Samye Debate

The Samye Debate was a two year debate held at Samye Monastery from 792-794 that argued the best method for achieving Enlightenment in Buddhism. The debate was called by Trisong Detsen to resolve the escalating argument between Santaraksita's Tibetan Buddhist school and Moheyan's Chan school of Tang China. Trisong Detsen judged in favor of Santaraksita's school, and Moheyan and his school therefore had to leave Tibet.

The extant accounts of the debate differ on the details of its proceedings, while the debate's historicity is contested by some. The various accounts agree that the debate was hosted by Trisong Detsen at Samye Monastery and consisted of two philosophical schools: the suddenists, represented by the Tang China monk Moheyan, and Santaraksita's students called the gradualists, represented in the debate by the student and Indian monk Kamalasila. The accounts also agree that the Tang China Chan school lost the debate.

In 1952, a book was published that began to erroneously refer to the Samye Debate as the Council of Lhasa, but a debate is not a council, and Samye Monastery where the two year debate was held is 120 kilometers from Lhasa.