“Drepung” literally means ‘rice mound, a name that well describes the first visual impression one receives of the Drepung monastery when approaching it from the main road below.
But this aptly descriptive name is the Tibetan translation of ‘Dhanyakataka’, the Sanskrit name of the magnificent stupa in South India where the Buddha is said to have taught the Kalachakra Tantra.
When the monastery was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choeje Tashi Palden, the foremost disciples of master Tsongkhapa, it probably consisted of only a handful of building. It was yet to resemble a mound of rice.
Drepung soon grew into the largest of all Gelugpa monasteries, housing more than seven thousand monks. It could well claim to have been the largest monastery the world has known.
The Drepung Monastery is the biggest Gelugpa school in Tibet. The highlight of the Drepung monastery is the Shoton Festival.
Every year the Shoton Festival starts from the Drepung monastery displaying the giant Thangka of Buddha.
