Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་པོ, Wylie: phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po) [1110-1170], was one the three main disciples of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen who established the Dagpo Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism; and a disciple of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo [1092-1158] one of the founders of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the elder brother of Kathog Dampa Deshek [1122-1192], who founded Kathog monastery and the Kathog branch of the Nyingma school.

In 1158 Dorje Gyalpo built a hermitage at Phagmo Drupa ("Sow's Ferry Crossing") in a juniper forest in Nedong (Tibetan: སྣེ་གདོང, Wylie: sne gdong) above the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river valley. Later, as his fame spread and disciples gathered, this site developed into the major monastic seat of Dentsa Thel (Tibetan: གདན་ས་ཐེལ, Wylie: gdan sa thel) which was the center of the Phagmo Drupa or Phagdru Kagyu (Tibetan: ཕག་གྲུ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད) school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the "four great" Dagpo Kagyu schools.

After the death of Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo, his main disciple Jigten Sumgon appointed Chenga Drakpa Jungne as abbot Dentsa Thel. In 1253, when Kublai Khan gave the Sakyapas temporal power in Tibet, Dorje Pel (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ, Wylie: rdo rje dpal) the brother of Chenga Drakpa Jungne was appointed as the hereditary Tripon (myriarch) of the surrounding area of Nedon. From that time on the Tripon who as a monk, assumed the seat of the local government of Nedon and also ruled as abbot at Dentsa Thel. Brothers of the Tripon married in order to perpetuate the family line, succession going from uncle to nephew. As the Tripons of Nedong were abbots of the monastery founded by Phagmo Drupa, and heirarchs of the Phagdru Kagyu tradition they became known as Phagdru (short of Phagmo Drupa) Tripon.

Drupa is the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, held every four years at Messe Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The word Drupa is a portmanteau of the German words druck and papier; print and paper respectively.

390,044 visitors attended Drupa in 2008, and 1,953 exhibitors from 54 countries covered a total of 17.9 hectares of space. The most recent Drupa exhibition was held from May 3 to May 16, 2012.

Thousands of industry experts are usually present, and corporate representation typically includes companies such as Agfa Graphics, Océ N.V., Muller Martini, EIZO (Eizo Nanao Corporation), Hewlett-Packard, Punch Graphix, Flint Group, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, MAN Roland, Kern, Pitney Bowes, Xerox, Kodak, Canon, Transeomedia, DirectSmile, Konica Minolta, Ricoh,Martin Automatic, Siegwerk Inspectron and Koenig & Bauer AG. Several new technologies are typically demonstrated during Drupa.

The official 1986 Drupa theme song was nominated as one of the worst corporate anthems ever by The Register. The song featured a country folk style.