This section of Samye Monastery always looked to me like a setpiece from the first Star Wars movie. Perhaps an interior of the Death Star? In truth, George Lucas lifted a great deal of his ideas for fashion, style, and philosophy for the Star Wars trilogies from Asian and native American cultures. There is a classic Edward Curtis native American portrait from 1906 of a group of Hopi girls in Arizona sitting on adobe steps, wearing cloaks, and sporting those exact Princess Leia wound hair buns.
Samye
TIBET
