A Mind as Steadfast as Stone: Writings and Photos of Drepung
གངས་ཅན་རི་བོའི་ངོས་ལ་ཕན་ཚུན་འཚོགས་པའི། ལེགས་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་འབྲས་བུ་ནི་འདི་ཡིན། བསླབ་གསུམ་ལ་བརྩོན་པའི་ངུར་སྨྲིག་འཆང་བའི་དྲང་སྲོང་རྣམས། ཟག་མེད་ཏིང་འཛིན་འབྱེད་པའི་རོལ་མོས་དགའ་སྟོན་བྱེད། མཐའ་དབུས་ཀྱི་ཐར་འདོད་ཅན་གྱི་ངང་བ་ཚོར། འཆད་རྩོད་རྩོམ་གསུམ་གྱི་གཤོག་རྩལ་བརྩོན་པའི་འགྲན་སྡུར་ཡོད། འདི་ནས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་བསྟན་པའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་རྣམས་ཕན་ཚུན་མཉམ་དུ་འབབ་ཅིང་། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདྲེས་སོ།།
Those who yearn for liberation assemble here to prove themselves in teaching, debate, and writing. The currents of study and practice ultimately merge into a vast sea of wisdom. This passage, according to the note, is a concluding praise poem for Drepung Monastery, sourced from *The History of the Four Great Monasteries and the Upper and Lower Tantric Colleges* (1744) by Purkyokpa Ngawang Jampa ཕུར་ལྕོག་པ་ངག་དབང་བྱམས་པ་ (1682–1762).
Within the opening two lines, the Tibetan term "Drepung" (འབྲས་སྤུངས་) is subtly worked in, drawing on its literal meaning of "accumulated rice" to represent the monastery’s function as a center that draws together scholars and wisdom throughout Tibet. Meanwhile, the expression "snowy peaks" (གངས་ཅན་རི་བོ་) carries a dual significance, pointing both to Mount Gephel Utse (དགེ་འཕེལ་དབུ་རྩེ་)—the peak situated behind Drepung—and to the broader region of Tibet itself.
Tibet’s finest scholars come to Drepung for a reason, as Purkyokpa explains in the following two lines: first, the monks there hone their abilities in "teaching, debate, and writing," the three core scholarly activities. In lines three and four, he portrays these monks—called "those in maroon robes"—absorbed in their intellectual and spiritual pursuits: perfecting the Threefold Training (བསླབ་གསུམ་; discipline, meditation, and wisdom) and devoting themselves to meditation.
Purkyokpa's concluding lines depict the monks arriving at Drepung from all regions as akin to flowing streams. Their collective study and practice merge into an ocean of consummate wisdom. As a second point, freedom from suffering may be won by practitioners who engage in persevering training.
In the *Guide to Central Tibet* (1840), Jamgön Kongtrül Wangpo (འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་; 1820–1892) declared: "This monastery is the supreme palace where all noble knowledge gathers." The structure in question, one of Drepung Monastery's earliest, served as the residence of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden, who founded Drepung Monastery. Within it stands the main devotional image of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden (འཇམ་དབྱངས་གསུང་བྱོན་མ་). Drepung Monastery includes four additional meditation chambers of the same kind.
In *Anthologion* compiled by the 5th-century writer Stobaeus (Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος), the ideal state of a wise philosopher is described as follows: "(A wise man) neither compels nor is compelled; neither obstructs nor is obstructed; neither rules nor is ruled." Mönlam Pelwa (སྨོན་ལམ་དཔལ་བ་; 1414–1491), the fourth throne-holder of Drepung Monastery and the eighth Ganden Tripa of the Gelug tradition, likewise emphasized in his writings that a Buddhist philosopher must foster "a mind as unshaken as a rock" (བྲག་རྡོ་ལྟར་མི་གཡོ་བ་). As for the locations, the red star marks Drepung Monastery's Assembly Hall, the yellow star its Ngakpa College, the green star its Loseling College, the blue star its Gomang College, the purple star its Deyang College, the brown star its Ganden Podrang Complex, and the Hall of the Wise.
Zhepugu Monastery, a core classical academic institution in the Tibetan area, is generally believed to maintain about 7,700 permanent monks; in reality, however, its monk population often exceeds 10,000. The monastery originally consisted of seven monasteries at the time of its construction. Meanwhile, Mönlam Pelwa, from the moment he took up the role of Drepung's throne-holder in 1481, mandated strict examinations for monks in all colleges, with special emphasis on their daily behavior and manner of speech.
Eventually, as a result of the later period’s integration and adjustments to the layout, Zhepugu Monastery retained four core monasteries: Aba Monastery (a tantric monastery), Deyang Monastery, Guomang Monastery (which includes Duwa Monastery and has sixteen monk villages under its jurisdiction), and Loseling Monastery (which includes Xianguo Monastery and Jeppa Monastery, with twenty-four monk villages under its jurisdiction).
In 2006, the Rubin Museum obtained a panoramic painting of Drepung Monastery. Inscriptions within the artwork indicate that pilgrims from the Nepalese region commissioned it, although the painter’s ethnic background is still debated. The monastery’s layout follows a “College-Assembly Hall-Temple” tripartite design, with living quarters that served military defense, and it rises stepwise from the front gate to the main hall.
In Tibet, panoramic depictions of this kind are hardly rare—both in earlier introductions to Labrang Monastery and Samye Monastery, I used panoramas in much the same way to show monastic layouts and everyday routines. As far as pilgrims go, these idealized images fulfill three fundamental purposes. For one, they serve as distinctive pilgrimage keepsakes, functioning as personal “sacred objects.” Additionally, the panoramas stand in for the monasteries themselves—a form of representation—so that devotees who have not yet made the trip can deepen their “sacred experience” merely by viewing them.
Over 300 monasteries are affiliated with Drepung, and many newly established ones trace their lineage to this principal monastery; in this context, the panoramas act as architectural blueprints for monastery design.
Housed in Belgium's Royal Museums of Art and History, the late 18th-century *Panoramic View of Drepung Monastery · Folk Celebrations* stands in contrast to the *Panoramic Layout of Drepung Monastery* at the Rubin Museum. It distinctly shows that Tibetan pilgrims (probably from Amdo) and South Asian pilgrims had different devotional priorities.
This later work includes peripheral vignettes that show folk customs and daily monastic life, while also employing traditional Tibetan planar techniques to depict the monastery's structure.
Drepung Monastery's Panoramic Layout: Its central hall, featuring a three-gate, four-story design, functioned as the monastery's political and religious hub. Construction began under the Fifth Dalai Lama (1642–1654), with the most extensive additions occurring during the Tibetan King Period (reign: 1728–1747), following earlier work under Lhazang Khan (reign: 1705–1717). This hall stands as the earliest completed structure among the four great colleges, dating to 1419, and remains a key example of 15th-century monastic architecture. Ngakpa College, the largest of the four, mandates that monks who finish tantric studies there continue their training at Lhasa's Upper and Lower Tantric Colleges. Gomang College, overseen by Ling Rinpoche (གླིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་), draws its monks from four regions: North Asia, China Proper, Kham, and Amdo. Deyang College, established in 1440, is the smallest of the four. The residence of successive Dalai Lamas, originally presented to the Second Dalai Lama by the Phagmodru ruler in 1518, saw significant expansion between the Third and Fifth Dalai Lamas and housed the Ocean of Wisdom Library. It acted as the Gelug school's political center from the 16th to the mid-17th century. Behind the monastery lie the Gelug meditation caves, whose practices were promoted and systematized by the 11th throne-holder, Sönam Drakpa (པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་; 1478–1554). This text, offering a panoramic view of Drepung Monastery and its folk celebrations, is translated from SuolangWangqing's blog.