DREPUNG MONASTERY

Its name, which means «mound of rice», comes from the Sanskrit Dhanyakata, which designates the stûpa in southern India where the Buddha taught the Tantra du. It was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Chöjé Tashi Pelden, close disciple of Tsongkhapa, following a meditation vision. With its 10 000 monks, it was the largest monastery in the world. Monks came from Mongolia to study.

The monastery now has barely 400 monks. Also destroyed, his full visit takes more than three hours. From the parking lot, climb on the left to the palace of Ganden, built by the second Dalai Lama. He was the residence of the 3rd, 4 ^th and 5 ^th Dalai-Llamas and the country's administrative centre in the th century. A little higher, we arrive at the Tantric college, whose main figure is Yamantaka. The other protectors are Mahakala, Dorje Drakden and Palden Lhamo, the guardian divinity of the Dalaï. In the large adjoining hall, you can see the face of the Buddha of the future Maitreya in the shape of a child on the floor. Behind, the temple of Manjusri houses a statue of the wisdom Buddha sculpted in the rock surrounding the temple.

On the descent, the college of Loseling, which contains the shrines of the abbots of the monastery, must not fail to visit the kitchen with the huge pots. Besides, we can still see the college of Gomang and that of Deyang in below, to chapels full of statues, whose most venerated are those of Tsongkhapa and his close disciples.