Drepung Monastery Zhebang Si

Drepung Monastery is located on a hillside 10km/6mi northwest of Lhasa. It was built in 1416 in the typical Tibetan style by adherents of the Yellow Cap Order (Gelupka) and became the political center of the sect, with four Buddhist seminaries being housed here. The sacred buildings, which can accommodate up to 8000 monks, form the largest Lamaist monastery in Tibet. The burial stupas of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dalai Lamas are to be found here.

To the southwest of the monastery lies the palace, dating from 1530, in which the Dalai Lama resided.

The nearby monastery of Nechong was the seat of the Tibetan state oracle.