Drepung Monastery:
The Trepung (Drepung) Monastery is one of the 3 biggest monasteries, located on the slope of Mt.Guopei, it is 10 km to the west of Lhasa. The Monastery is so big that it resembles a town. It was built by Zongkaba's disciple Jiangyang Qujie in 146. The Monastery consists of a number of grand halls chambers, and the dalai Lamas'palaes. 190 huge pillars are standing in the Grand Hall of Guoqin which could sit as many as 10,000 lamas. The statue of Buddha Jiangba, said to be unearthed by Zongkaba, is enshrined on the second floor. Also enshrined in the Monastery is the white conch with counter-clockwise spiral believed to be buried by Buddha Sakyamuni's disciple Mujianlianzang. It was later on unearthed by Zongkaba and passed on to jiangyang Qujie. Muslim poems are written on the walls of the Hall. Before he moved to the Potala Palace, the 5th Dalai Lama lived here. The Trepung Monastery used to nourish a lot of scholars of Buddhism in Tibet. |
|