On the plateau of Sakya County, Shigatse, at about 4,300 meters above sea level, stands the root seat of the Sakya school — Sakya Monastery.

It differs from other Tibetan monasteries: outside it is a castle, inside it is a library. A square compound, high thick walls, watchtowers at the four corners, its outer walls painted with vertical stripes in red, white, and blue (or black) — from afar like a fortress. Yet step into the great assembly hall and along the wall stands an entire wall of scriptures, tens of thousands of volumes of Tibetan canon layered from floor to beam.

A monastery that is at once fortress and bookstore is itself Sakya's portrait: it has both the hardness of politics and the thickness of learning.

Sakya Monastery is divided into South and North parts, separated by the Phun Chhu river. The North was built in 1073, the original founding by Khön Könchog Gyalpo; the South was built in 1268 under Pakpa's direction. What is called Sakya Monastery today mostly means the South.

In 1268, already Imperial Preceptor to Kublai, Pakpa directed the building of the South Monastery.

Its form is extremely unusual: a square compound, about two hundred meters on a side, surrounded by high thick rammed-earth walls, with watchtowers at the four corners and a moat outside. This is not the typical Tibetan monastery layout, but more like a fortification of the central plains or Central Asia.

Why build it so? Because the South Monastery was not only a monastery — it was also the administrative center of the Sakya regime. Between 1264 and 1354, with Yuan support, Sakya administered all of Tibet, and the South Monastery was the seat of that regime: both a religious seat and a government office, needing defense and majesty.

The main structure is the great assembly hall (Lhakhang Chenmo), about six thousand square meters, able to hold thousands of monks chanting. Massive pillars stand in rows, the thickest requiring several men to embrace; the timber is said to be from the original Yuan-era construction.

This "unity of religion and politics, monastery and city" form is extremely rare in Tibet. It also makes Sakya Monastery the most direct physical evidence for the study of Yuan-era Tibetan history.

Entering the great assembly hall, the most stunning thing is not the buddha-images, but the wall of scriptures standing along the wall.

It is about ten meters high and over sixty meters long, densely packed with volume upon volume of Tibetan canon. According to the monastery's historical tallies, the total reaches eighty-four thousand volumes — a number laden with symbolic meaning (corresponding to the eighty-four thousand dharma-doors). It includes many Yuan- and Ming-era manuscripts and woodblocks, many unique copies.

This wall is called the world's largest bookshelf, and is also the strongest proof of Sakya as a "school of scholars."

Its significance exceeds mere quantity: these canon were preserved through generations of monks copying, collating, and protecting them. In an age without printing, one scripture took months to copy; with woodblocks, each had to be carved and printed page by page. Tens of thousands of volumes were the life's work of hundreds.

The monks of Sakya Monastery still undertake the collation and organizing of canon today. To them, guarding the scriptures is not custody, but guarding the dharma itself — for once the books are gone, the dharma has nothing to speak of.

The outer walls of Sakya Monastery are painted with vertical stripes in red, white, and blue (or black), its most striking emblem and the origin of the name "Variegated School."

The meaning of the three colors is usually explained as symbolizing three bodhisattvas:

• Red — Mañjuśrī, symbolizing wisdom.
• White — Avalokiteśvara, symbolizing compassion.
• Blue (black) — Vajrapāṇi, symbolizing power.

The three side by side amount to painting Sakya's path of practice on the wall: wisdom as substance, compassion as form, power as function.

There is also a circulating saying about the three colors: that the stripes derive from the painting tradition of early Sakya Monastery, used to mark the monastery's boundary and belonging. Whatever its origin, today it has become Sakya's identity symbol — wherever you go in Tibet, Nepal, or Europe and America, as long as it is a Sakya seat, it likely bears these three vertical stripes.

To the visitor, the three colors are the most memorable image: between a stretch of pale earth and the snow mountains, three colors stand straight there.

Across the river from the South stands the North Monastery — the original seat founded by Khön Könchog Gyalpo in 1073.

The North Monastery was built against the hillside, its halls scattered mid-slope, a typical Tibetan mountain-monastery layout. In the first two centuries after Sakya's founding, the North was the main center of study and practice; the early of the Five Patriarchs mostly resided there.

After the mid-twentieth century the North Monastery suffered severe damage, most of its buildings collapsed. What is seen today is mostly ruins, with only a few structures restored.

The South and North monasteries side by side are like two sides of Sakya's character: the North is the practitioner on the mountain, the South the statesman on the plain. One quiet and reserved, the other august and outward.

If the visitor has time, it is worth, after seeing the South, looking across the river at the ruins of the North — in those ruins hides Sakya's original face.

Q: Where is Sakya Monastery?

A: It lies in Sakya County, Shigatse, Tibet, at an elevation of about 4,300 meters, roughly 150 km from the city of Shigatse.

Q: What is the difference between the North and South monasteries?

A: The North Monastery was built in 1073 against the mountain and was Sakya's original seat; today it is mostly ruins. The South Monastery, built in 1268 in a castle-like layout, is the main body of Sakya Monastery today and the former administrative center.

Q: Does the scripture wall really hold eighty-four thousand volumes?

A: The monastery's cumulative counts across the ages total roughly eighty-four thousand, including manuscripts and printed editions, many of them unique Yuan and Ming editions. The exact figure shifts with cataloging work, but its scale is the largest in Tibet.

Q: Can one visit it?

A: Yes. Sakya Monastery is open to visitors, and the great assembly hall and some chapels can be entered. Because of the high altitude, one should watch for altitude sickness; photography and loud voices are not allowed inside the halls.

• Sakya Monastery, Tibet, 2006.jpg · Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) / CC BY-SA 2.5
• Tibetan, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order - Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Series - Google Art Project.jpg · Tibetan, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order Details on Google Art Project / Public domain
• Sakya Monastery, Sakya, Tibet.jpg · Moszczynski / Public domain

Return to the upper level: The Sacred Sites of Sakya.