Giuseppe Tucci, the Italian scholar, recorded his first impression of Drak Yerpa in 1949 thus: “Drak Yerpa appeared suddenly before my eyes at a bend of the road, a cascade has small white buildings along steeps, overgrown green cliffs. One could have thought one was not in Tibet. Giant junipers and tufts of rhododendron topped a thick tangle of undergrowth, brushwood, and grass victoriously fighting the hard barrenness rocks. The cliffs were riddled with burrows and caves. Some of which was so high up on the face of the abrupt hill that it would have been risky to climb”.
Yerpa was a village of hermits and recluses who lived on a site sanctified by Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyel, Atisha, and many of the greatest mystics of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Since the seventh century, it has been constantly considered one of Central Tibet’s most sacred sites.
The view from Drak Yerpa is truly spectacular. Immediately before one is the sacred Lhari. a small domed mountain with OM MANI PADME HUM inscribed with white rocks on its lower surface. Beyond, the valley descends to the Kyichu River, and in the far distance, snow-capped mountains line the horizon. Towering almost vertically behind you are the ragged, daunting cliffs dotted with tiny caves.
As you climb up to Drak Yerpa from the village at the end of the valley. the first buildings you reach are the ruins of the summer residence of the Upper Tantric College in Lhasa. The five hundred monks of this college would come up here every summer for about two months and continue studying the tantric doctrines.
The first chapel is the rock-carvings of the triad of Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani. This rock carving was carved during the lifetime of the king’s Tibetan princess. Once you reached this chapel, you can see the whole beautiful views of the monasteries complex. The most important caves are also clearly visible from here. They lie along the base of the cliff about a hundred and fifty meters from the monastery.
To the far left is a tall fissure in the rock face. To the left of this is the tiny cave where Atisha once meditated. The cave is called the Tendrel Lhakhang (Auspicious Chapel).
Continuing to the right, one arrives at the largest cave in this complex, the Jampa Drup Khang (Maitreya Practice Chamber). The chapel is the main assembly hall filled with a seated statue of Maitreya surrounded by the Eight Great Bodhisattvas.
Still further along to the right is the Chogyel Puk (Cave of the Religious King), where Songtsen Gampo is supposed to have meditated.
To the right and slightly below this cave is the chapel enshrined for Lhalung-Paldor. Lhalung Paldor killed king Langdarma in 842 with a well-aimed arrow shot during the performance of an opera in front of the Jokhang temple.
Directly above the cave of Lhalung-Paldor is the Dawa’i Puk (Moon Cave) of master Padmasambhava. This small, low-ceilinged chamber houses the base of Padmasambhava’s throne as well as his footprint set in the rock above the makeshift altar. Higher up the mountain is another cave of Padmasambhava called the Nyima’i Puk (Sun Cave).
