Drepung

The monastery of Drepung or Drépoung located at the foot of the Gephel mount, is one of the " three grandes" monastic university Gelugpa of the Tibet. Drepung means " heap of riz" , translation in Tibetan of his equivalent Sanskrit. The two others are Ganden and Séra.

History of the monastery of Drepung to Tibet

Drepung is largest of all the monasteries Tibetans, and indeed with its apogee was the largest monastery in the world. It was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Chojey, a direct disciple of I Tsongkhapa, the founder of the school of Gelugpa. 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dalaï Lama was buried in Drepung. It is as in Drepung as the 5th Dalaï Lama is established before settling with the Potala of which it ordered construction for the administration of the State Tibetan. Drepung is located on the mountain of Gambo Utse, with 5 kilometers in the west of Lhassa. With its apogee, before the Chinese invasion of the Tibet in 1959, the monastery placed fifteen thousand monks. It is known for the elevated levels of its academic works, and is called the " Nalanda " of Tibet, a reference to the large Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, in India.

Drepung is divided into seven large universities - Gomang, Loseling, Deyang, Shagkor, Gyelwa or Tosamling, Dulwa, and Ngagpa. By analogy, Drepung is like a university comparable with Oxford or the Sorbonne, the various universities having different emphases, lines of teaching, or geographical affiliations traditional.

Drepung is near the monastery of Nechung, the oracle of State of Tibet, medium by the intermediary of which Dorjé Drakden is expressed, guard of the Tibet and the Gouvernement Tibetan, who is nowadays with Dharamsala where a small temple was built and shelters current the Nechung.

Today the population with the monastery located in the Tibet is much more restricted with simply a few hundreds of monks, due to the restriction of the monastic population imposed by the Chinese government which controls the monasteries Tibetans severely. Thus, intensification of the " rehabilitation patriotique" campaign; , requiring monks Tibetans whom they denounce the Dalaï Lama, was at the origin of strong tension end 2005. According to the Center Tibetan for the human rights and the democracy, TCHRD, in October and November 2005, official Chinese led a patriotic education campaign “” to the monastery. November 23rd, 2005, the monks refused to denounce the Dalaï Lama like “separatist”. Five of them were expelled of the monastery, and were imprisoned. November 25th, more than 400 monks sat down in the court of the monastery, expressing their solidarity. A quota of Chinese soldiers then invested the monastery, severely beaten the monks who resisted, and founded a blockade. Two monks would have died, seventy would have been beaten and imprisoned. After the handing-over of Gold medal of the American Congress to the 14th dalaï LAMA, the monks of Drepung and Nechung wanted celebrated the event. They ran up against 3000 Chinese police officers of the army of the people during 4 days, and of many monks were wounded and stopped.,

Réétablissment de Drepung in India

However the establishment continued its tradition in exile in India of the south, and was relocated in the Karnataka in a space given to the community Tibetan in exile by the Prime Minister Nehru. The monastery in India cabin today more than five thousand monks, with 3000 in Drepung Loseling and 2000 in Drepung Gomang. Hundreds of new monks are allowed every year, good number of them are refugees of Tibet.

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