• Home
  • About
  • Copyright
  • Portmanteau of terror
    • The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
    • Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe
    • The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
    • The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
    • The Ash Tree by MR James
    • The Open Window by Saki
    • The Reticence of Lady Anne by Saki
    • To be taken with a grain of salt – a ghost story by Charles Dickens
    • Madam Crowl’s Ghost by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
    • The Horla, or Modern Ghosts by Guy de Maupassant
    • The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    • To Let by BM Croker
    • The Upper Berth by F Marion Crawford
    • The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs
    • The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford
    • The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford
    • The Haunted Dolls House by MR James
  • Books
  • Podcasts

The Haunted Palace

~ History, Folkore and the Supernatural

The Haunted Palace

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Kagyu Samye Ling: A little piece of Tibet in Scotland

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by Lenora in General, Photography, Religion

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Buddhist, Buddhist centre, Buddhist temple, Esk Valley, Monastery, Monastic community, Samye Ling, Samyeling, Scotland, scottish borders, Tibet, Tibetan

Wat Po Thailand, image by Lenora

Wat Po Thailand

A number of years ago (more that I care to remember) Miss Jessel and I had the good fortune to go traveling around the world for a year.  Our peregrinations took us from the familiarity of the Classical world as expressed in the temples and architecture of Greece, Turkey and Israel, to what was for us at that time the less explored and more ‘exotic’ world of Asia.

I recall being captivated by the fantastical temples of Thailand, India and Nepal.  The shapes, colours and fantastical beasts and carvings. These structures made a lasting impression on me in a way that the safe and over-familiar iconography and structures of European Christianity did not.

One of my regrets was that at the time my budget would not extend to a trek from Nepal to Tibet, little did I know that many years later I would find a small piece of Tibet transported much closer to home.

Sukhothai Historic Park, Thailand, image by Lenora

Sukhothai Historic Park, Thailand

On a damp day in late September I happened to be over the border in Scotland.  Suddenly I found myself walking along a driveway lined, somewhat incongruously, with small Buddhist shrines.  Intrigued by this development I continued walking and soon found myself in the heart of a Buddhist Community in the middle of the Scottish Borders.  It was quite bizarre and utterly enchanting – in a Brigadoon-esque kind of way!

The road to Samye Ling.  Image by Lenora.

The road to Samye Ling.

Nestled in the Esk Valley, in the ruggedly beautiful border country between Scotland and England sits the Tibetan Buddhist monastery – Kagyu Samye Ling.  It was the first Buddhist Centre established in the West – way back in 1967 a time when many in the West were seeking alternative spiritual systems – and it currently  has a thriving community of around 60 people .

The garden shrine

Samye Ling garden shrine viewed from the driveway.

There are a number of aspects to the Centre – the beautiful gardens not least of its attractions, but the most striking part has to be the Temple itself.  It is approached down a long enclosed corridor that terminates in a large stained glass window.  Stepping out of the enclosed corridor into the daylight the visitor finds themselves in a vast courtyard facing the impressive temple building. On the day I visited its jewel like colours and intricate workmanship provided a stark contrast to the grey Northern skies.

The slightly dreamlike corridor that leads to the temple.  Image by Lenora.

The slightly dreamlike corridor that leads to the temple.

Stained glass window at the end of the corridor.  Image by Lenora.

Stained glass window at the end of the corridor.

 

Samye Ling Buddhist Temple.  Image by Lenora.

On leaving the corridor you are met with the imposing Samye Ling Buddhist Temple – a blend of the modern and the ancient.

Dragon details

Detail from the temple doors.

More details from the temple doors.

More details from the temple doors.

P1020699

And again…

Perhaps the most moving moment of my visit was when I was standing alone in the silence of the temple, awed by the beauty of the astonishingly ornate and gilded interior.  From the silence rose a curious thrumming and fluttering noise, as I looked about me I located the source of the disturbance: a Robin had flown in through an open window and was joyfully oblivious of the fact that he was hopping about behind the rope barrier separating off the most sacred area of the temple (had he not read the polite notice ‘please do not cross the rope barrier’?)  His total disregard for human protocols seemed a perfect sly dig from Nature – a gentle reminder that however ingeniously humans can express their sense of the spiritual in art, literature or words, Nature  will always, effortlessly, do it better!

Anyway, here are a few more of my photographs from extrordinary Kagyu Samye Ling…Enjoy

Buddha of the lake

Scottish garden

A typical Scottish garden…?

Goddess in the pond20140927_135952Garden_shrineStatue in pond

Votive offerings

Votive offerings tied to the branches of a tree

East meets West:  Tibetan prayer flags and Celtic clooties/rag offerings.

East meets West: Tibetan prayer flags and Celtic clooties/rag offerings.

Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Centre welcomes visitors – Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike – and runs a number of courses on meditation, Yoga and other subjects.  You can find out more on their website http://www.samyeling.org/

All images copyright Lenora.

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • The Thieves’ Accomplice: The Hand of Glory
  • The Haunting of Willington Mill – a true life haunting for Halloween
  • Halloween Podcasts – out soon!!
  • HM Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022
  • The Deviant Nuns of Littlemore Priory

Archives

  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013

Categories

  • Art Reviews
  • Bizarre
  • Book reviews
  • Castles
  • Colonialism
  • Crime and the underworld
  • death
  • eighteenth century
  • England
  • Ethnography
  • fakes
  • Films
  • General
  • Ghosts
  • Ghosts and Horror
  • Guilty Pleasures
  • Halloween
  • hiking
  • History
  • hoaxes
  • Hoodoo and Voodoo
  • Legends and Folklore
  • Macabre
  • Medieval
  • memento mori
  • mourning
  • Murder and murderers
  • nineteenth century
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Poetry Reviews
  • Poltergeists
  • post mortem
  • Religion
  • Reviews
  • ritual
  • Scotland
  • scottish borders
  • seventeenth century
  • sixteenth century
  • Spoken Word
  • Stately Homes
  • Supernatural
  • Theatre Reviews
  • Uncategorized
  • Vampires
  • Victorian
  • Whitby Goth Weekend
  • Witchcraft

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • The Haunted Palace
    • Join 257 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Haunted Palace
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: