Friends of Drepung Gomang Monastery

Khensur Geshe Lharampa Tempa Tenzin ( Abbot of Drepung Monastery )

HISTORY OF DREPUNG GOMANG MONASTERY

Drepung Monastery was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choje near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Gomang is the oldest of the 4 colleges of Drepung. Gomang means "many doors" and this name comes from highly accomplished spiritual masters having deep realizations of emptiness which enabled them to pass through walls with no need for doors.

In 1959, before many monasteries were destroyed through the invasion of Communist China, Drepung monastery had more than 10.000 monks. Gomang alone had about 5.500. Only about 300 monks managed to escape with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They lived first in Buxa, North India,  and then, in 1969, the surviving monks were given some land in Mundgod, South India, where they started to rebuild the Drepung Gomang monastic college in its present location.

From the thousands of monks that originally were in Tibet only 59 made it to South India. 20 of them are still alive today. 2 of them live in the US. One of them is Geshe Kelsang Monlam the co-founder of Friends of Drepung Gomang Monastery.

Gomang college produced many eminent Buddhist masters and scholars like: Kunken Jamyang Shepa, Gungthang Tenpai Dromea and Changkya Rulpai Dorje. Three brothers of His Holiness the 14. Dalai Lama were also monks at Drepung Gomang. One of them is Prof. Thubten Norbu, who heads the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

Gomang has been a very important Tibetan and Buddhist learning center for nearly 600 years. Students have come from all over Tibet, from Mongolia, Russia, India, Nepal and Bhutan. This makes Gomang the largest International Buddhist learning center of Tibetan traditions in exile.