Nechung Temple is only a few minutes walk from Drepung Monastery. The temple can visit either before or after seeing Drepung and is one of the main temples for the state oracle Dorjee Drakden. The Nechung community of monks have always had a special relationship with the deity Dorjee Drakden.
According to history, this deity was first recognised and propitiated in India and initially established the Nechung community near the Border.
However, because of war, it then moved to Samye Monastery, and at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, come to its present site near Drepung Monastery and give it the name ‘Nechung’ (lit: ‘small place’).
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Enter the monastery through a set of doors macabrely painted with human skins and walk through a dark hall before reaching the first two chapels. The chapel to the left is the protector chapel dedicated to Dorjee Drakden.
Apart from the oracle statue, a remnant of a tree stump dates back to the temple’s founding on its present site, and Dorjee Drakden took up residence in this tree. Consequently, the chapel is called the ‘Wrathful Tree-Trunk Chapel’.
Climbing up to the roof, you find a single chapel containing a magnificent statue of Padmasambhava, made in 1981 by a Tibetan sculptor living in Lhasa. It is four meters high, seated form with an angry expression. The Guru is in robes of magnificent, old Chinese brocade.
Next door to Nechung Temple is another complex of monastic schools buildings. Young monks from different parts of Tibet and all four main orders of Tibetan Buddhism come here to study Buddhist philosophy and doctrine, using mainly Gelugpa texts.
There are at present one hundred and twenty monks training here. One can visit the school, but the main chapel-cum-assembly hall beautifully decorated with little that would interest a visitor.
