Sonam Gyatso was an abbot at the Drepung Monastery who was considered widely as one of the most eminent lamas of his time.

Later a group consisting of the three major servants of Dalai Lama, eminent officials and troops will collect the boy and his family and travel to Lhasa, where the boy would be taken, usually to Drepung Monastery to study the Buddhist sutra in preparation for assuming the role of spiritual leader of Tibet.

Monks debating in Drepung Monastery

Drepung Monastery in Tibet housed around 10, 000 monks prior to the Chinese invasion .< ref >" Monks under siege in monasteries as protest ends in a hail of gunfire " by Jane Macartney, March 12, 2008 The Sunday Times, < sup ></ sup ></ ref > Today its relocated monastery in India houses around 8, 000.

He was born near Lhasa in 1543 and was recognised as the reincarnation of Gendun Gyatso and subsequently enthroned at Drepung Monastery by Panchen Sonam Dragpa, who became his tutor.

The third Dalai Lama studied at Drepung Monastery and became its abbot.

Dhardo Rinpoche was educated in the traditional Tibetan monastic style, taking his Geshe Degree and graduating at the Lharmapa level at Drepung Monastery, and doing further study at Gyud-med Tantric College.

Ngawang Dorjieff, the envoy, was one of the Buryats, a Lamaist people from the trans-Baikal region of Siberia, who had traveled to Tibet as a youth, studied at Drepung Monastery, been awarded the degree of Lharam Geshe, " Master of Metaphysics, and appointed one of the seven Lharam Geshe teachers of the young 13th Dalai Lama.

It is associated with Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.

In 1826, he was enrolled at Drepung Monastery and mastered both sutra and tantra.

* Video of Sand Mandala deconstruction ritual by the Drepung Loseling Monastery monks

Dorje Shugden is regarded as the incarnation of Gelugpa Lama Dragpa Gyaltsen of Drepung Monastery, a contemporary of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

He began studies at Drepung Monastery, where he was a student of the Fourth Panchen Lama Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, and in 1614 he received the full ordination of a monk from him.

He remained at Tashilhunpo until he was 16 or 17 but, then, due to " some controversies or jealousy " he had to leave the monastery and went to Lhasa to study at Drepung Monastery.

The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery.

Kunkhyen Lodroe Rinchen Senge initially served as a teacher in the Drepung Monastery before he formed the Sera Jey.

The tradition of conducting debates in the Gelukpa tradition was set in many monasteries of the Gelukpa sect, namely the Ganden Monastery, the Sera Monastery, the Drepung Monastery and the JIC, not only in pre-modern Tibet but also in other similar monasteries established in exile, such as in Sera, India.

( The other two ' great monasteries ' are Sera Monastery and Drepung Monastery.

Gendun Gyatso was also Sonam Gyatso's predecessor as abbot of Drepung monastery.

The 11th tulku rose to the Abbot of Drepung and during the 1912 invasion of Tibet by China was the most senior of the retired abbots in the National Assembly.

In response to his request, the Buddha taught the first Kālachakra root tantra in Dhanyakataka ( Palden Drepung in Tibetan, near present day Amaravati ), a small town in Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India, supposedly bilocating ( appearing in two places at once ) at the same time as he was also delivering the Prajnaparamita sutras at Vulture Peak Mountain in Bihar.

When the mission reached Lhasa, the Dalai Lama had already fled to Urga in Mongolia, but a treaty was signed by lay and ecclesasiastical officials of the Tibetan government, and by representatives of the three monasteries of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden.

When he was twenty-one warriors attacked Drepung monastery and Yonten Gyatso had to flee.

He was a renowned scholar and composer of mystical poetry, who traveled widely to extend Gelugpa influence, and became abbot of the largest Gelugpa monastery, Drepung, which from this time on was closely associated with the Dalai Lamas.

In 1517 he became abbot of Drepung monastery-both monasteries had been founded by Pema Dorje / Gendun Drup-and he revived the ' Great Prayer Festival ' or Monlam Chenmo in 1518, presiding over the celebration with monks from the three large Gelug monasteries of Sera, Drepung and Gaden ( Ganden was the original monastery of the Geluk order, founded by Je Tsongkhapa himself in 1409 ).

Freddie Spencer Chapman reported, after his 1936-37 trip to Tibet, that Drepung was at that time the largest monastery in the world, and housed 7, 700 monks, " but sometimes as many as 10, 000 monks.

Drepung was the principal seat of the Gelugpa school and it retained the premier place amongst the four great Gelugpa monasteries.

The Ganden Podang ( dga ´ ldan pho brang ) in Drepung was the residence of the Dalai Lamas until the Great Fifth Dalai Lama constructed the Potala. Drepung was known for the high standards of its academic study, and was called the Nalanda of Tibet, a reference to the great Buddhist monastic university of India.

Gendun Drubpa founded two major monasteries: Drepung and Tashillhunpo.

They also saw the birth of the Gelugpa school ( also known as Yellow Hats ) by the disciples of Tsongkhapa Lobsang Dragpa, and the founding of the Ganden, Drepung, and Sera monasteries near Lhasa.

The estate of the Dalai Lamas at Drepung monastery, called Ganden Phodrang, had been constructed in 1518 by Gendun Gyatso Palzangpo ( 1476 – 1541 ), retrospectively named and counted as 2nd Dalai Lama.

Chapman reported that in the late 1930s Drepung was divided into four colleges, each housing monks from a different locality: " one being favoured by Khampas, another by Mongolians, and so on.

The Ganden-Phodrang-Palace situated at Drepung Monastery was constructed by the 2nd Dalai Lama in 1518 and declared his chief residence / governmental palace until the inauguration of Potala Palace by the 5th Dalai Lama.

Drepung monastery was shut by Chinese authorities on 14 March 2008, after monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent and businesses, shops and vehicles were looted and torched.

* Drepung: An Introduction by Georges Dreyfus ( April 10, 2006 )

Yonten Gyatso became the abbot of Drepung and, later, Sera monasteries.

Since the 1950s, Drepung Monastery, along with its peers Ganden and Sera, have lost much of their independence and spiritual credibility in the eyes of Tibetans since they operate under the close watch of the Chinese security services.

Drepung and Ganden are in Mundgod and Sera is in Bylakuppe.

Penchen Sönam Drakpa ( 1478-1554 CE ) in 1535 succeeded Gendün Gyatso ( 1476 – 1541 ) on the Throne of Drepung, both of them being major figures in the history of the Geluk tradition.

The fifth Dalai lama initiated the construction of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and moved the centre of government there from Drepung.

He is a tulku, an incarnate lama, of Drepung Monastic University, where he received the scholastic degree of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree given, at an exceptionally young age.

Because this great guardian of the teachings is well known to be the precious supreme emanation from Drepung monastery's upper house, Dragpa Gyaltsen, arising in a wrathful aspect.

According to the official website of the TGIE, he lauded the bold initiative of Tibetan monastic communities in their resolve to end the Dolgyal ( Shugden ) worship, following the long life offering to the Dalai Lama held at Drepung monastery in south India in February.

his great guardian of the teachings is well known to be the precious supreme emanation from Drepung monastery's upper house, Dragpa Gyaltsen, arising in a wrathful aspect.