A heart as unshaken as a rock ▎ Texts and Images of Drepung Monastery (II)

6 lipiec 2025

སྲིད་ཞིའི་ལེགས་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་འབྲས་བུ་ནི།
གཅིག་ཏུ་སྤུངས་པ་གངས་ཅན་རི་བོའི་ངོ།
བསླབ་གསུམ་ངུར་སྨྲིག་འཆང་བའི་དྲང་སྲོང་རྣམས།
ཟག་མེད་ཏིང་འཛིན་བྱེ་བས་རོལ་བ་འདི།
མཐའ་དབུས་ཀུན་ནས་ཐར་འདོད་ངང་བ་རྣམས།
འཆད་རྩོད་རྩོམ་པའི་གཤོག་རྩལ་འགྲན་བཞིན་འདུས།
འདི་ནས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་བསྟན་པའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་རྣམས།
ཕན་ཚུན་འགྲན་བཞིན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རྒྱ་མཚོར་འབབ།

The Fruit of Supreme Union
Amidst the snowy peaks it grows,
Where robed elders master the Threefold Training,
Abiding in flawless, awakened concentration.

All who seek liberation gather,
To test their skill in teaching, debate, and writing.
The streams of study and practice flow,
Merging at last into the ocean of wisdom.

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)

[Note]: This is a concluding praise poem about Drepung Monastery from *The History of the Four Great Monasteries and the Upper and Lower Tantric Colleges* by Purkyokpa Ngawang Jampa (1682–1762). The first two lines subtly incorporate the Tibetan name "Drepung" (འབྲས་སྤུངས་), playing on its meaning of "accumulated rice" to symbolize the monastery’s role as a gathering place for wisdom and scholars in Tibet.

The phrase "snowy peaks" (གངས་ཅན་རི་བོ་) can refer both to Mount Gephel Utse (དགེ་འཕེལ་དབུ་རྩེ་), the mountain behind Drepung, and to Tibet as a whole.

In the third and fourth lines, Purkyokpa depicts the monks (referred to as "those in maroon robes") engaged in their intellectual and spiritual practices—mastering the Threefold Training (བསླབ་གསུམ་; discipline, meditation, and wisdom) and immersing themselves in meditation.

Why do Tibet’s finest scholars come here to study? The next two lines provide the answer: First, monks at Drepung hone their skills in "teaching, debate, and writing" (the three core scholarly activities). Second, through diligent practice, practitioners may attain liberation from suffering.

In the final lines, Purkyokpa compares the monks who come to Drepung from all regions to flowing streams. Their combined study and practice converge into an ocean of perfect wisdom. As Jamgön Kongtrül Wangpo (འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་; 1820–1892) wrote in his *Guide to Central Tibet* (1840): "This monastery is the supreme palace where all noble knowledge gathers."

"Before Drepung Monastery," from *The Architectural Art of Tibet*

"Gate of Ganden Podrang," from The Architectural Art of Tibet

"The Wooden Structures of Drepung Monastery's Architecture," from The Architectural Art of Tibet

"The Top Floor of Drepung Monastery's Assembly Hall," from The Architectural Art of Tibet

"The Statue of Tsongkhapa in the Assembly Hall," from The Architectural Art of Tibet

"The Shoton Festival Tibetan Opera Performance at Drepung Monastery," from *The Architectural Art of Tibet*

Rock-top House (བྲག་ཐོག་སྒང་)

Founder of Drepung Monastery
The residence of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden
One of the earliest structures in Drepung Monastery

Manjushri, Lord of Speech within the Rock-top House

This is the principal devotional statue of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden
(འཇམ་དབྱངས་གསུང་བྱོན་མ་)

The Meditation Chamber of Jamyang Chöje Tashi Palden

Drepung Monastery contains four similar meditation chambers.

Satellite Image of Drepung Monastery (Self-made)

Red star: Drepung Monastery's Assembly Hall
Yellow star: Drepung Monastery's Ngakpa College
Green star: Drepung Monastery's Loseling College
Blue star: Drepung Monastery's Gomang College
Purple star: Drepung Monastery's Deyang College
Brown star: Drepung Monastery's Ganden Podrang Complex

Hall of the Wise

In *Anthologion* compiled by the 5th-century writer Stobaeus (Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος), the ideal state of a wise philosopher is described thus: "(A wise man) neither compels nor is compelled; neither obstructs nor is obstructed; neither rules nor is ruled."

The fourth throne-holder of Drepung Monastery and the eighth Ganden Tripa of the Gelug tradition, Mönlam Pelwa (སྨོན་ལམ་དཔལ་བ་; 1414–1491), similarly emphasized in his writings that a Buddhist philosopher must cultivate "a mind as unshaken as a rock" (བྲག་རྡོ་ལྟར་མི་གཡོ་བ་). From his appointment as Drepung's throne-holder in 1481, Mönlam Pelwa insisted on rigorous examinations for monks across all colleges, particularly scrutinizing their conduct and speech in daily life.

Mönlam Pelwa (Drepung Monastery)

It is generally believed that the permanent number of monks in Zhepugu Monastery should be around 7,700. However, as a core classical academic institution in the Tibetan area, the number of monks in Zhepugu Monastery often exceeds 10,000. At the beginning of its construction, Zhepugu Monastery had a total of seven monasteries. With the integration and layout changes in the later period, Zhepugu Monastery eventually retained four core monasteries: Guomang Monastery (including Duwa Monastery; with sixteen monk villages under its jurisdiction) - Loseling Monastery (including Xianguo Monastery and Jeppa Monastery; with twenty-four monk villages under its jurisdiction) - Deyang Monastery - Aba Monastery (a tantric monastery).

"Panoramic Layout of Drepung Monastery"
c. 1898, Rubin Museum

"College-Assembly Hall-Temple" tripartite structure
Living quarters with military defensive functions
Ascending stepwise from the front gate to the main hall

In 2006, the Rubin Museum acquired a panoramic painting of Drepung Monastery. Based on inscriptions within the artwork, it can be determined that this piece was commissioned by pilgrims from the Nepalese region (though the ethnic identity of the painter remains debated). Such panoramic depictions are not uncommon in Tibet—in previous introductions to Labrang Monastery and Samye Monastery, I similarly used panoramas to illustrate monastic layouts and daily life.

For pilgrims, these idealized visual works serve three fundamental purposes:
First, they function as unique pilgrimage souvenirs, acting as intimate "sacred objects."
Second, the panoramas serve as proxies (a form of representation) for the monasteries themselves, allowing devotees who haven’t visited to enhance their "sacred experience" through viewing.

Lastly, the panoramas serve as architectural blueprints for monastery design. Many newly established monasteries seek to trace their lineage to a principal monastery (over 300 monasteries are affiliated with Drepung).

"Panoramic View of Drepung Monastery · Folk Celebrations", late 18th century

Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium

Unlike the *Panoramic Layout of Drepung Monastery* at the Rubin Museum, the *Panoramic View of Drepung Monastery · Folk Celebrations* housed in Belgium's Royal Museums of Art and History clearly reflects differing devotional priorities between Tibetan pilgrims (likely from Amdo) and South Asian pilgrims. Beyond employing traditional Tibetan planar techniques to depict the monastery's structure, this later work incorporates peripheral vignettes showcasing folk customs and daily monastic life.

"Panoramic Layout of Drepung Monastery"

Detail: The Assembly Hall

The Fifth Dalai Lama (Construction: 1642-1654)
Lhazang Khan Period (Reign: 1705-1717)
Most expansions during the Tibetan King Period (Reign: 1728-1747)
The hall features a three-gate, four-story structure
Serves as the political and religious center of Drepung Monastery

Detail: The Ngakpa College

The earliest completed among the four great colleges (1419)
A precious exemplar of 15th-century monastic architecture
Monks completing tantric studies at Ngakpa College
Must proceed to Lhasa's Upper and Lower Tantric Colleges for further training

Detail: Loseling College

The largest of the four great colleges
Under the stewardship of Ling Rinpoche (གླིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་)

Detail: Gomang College and Deyang College

Gomang College gathers monks from four regions
(North Asia - China Proper - Kham - Amdo)
Deyang College (1440) is the smallest of the four great colleges

Detail: The Ganden Podrang Complex

The residence of successive Dalai Lamas
Originally offered to the Second Dalai Lama by the Phagmodru ruler (1518)
Extensively expanded between the Third and Fifth Dalai Lamas
Houses the Ocean of Wisdom Library of successive Dalai Lamas
Served as the Gelug school's political center
(16th century to mid-17th century)