top floor of Wuzi Hall. To look around there, the east, south, west and north separately are Four Great Regions of Baijiangling, Ayabaluling, chambling and Sangjieling. At the same time, the Eight Small Regions, Sun and Moon Hall, four pagodas of white, black, green and red are in the view. The consummate composition and ingenious layout of Samye Monastery are marvelous. If you have enough time in your Shannan tour, you can climb on the nearby Haiburi Holy Mountain to photograph the monastery and river valley. In addition, you also can trek or take convenient car to Chim-Puk to photograph beautiful pictures.

Shannan Tour – Season of Photographing Samye Monastery

The Samye Monastery is suitable for photographing in four seasons. In summer, you can reach the Samye Monastery by taking ferryboat at the Samye Ferry to cross the Yarlung Zanpo Rive. In winter, you can directly reach the gate of Samye Monastery by taking long-distance bus. On May 13th in each year, the Samye Monastery will hold grand "Weisang" Festival to drive off evil spirits. The day of May 13th in Tibetan Calendar is also the anniversary of inauguration of Samye Monastery. The celebration will last for several days. During the festival, there are scenes of dancing, singing songs, chanting and sacrificing. On May 15th in Tibetan Calendar of each year, Samye Monastery will hold grand ceremony of sacrificing scriptures which named "Duode Queba" in Tibetan language. During the period of sacrificing, the monastery will hold "Qiangmu" which is rope skipping performance and various religious activities. In fact, these two festivals are celebrated together, from May 13th to May 18th, become the grandest festival of Samye Monastery. You may get many special pictures during this period.

Shannan Tour – Golden Time of Photographing Samye Monastery

If you have one-day Samye Monastery tour, you may miss the special light of sunrise and sunset. You are suggested to figure out whether there are religious festivals and ceremonies in advance. Then, you may get some religious pictures.

Shannan Tour – Features of Samye Monastery

Since Samye Monastery is the first monastery of Tibet, it is with high prestige. The unparalleled architecture style and exquisite fresco of Samye Monastery provide rich photography materials to photographers who prefer human landscapes. The Samye Monastery is not as noise as the monasteries in Lhasa. It will give people the feelings of quiet and serene.

Note: You will be charged extra 180 CNY if you want to take photos in the halls of Samye Monastery.

There are two shops at the gate of Samye Monastery Guesthouse where you can buy drinks, instant noodles, battery, etc.

In the high season of Shannan tour, there are vehicles for pilgrims running between Samye Monastery and Chim-Puk.