Drepung Monastery is about 8 km west of Lhasa. Drepung means rice heap, in reference to the large number of white monastic buildings that were once on the hillside. It was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choje, a disciple of Tsongkhapa. My own teacher, Geshe Ngawang Kaldan studied at Drepung as a young man. He escaped in 1959 and fled to India, along with thousands of followers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1959 there were about 10,000 monks at Drepung, which is one of the great Gelugpa monasteries of Tibet. The Nechung Monastery is ... (more)