Dalai Lama
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This article describes the Dalai Lama lineage. For information on the 14th and current Dalai Lama, see Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama. For the song, see Dalai Lama (song).
In Tibetan Buddhism, the successive Dalai Lamas (Tibetan: ཏ་ཱལའི་བླ་མ་; Wylie: Taa-la’i Bla-ma; Simplified Chinese: 达赖喇嘛; Traditional Chinese: 達賴喇嘛; pinyin: Dálài Lǎmā) form a lineage of allegedly reborn (tulku) magistrates which traces back to 1391. They are of the Gelug sect of Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama to be one of innumerable incarnations of Avalokiteśvara ("Chenrezig" [spyan ras gzigs] in Tibetan), the bodhisattva of compassion.[1] 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 Lhasa. The Dalai Lama is considered the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism, and the leaders of all four schools consider the Dalai Lama to be the highest lama of the Tibetan traditions. He is often styled "His Holiness" (HH) before his title.
The Dalai Lama is often thought to be the head of the Gelug sect, but this position officially belongs to the Ganden Tripa (Wylie: Dga'-ldan Khri-pa). Tibetans call the Dalai Lama Gyalwa Rinpoche (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་; Wylie: Rgyal-ba Rin-po-che) meaning "Precious Victor," or Yishin Norbu (Tibetan: ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་; Wylie: Yid-bzhin Nor-bu) meaning "Wish-fulfilling Jewel".
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History
"Dalai" means "ocean" in Mongolian, and "Lama" (bla ma) is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word "guru", and is commonly translated to mean "spiritual teacher".[2] The actual title was first bestowed by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan upon Sonam Gyatso in 1578. He was an abbot at the Drepung monastery who was widely considered the most eminent lama of his time. Although Sonam Gyatso became the first lama to hold the title "Dalai Lama", due to the fact that he was the third member of his lineage, he became known as the "3rd Dalai Lama". The previous two titles were conferred posthumously upon his earlier incarnations. Five Dalai Lamas were murdered by their Buddhist courtiers within 170 years.[3]
The 5th Dalai Lama, with the support of Gushri Khan, a Mongol ruler of Khökh Nuur, united Tibet. The Dalai Lamas continued to partially rule in Tibet with, to some extent, autonomic power given by contemporary Chinese governments, until the People's Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama then fled to India and has since ceded temporal power to an elected government-in-exile. The current 14th Dalai Lama seeks greater autonomy for Tibet.
Succession of reborn Dalai Lamas
The title "Dalai Lama" is presently granted to each of the spiritual leader's successive incarnations (for example, The 14th Dalai Lama's next incarnation will hold the title "the 15th Dalai Lama").
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.
 1st Dalai Lama, Genden Drub 1391-1474 |  2nd Dalai Lama, Genden Gyatso 1475-1541 |  3rd Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso 1543–1588 |  4th Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso, 1589-1616 |
 5th Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso 1617-1682 |  6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso 1683-1706 |  7th Dalai Lama,Kelzang Gyatso, 1708-1757. |  8th Dalai Lama, Jamphel Gyatso 1758-1804 |
 9th Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso 1806-1815 |  10th Dalai Lama , Tsultrim Gyatso 1816-1837 |  11th Dalai Lama , Khendrup Gyatso 1838–1856 |  12th Dalai Lama, Trinley Gyatso 1857–1875 |
| 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso 1876-1933 |  14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso 1935- |
The future of the Dalai Lama
Despite its officially secular stance, the government of the People's Republic of China 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 which 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, Gendan 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 by members of the EU parliament and US government 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[4], 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.[5] Additionally, in the draft constitution of future Tibet, the institution of the Dalai Lama can be revoked at any time by a democratic majority vote of two-thirds of the Assembly. The 14th Dalai Lama has stated, "Personally, I feel the institution of the Dalai Lama has served its purpose."[5]
Residence
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 and park. Both residences are located in Lhasa, Tibet, approximately 3 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 in refuge in Dharamsala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, where the Central Tibetan Administration (The Tibetan Government in Exile) is also established. Tibetan refugees have constructed and opened many schools and Buddhist temples[citation needed] in Dharamsala.
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 | ?[6] | དྒེ་འདུན་འགྲུབ་ dge ‘dun ‘grub | Gêdün Chub | Gedun Drub, Gedün Drup, Gendun Drup |
| 2. | Gendun Gyatso | 1475–1541 | ?[6] | 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)[6] | 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 |
See also
Notes
- ^ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.
- ^ Art Hughes. "The Thirteen Previous Dalai Lamas", Part of MPR's special report, Ocean of Wisdom: The Dalai Lama's Visit, Minnesota Public Radio, May 7, 2001.
- ^ Parenti, Michael (2003). Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth.
- ^ "Dalai's reincarnation will not be found under Chinese control", The Indian Express, Tibetan Government in Exile, 1999-07-06. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
- ^ a b Questions & Answers, The Website of The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
- ^ a b c The title "Dalai Lama" was conferred posthumously to the first and second Dalai Lamas. The 9th Dalai Lama was officially enthroned, but never reigned.
References
- Yá Hánzhāng 牙含章: The Biographies of the Dalai Lamas (Dálài Lǎmá chuán 达赖喇嘛传; Beijing, Foreign Languages Press 1993); ISBN 7-119-01267-3.
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