Formerly the largest monastery in the world, housing 10,000 monks, Drepung is a shadow of its former self with less than 500 monks in residence, leaving a spooky deserted feeling even with pilgrims trotting through the alleyways and courtyards. The Chinese consider it still enough of a threat of Tibetan activism to have built the large police unit in the foreground of the picture, with the PRC flag visible to the left.