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Drigung Monastery is located in Medrogongkar county, and the distance from Lhasa is about 140 kilometres. Kyoppa Jigten Gonpo founded in 1179. He was one of Paltru Dorje Gyalpo, a Disciple of Dakpo Lhaje ( Gompopa). Dakpo Lhaje is the heart spiritual son of the Yogi Milarepa. Even before this, in the eighth century, master Padmasambhava came here and Blessed the location.
It is said that when the founder came here, a mysterious Dri or a Female Yak shouted and walked in a clockwise turn, which he took as a good sign. He then decided to build his monastery here and gave the name Drigung. Gradually this becomes an important learning and meditation centre of Drigung Kagyu, a sub-school of the Kagyupa school of Tibetan Buddhism. It gained a reputation for serious study and practice, attracting many followers from different Tibetan areas, including the later founder of the Gelugpa School, Master Tsongkapa.
Close to the Monastery, there is a famous sky-burial sit or Durtro, which the founder blessed, and many Tibetans hope that their body can be brought here. This is because the master and the monks conduct Powa or the transference of consciousness for the dead. This ritual involves ejecting the dead’s wandering mind into the western Purelandof Buddha Amitabha through the power of Tantric Practice. The ritual practice takes place in the monastery’s main courtyard before the body is taken to the durto; where visitors are usually not allowed.
The monastery includes an assembly hall and other chapels in which enshrines statues of Buddha Shakyamuni, Padmasambhava, Kagyu founders, and the successive Drigung Kagyu Masters. There is also a chapel dedicated to Apchi, the Protector goddess of the Drigung Kagyu School. But the monastery is different from the larger Gelugpa Monasteries around Lhasa because the monks here live in semi Independent lodgings scattered across the hillside instead of in regulated houses.
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