Six Centuries of Drepung: A Monastery's Story in Texts and Images
The homage verse that opens with བཀྲ་ཤིས་གཏེར་གྱི་བུམ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཅན། དཔལ་ལྡན་འདོད་དགུའི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར། ལྷུན་གྲུབ་མཛད་པའི་ཆར་འབེབས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིན། འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། — corresponding to "Jar of Auspicious and Sublime Treasures," "Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Endowed with Virtue," "Cloud of Accomplishments Showering Blessings," and "Homage and Prayers to the Lord Mañjuśrī" — was written by Musepa Lodrö Rinchen Senge (མུ་སྲད་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རིན་ཆེན་སེང་གེ་; dates of birth and death unknown). As the accompanying note indicates, Musepa received teachings from Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden (འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན་; 1379–1449), who established Drepung Monastery, and also from Drapa Rinchen (གྲགས་པ་རིན་ཆེན་; dates unknown), who occupied the first throne of Drepung's Gomang Dratsang.
Musepa and his disciples, driven from Drepung by conflict, planned to move to nearby Sera Monastery. While on the way to Sera, Musepa wrote a brief devotional poem honoring Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden, the excerpt quoted above as *"The Garland of Perfect Virtues"* (ཡོན་ཏན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་མ་).
Musepa later founded Sera Jé Dratsang (སེ་ར་བྱེས་), modeling it on the example of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden, whom he saw as the very model of a Gelug scholar. Because Jamyang Chöje had systematized Tsongkhapa’s teachings and established Drepung, Musepa considered him "one of Tsongkhapa’s greatest successors." That new college eventually grew into the largest and most academically rigorous unit within Sera Monastery.
In 2016, the Tibet Autonomous Region hosted a series of events marking the 600th anniversary of Drepung Monastery. The preface of "Tibet Series Photo Collection: Drepung Monastery" includes the Assembly Hall of Drepung Monastery (Tibetan: "Drepung Tsokchen"). Recognized for its intricate curriculum, Sera Jé drew the greatest number of monks from Northern Tibet and Kham, reflecting the academic tradition of Drepung’s Gomang College.
Drepung Monastery, according to Alex Wayman (1921–2004), a renowned American scholar of Indo-Tibetan studies, holds a place in the Buddhist world comparable to that of the University of Bologna and the University of Oxford in the development of European humanities. Having nurtured countless Tibetan scholars and left a profound impact on Tibet's historical evolution, this ancient institution now encounters fresh opportunities and challenges.
Gathering within this Gelugpa monastery are Buddhist scholars from across Asia, joined by some from other religious traditions, who constantly shape the intellectual landscape of Tibetan Buddhism through rigorous academic competition, fierce philosophical debate, and extensive scholarly writing.
Before Drepung rose to prominence, Sangphu Monastery (གསང་ཕུ་དགོན་) served as Tibet’s foremost academic center, being the origin of Tibetan logic and epistemology (pramāṇa). Through the backing of successive generations of patrons and donors, Drepung grew to be more than a monastic complex; its expansive holdings of ancient manuscripts, distinguished classical art, and wide-ranging intellectual traditions elevated it to the status of Tibet’s Nalanda University.
The origin story of any monastery is necessarily connected to the founder's ideals and practices, which are most directly expressed in its sacred name. For Drepung Monastery (འབྲས་སྤུངས་དགོན་, meaning "Rice Heap"), there have been multiple explanations for how this name came to be. Additionally, it is noteworthy that the Monastic Regulations of Drepung, set down by the Fifth Dalai Lama, obliged the monastery's scholar-monks to journey to Sangphu for study.
Of these, the most widely held explanation links the monastery’s name to its setting and construction—specifically, a fan-shaped alluvial landscape and walls of immaculate white, as though heaped with sacred rice. Still, a careful study of historical records shows that this reading is only a popular legend, not a verified one.
In his "History of the Ganden Tradition" (དགའ་ལྡན་ཆོས་འབྱུང་), Desi Sangye Gyatso (སྡེ་སྲིད་སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་; 1653–1705) explicitly states that the name Drepung comes from "Drepung Stupa" (འབྲས་སྤུངས་མཆོད་རྟེན་; Śrīdhānyakaṭaka ), a sacred Buddhist site in South Asia. That stupa marks the place where the Buddha taught the Kālacakra Tantra, and thus stands as a landmark in the transmission and development of Vajrayana Buddhism.
A monastery destined to realize Tsongkhapa's prophecy—"the child monastery shall surpass the mother monastery in glory" (with Ganden Monastery as the mother monastery)—was about to make its historic debut at the moment when Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden received the auspicious white conch shell from his teacher Tsongkhapa, a shell that Tsongkhapa had discovered at Ganden Khora Mountain.
Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden initiated the construction of Drepung Monastery in 1416, with the support of Nenpa Namkha Zangpo (སྣེའུ་དཔོན་ནམ་མཁའ་བཟང་པོ་), the Liwu chieftain, and his family. It is notable that Namkha Zangpo's family had earlier financed the restoration of Lhasa's Jokhang and Ramoche Temples, and he himself was among the Gelug tradition's most devoted followers, having led the Butter Lamp Festival in Lhasa to honor Tsongkhapa.
In 1744, Purjokpa completed his celebrated work on the Gelug historical lineage, The History of the Four Great Monasteries and the Upper & Lower Tantric Colleges (གྲྭ་ས་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི་དང་རྒྱུད་པ་སྟོད་སྨད་ཆགས་ཚུལ་), and within it he recorded two classic narratives concerning Drepung Monastery’s establishment. These accounts, moreover, are shaped not only by the earlier origin stories that illustrate the master-disciple relationship (dharma transmission), but also by the personal history of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden.
A white celestial deity appeared to Jamyang Chöje in a dream, according to the second account, imparting divine inspiration and revealing the monastery’s auspicious location—a vision seen as proof of its destined success. In the first account, Jamyang Chöje dreamed of constructing a bridge to help beings cross a great river, an allegory for the compassionate motivation behind Drepung’s founding.
Panchen Sönam Drakpa (པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་; 1478–1554), who served as Drepung’s 11th throne-holder and wrote The New Red Annals, recognized the protector Pehar Gyalpo in this "white deity.
While The Religious History of Drepung (published in Hamburg, 1974) by Geshe Gendün Lodrö (དགེ་བཤེས་དགེ་འདུན་བློ་གྲོས་; 1924–1979) stands as the definitive modern scholarly work on Drepung Monastery, The History of the Ganden Tradition and The History of the Four Great Monasteries and the Upper & Lower Tantric Colleges instead supply a broad survey of the monastery’s two principal expansion periods—one during the Fifth Dalai Lama’s era and the other under the Tibetan ruler Polhané.
In the following article, my main references will be the three works cited above, biographies of former abbots, and two panoramic images of Zhebaisi Temple, so as to detail the historical development, transmission model, and architectural layout of this six-hundred-year-old ancient temple. Drawing on the author’s firsthand academic and monastic training at Drepung and on historical records from successive throne-holders of the monastery, the 452-page magnum opus meticulously documents every aspect of the legacy of this six-century-old institution.
The text I am presenting here is a translation of SuolangWangqing's blog post. For the material, I rely on two panoramic works: the "Zhebaisi Temple Panoramic Layout," housed at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, and the "Zhebaisi Temple Panoramic Image - Folk Festival," kept at the Royal Arts and History Museum in Belgium.