Drepung Monastery

Chinese name: 哲蚌寺 (Zhe Bang Si)
Location: No.276 Beijing road south, Cheng Guan District, Lhasa, Tibet.
Ticket: Entrance ticket CNY60.00
Estimated tour time:: 1-3 hours
Recommended time to visit: Whole year 
Nearby attractions: Sera Monastery, Barkhor Street, Potala Palace etc.

Drepung Monastery , located at the foot of Mount Gephel, is one of the "great three" Gelug university gompas (monasteries) of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Sera Monastery.

Drepung is the largest of all Tibetan monasteries in Lhasa, which was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choge Tashi Palden (1397–1449), one of Tsongkhapa's main disciples, and it was named after the sacred abode in South India of Shridhanyakataka.Drepung was the principal seat of the Gelugpa school and it retained the premier place amongst the four great Gelugpa monasteries.

The Ganden Phodrang  in Drepung was the residence of the Dalai Lamas until the Great Fifth Dalai Lama constructed the Potala. Drepung was known for the high standards of its academic study, and was called the Nalanda of Tibet, a reference to the great Buddhist monastic university of India.

● The history of Drepung Monastery

In 1988-89 eight lamas from Drepung Monastery visited North America as part of Loseling's first world tour of Sacred Music Sacred Dance for planetary peace and healing. While in Atlanta they were given a small tract of land in the mountains of north Georgia. The head lama, H.E. Gungbar Tulku, accepted the land on behalf of the monastery.

The following year Loseling's abbot, H.E. Rizong Rinpoche, with the blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, visited Georgia to consecrate the land. He was accompanied by an assistant, Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi. An outcome of that visit was that Geshe was offered a scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. program at Emory University. In 1991 Geshe Lobsang moved to Atlanta to begin his course of studies at Emory, and also to oversee the development of Drepung.

Drepung officially opened its studies and practice training programs in May 1991. This began with meditation retreats and teaching programs held on the land in North Georgia and a weekly meditation and teaching session in Atlanta led by Geshe Lobsang.

In addition to Geshe-la's teaching program, Drepung has brought in numerous high lama scholars from India and Nepal to lead retreats. They include H.H. Ganden Tri Rinpoche ("Holder of the Ganden Throne," i.e., the official head of the Geluk school). H.E. Rizong Rinpoche, former abbot of both the Gyumey Tantric College and Drepung Monastery, who holds the title of Jangtsey Chojey ("Holder of the Jangtsey Throne"), served as a visiting teacher in residence for a year; Tokden Tulku, a high incarnate lama from Loseling, also visited the Center and taught for a year; and Jampa Tulku, another Loseling incarnate was resident teacher for six months.