The Drepung Monastery（Chinese:哲蚌寺；pinyin:zhébàngsì) sits at the foot of the Gambo Utse mountain in the western suburb of the Lhasa city and spreads over an area of 250,000 square meters. It is considered one of the 'Three Great Monasteries' (the other two are the Ganden Monastery and the Sera Monastery). It held 7,700 monks in total and possessed 141 fazendas and 540 pastures in its heyday, and is the largest-scale monastery among the ones of the same kind. A white structure, it lines up row upon row and when seen from afar, gives an impression of huge heap of rice. This is what gives the monastery its name, Drepung, which in Tibet means heap of rice. It was built by the disciples of Tsongkhapa, the forefather of the Shamanism in 1416.

In the Drepung Monastery the most important structure are the Cuoqin mansion, the four storehouses, Gandanpozhang Palace and more than 50 monks' villages. The Cuoqin Palace with great scale lies in the middle of the monastery, covering an area of over 4,500 square meters. There are 183 pillars in the palace.

The Drepung Palace plays a decisive role in the municipal administration of Lhasa, because Tibet is an autonomous region there, they combined the laws of politics and religion.

The most important festival of the Drepung Monastery is the Shoton Festival. On this day, a number of Buddhist devouts gather at the monastery to have a glimpse of the 20 m wide and 30 m long thangka of the Sakyamuni Buddha in the morning. The unveling ceremony is followed by Tibetan Opera.