Dalai Lama

Note: This article is about the institution and office of the Dalai Lama. For information on the current 14th Dalai Lama see Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

File:8thDalaiLama.jpg

There have been numerous Dalai Lamas throughout history. Depicted here is the Eight Dalai Lama, Jamphel Gyatso, who reigned from 1786-1804.

The Dalai Lama (meaning "Ocean of Wisdom") is an institution of great importance in Tibetan Buddhism, whose incumbant is considered to be the spiritual figurehead of the Tibetan people. In addition to his supreme religious and temporal authority, the Dalai Lama is also widely revered as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara ("Chenrezig" in Tibetan), known as the embodiment of compassion. All four schools of Tibetan Buddhism respect the Dalai Lama, although he is especially important within the Gelug sect.

Historically, the title of the Dalai Lama was intoduced in 1578 C.E. when Altan Khan of the Mongols bestowed it upon Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588), the third leader of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, commonly called the Yellow Hat sect. The title was then retroactively given to his two predecessors dating back to 1391 C.E. Ever since that time, it is believed that the institution of the Dalai Lama has been maintained through a successive lineage of reborn Tulkus. Between the 17th century and 1959, the Dalai Lama was the head of the Tibetan government, administering a large portion of the country from the capital of Lhasa. Since 1959, however, the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has lived in exile from his homeland due to the Chinese takeover of the country. It should be noted that the institution of the Dalai Lama is much older than the current incumbent of the position, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama won the Noble Peace Prize for his efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He is viewed by many as a voice of peace, dialogue, and reason in our modern world. Thus the office of the Dalai Lama commands a great deal of respect and admiration among millions of Buddhists and non-Buddhist alike. While the Dalai Lama is deeply respected today, some of the position's former incumbents were conspicious for their worldly habits, and the position has not been without controversy, power struggles, and political intreague.

History

The word "Dalai" means "Ocean" (in Mongolian) while "Lama" means "spiritual teacher". Together these words mean "Ocean of Wisdom." This title was first used in 1578 when the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan conferred it upon Sonam Gyatso, abbot at the Drepung monastery. However, since Sonam Gyatso was the third member of his lineage, he became known as the "Third Dalai Lama" and the previous two titles were conferred posthumously upon his earlier incarnations. Consequently, the history of the Dalai Lama goes back to Gendun Drup (1391 – 1474) who was posthumously called the first Dalai Lama.

Gendun Drup (born Pema Dorje) was the son of nomadic tribespeople, and was raised as a shepherd until the age of seven. He joined the Nartang (Nar-thang) monastery as a student of Tsongkhapa, and by the middle of his life he had become one of the most esteemed scholar-saints in the country. Some of the most famous texts attributed to Gendun Drup are:

• Sunlight on the Path to Freedom (a commentary on Abhidharma-kosha)
• Crushing the Forces of Evil to Dust (an epic poem on the life and liberating deeds of Buddha Shakyamuni)
• Song of the Eastern Snow Mountain (a poem dedicated to Je Tsongkhapa (Btsong-ka-pa))
• Praise of the Venerable Lady Khadiravani Tara (an homage to the Goddess Tara)

The second retroactive Dalai Lama was Gendun Gyatso Palzangpo (Wylie transliteration: Dge-'dun Rgya-mtsho), also Gendun Gyatso ("Sublimely Glorious Ocean of Spiritual Aspirants," layname: Yonten Phuntsok) (1475 – 1541). He was proclaimed the reincarnation of Gendun Drup as a young boy.

Legend has it that soon after he learned to speak, Gendun Gyatso told his parents his name was Pema Dorje, the birth name of the first Dalai Lama. Later, when he was four, he reportedly told his parents he wished to live in the Tashilhumpo monastery to be with his monks. He became a renowned scholar and composer of mystical poetry, who traveled widely to extend Gelugpa influence, and became abbot of the largest Gelugpa monastery, Drepung, which from this time on was closely associated with the Dalai Lamas.

The Third Dalai Lama (and the first officially recoognized Dala Lama) was Sonam Gyatso (1543 – 1588), a monk of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) school of Buddhism. He found a foreign patron for his school in the Altan Khan of Tümed, who issued a Twofold Edict, ordering Mongols to follow orthodox Buddhism, and bestowing on Sonam Gyatso the title "Dalai Lama."

The alliance with the Mongols would later prove instrumental in establishing the Gelukpa as the rulers of Tibet during the reign of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama.

The fourth Dalai Lama was Yonten Gyatso (1589 – 1616), the grandson of Altan Khan. Yonten Gyatso was a Mongolian, making him the only non-Tibetan to be recognized as Dalai Lama. He was a contemporary and student of the First Panchen Lama Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen.

The fifth Dalai Lama. Lobsang Gyatso (Wylie transliteration: Blo-bzang Rgya-mtsho) (1617-1682) was the first Dalai Lama to wield effective political power over central Tibet. He unified Tibet under the control of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, after defeating the rival Kagyu and Jonang sects and the secular ruler, the prince of Shang, in a prolonged civil war. His efforts were successful in part because of aid from Gushi Khan, a powerful Oirat military leader, the Mongol ruler of Khökh Nuur. The Jonang monasteries were either closed or forcibly converted, and that school remained in hiding until the latter part of the 20th century.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa

The fifth Dalai Lama also initiated the construction of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and moved the center of government there from Drepung. During his rule, the first Europeans visited Tibet. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johannes Gruber and Albert D'Orville, reached Lhasa in 1661. However, they failed to win any Tibetan converts to Christianity. In 1652, the fifth Dalai Lama visited the Manchu emperor, Shunzhi.

The death of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1680 was kept hidden for 15 years by his assistant, confidant, and possibly son Desi Sangay Gyatso (De-srid Sangs-rgyas Rgya-'mtsho).

The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, (1683–1706) enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs. Declaring him to be unworthy as a monk, Mongol leader Lha-bzang Khan invaded Tibet with the approval of China's Kangxi emperor in 1705. The sixth Dalai Lama died soon afterwards, possibly murdered. Tibetans angrily rejected the spurious Dalai Lama candidate that Lha-bzang brought with him and turned to the Dzungar (or Oyrat) Mongols for relief. The Dzungars defeated and killed Lha-bzang, but then proceeded to sack Lhasa and loot the tomb of the fifth Dalai Lama. They stayed until a Chinese expedition expelled them in 1720. The Chinese were hailed as liberators and patrons of Kelzang Gyatso, who they installed as the seventh Dalai Lama. Following the Qing withdrawal from central Tibet in 1723, there was a period of civil war. Amdo, meanwhile, was declared a Chinese territory under the name Koko Nor (blue lake). (This became the province of Qinghai in 1929.)

Pho-lha-nas ruled Tibet with Chinese support in 1728-47. He moved the Dalai Lama from Lhasa to Litang to make it more difficult for him to influence the government. After Pho-lha-nas died, his son ruled until he was killed by the ambans in 1750. This provoked riots during which the ambans were killed. A Chinese army entered the country and restored order. In 1751, the Qianlong emperor issued a 13-point decree which abolished the position of regent (desi), put the Tibetan government in the hands of a four-man kashag, or council of ministers, and gave the ambans formal powers. The Dalai Lama moved back to Lhasa to preside over the new government.

In 1792, the Qianlong Emperor outlined a new method to select the Dalai Lama by means of a lottery. The names of the competing candidates were written on folded slips of paper which were placed in a golden urn. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth Dalai Lamas were selected by the golden urn method. The ninth, thirteen, and fourteenth Dalai Lamas, however, were selected by the previous incarnation's entourage, or labrang, with the selection being approved after the fact by Beijing.

In 1910, the Qing government sent a military expedition of its own to establish direct Chinese rule and deposed the Dalai Lama in an imperial edict. The Dalai Lama fled to India. In early 1913, the Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa and issued a proclamation that condemned, "The Chinese intention of colonizing Tibet under the patron-priest relationship" and stated that, "We are a small, religious, and independent nation."

The Dalai Lamas continued to rule Tibet until the People's Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. By the mid-1950s there was unrest in eastern Kham and Amdo, where land reform had been implemented. These rebellions eventually spread into western Kham and Ü-Tsang. In 1959 (at the time of the Great Leap Forward in China), the Chinese authorities treated the Dalai Lama, by now an adult, with open impiety. In some parts of the country Chinese Communists tried to establish rural communes, as was happening in the whole of China. These events triggered riots in Lhasa, and then a full-scale rebellion occurred. The resistance in Lhasa was soon crushed, and the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India.

File:Tenzin Gyatzo foto 2.jpg

The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935).

List of Dalai Lamas

There have been 14 Dalai Lamas:

	Name	Lifespan	Reign	Tibetan/Wylie	PRC transcription	Other English spelling(s)
.1	Gendun Drup	1391–1474		དྒེ་འདུན་འགྲུབ་ dge ‘dun ‘grub	Gêdün Chub	Gedun Drub, Gedün Drup, Gendun Drup
.2	Gendun Gyatso	1475–1541		དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ dge ‘dun rgya mtsho	Gêdün Gyaco	Gedün Gyatso, Gendün Gyatso
3.	Sonam Gyatso	1543–1588	1578–1588	བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bsod nams rgya mtsho	Soinam Gyaco	Sönam Gyatso
4.	Yonten Gyatso	1589–1616		ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ yon tan rgya mtsho	Yoindain Gyaco	Yontan Gyatso
5.	Lobsang Gyatso	1617–1682	1642–1682	བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ blo bzang rgya mtsho	Lobsang Gyaco	Lobzang Gyatso, Lopsang Gyatso
6.	Tsangyang Gyatso	1683–1706	?–1706	ཚང་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ tshang dbyangs rgya mtsho	Cangyang Gyaco
7.	Kelzang Gyatso	1708–1757	1751–1757	བསྐལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bskal bzang rgya mtsho	Gaisang Gyaco	Kelsang Gyatso, Kalsang Gyatso
8.	Jamphel Gyatso	1758–1804	1786–1804	བྱམས་སྤེལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ byams spel rgya mtsho	Qambê Gyaco	Jampel Gyatso, Jampal Gyatso
9.	Lungtok Gyatso	1806–1815	(1808–1815)	ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ lung rtogs rgya mtsho	Lungdog Gyaco	Lungtog Gyatso
10.	Tsultrim Gyatso	1816–1837		ཚུལ་ཁྲིམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ tshul khrim rgya mtsho	Cüchim Gyaco	Tshültrim Gyatso
11.	Khendrup Gyatso	1838–1856	1844–1856	མཁས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ mkhas grub rgya mtsho	Kaichub Gyaco	Kedrub Gyatso
12.	Trinley Gyatso	1857–1875		འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ ‘phrin las rgya mtsho	Chinlai Gyaco	Trinle Gyatso
13.	Thubten Gyatso	1876–1933		ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ thub bstan rgya mtsho	Tubdain Gyaco	Thubtan Gyatso, Thupten Gyatso
14.	Tenzin Gyatso	1935–present	1950–present (currently in exile)	བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho	Dainzin Gyaco

Epithets

The title "Dalai Lama" is usually translated as meaning "Ocean of Wisdom." In addition to this title, the Dalai Lama is also called Gyalwa Rinpoche (Rgyal-ba Rin-po-che) meaning "Precious Victor," and Yishin Norbu (Yid-bzhin Nor-bu) meaning "Wish-fulfilling Jewel." In English, the words "His Holiness" (H.H.) are often placed before his title.

Residence

Potala Palace.

Starting with the 5th Dalai Lama and until the 14th Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959, the Dalai Lamas resided during winter at the Potala Palace, and in the summer at the Norbulingka palace. Both residences are located in Lhasa, Tibet, approximately three km apart. In 1959, subsequent to the then ongoing Chinese occupation of Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge within India. The then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was instrumental in granting safe refuge to the Dalai Lama and his fellow Tibetans. The Dalai Lama has since been living in exile in Dharamsala, where the Central Tibetan Administration (Government in Exile) is also established. Tibetan refugees have constructed and opened many schools and Buddhist temples in Dharamsala.

The future of the Dalai Lama

Throne awaiting Dalai Lama's return. Summer residence of 13th Dalai Lama, Nechung, Tibet.

Upon the death of the Dalai Lama, his monks institute a search for the Lama's reincarnation, or yangsi (yang srid), a small child. Familiarity with the possessions of the previous Dalai Lama is considered the main sign of the reincarnation. The search for the reincarnation typically requires a few years. The reincarnation is then brought to Lhasa to be trained by the other Lamas.

Despite its officially secular stance, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has claimed the power to approve the naming of high reincarnations in Tibet. This decision cites a precedent set by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who instituted a system of selecting the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama by means of a lottery that utilised a golden urn with names wrapped in barley balls. Controversially, this precedent was called upon by the PRC to name their own Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama and the majority of Tibetan Buddhists in exile do not regard this to be the legitimate Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama has recognized a different child, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the reincarnated Panchen Lama. This child and his family have been taken into 'protective custody' according to the PRC, and all attempts to garner guarantees of the family's safety have been denied by the PRC. There is some speculation that with the death of the current Dalai Lama, the People's Republic of China will attempt to direct the selection of a successor, using the authority of their chosen Panchen Lama.

The current Dalai Lama has repeatedly stated that he will never be reborn inside territory controlled by the People's Republic of China, and has occasionally suggested that he might choose to be the last Dalai Lama by not being reborn at all. However, he has also stated that the purpose of his repeated incarnations is to continue unfinished work and, as such, if the situation in Tibet remains unchanged, it is very likely that he will be reborn to finish his work.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Beckwith, Christopher I (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02469-3
• Goldstein, Melvyn C. The Snow Lion and the Dragon China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999 ISBN 9780585087030
• Goldstein, Melvyn C., with the help of Gelek Rimpche. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers (1993). ISBN 81-215-0582-8; University of California edition (1991). ISBN 0-520-07590-0
• Laird, Thomas, and Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho. The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama. NY: Grove Press, 2006 ISBN 9780802118271
• Marcello, Patricia Cronin. The Dalai Lama: A Biography. Greenwood biographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003 ISBN 9780313322075
• Mullin, Glenn H. (translator). Essence of Refined Gold by the Third Dalai Lama: with related texts by the Second and Seventh Dalai Lamas. (1978) Tushita Books, Dharamsala, H.P., India.
• Perez, Louis G. The Dalai Lama. Rourke Biographies. Vero Beach, Fla: Rourke Publications, 1993. ISBN 9780866254809
• Piburn, Sidney. The Dalai Lama, a Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and About the Dalai Lama. Ithaca, N.Y., USA: Snow Lion Publications, 1990. ISBN 9780937938911
• Shakya, Tsering,The Dragon in the Land of Snows : A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 Penguin, (2000) paperback, 608 pages, ISBN 0-14-019615-3
• Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain (1997). The Historical Status of China's Tibet. China Intercontinental Press. ISBN 7-80113-304-8. 

External links

• The official site of the current Dalai Lama Retrieved Aug. 3, 2007.
• Namgyal - The official site of the current Dalai Lama's personal monastery in Ithaca NY USA Retrieved Aug 3, 2007.
• The 13 Previous Dalai Lamas Retrieved Aug 3, 2007.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Dalai_Lama  ^history
• History_of_Tibet  ^history
• Gendun_Drup,_1st_Dalai_Lama  ^history
• Gendun_Gyatso,_2nd_Dalai_Lama  ^history
• Sonam_Gyatso,_3rd_Dalai_Lama  ^history
• Yonten_Gyatso,_4th_Dalai_Lama  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Dalai Lama"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.