Dalai Lama | |
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ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་ | |
Residence |
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Formation | 1391 |
First holder | Gendün Drubpa, 1st Dalai Lama, posthumously awarded after 1578. |
Website | dalailama |
The Dalai Lama Tulku lineage (UK: /ˈdælaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, US: /ˈdɑːlaɪ/;[1][2] Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) began in the 1430s with the first tulku Gendun Drupa, a student of Tsongkhapa. More than a hundred years later, the title of Dalai Lama was given to the tulku lineage by Altan Khan, the first Mongolian Shunyi King during the Ming dynasty. He offered it in appreciation to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, Sonam Gyatso, who was presented the spiritual title of Dalai Lama in 1578 at Yanghua Monastery.[3] At that time, Sonam Gyatso had just given teachings to the Khan, and thus the spiritual title of Dalai Lama was therefore also given to the entire tulku lineage. Sonam Gyatso became the 3rd Dalai Lama while the first two tulkus in the lineage, the 1st Dalai Lama and the 2nd Dalai Lama, were posthumously awarded the same title.
All tulkus in the lineage of the Dalai Lamas are considered manifestations of the Buddha Avalokiteshvara,[2][1] the bodhisattva of compassion.[4][5]
Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lama has been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet.[6] The Dalai Lama was an important figure of the Geluk tradition, which was dominant in Central Tibet, but his religious authority went beyond sectarian boundaries, representing Buddhist values and traditions above any specific school.[7] The Dalai Lama's traditional function as an ecumenical figure has been taken up by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who has worked to overcome sectarian and other divisions in the exile community and become a symbol of Tibetan nationhood for Tibetans in Tibet and in exile.[8] The 14th and incumbent Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso, who escaped from Lhasa in 1959 during the Tibetan diaspora and lives in exile in Dharamsala, India.
From 1642 and the 5th Dalai Lama until 1951 and the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual roles of tulku lineage was enjoined with the secular role of governing Tibet. During this period, the Dalai Lamas or their Kalons (or regents) led the Tibetan government in Lhasa, known as the Ganden Phodrang. It governed all of the Tibetan Plateau while respecting varying degrees of autonomy.[9] In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama revoked Tibet's Seventeen Point Agreement with China, at which point he legally returned to the secular leadership position of governing Tibet.
As both spiritual and secular leaders, the Dalai Lama tulku lineage also undertook priest and patron relationships with neighbors including Mongolian leaders, kings of the Khoshut, and leaders of the Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720). These relationships occurred simultaneously with the priest and patron relationship between Tibet and the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912),[9] which officially continued until the Collapse of the Qing empire in 1912.
The spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism and, until the establishment of Chinese communist rule, the spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet. Each Dalai Lama is believed to be the reincarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, reappeared in a child when the incumbent Dalai Lama dies
(formerly) the ruler and chief monk of Tibet, believed to be a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara and sought for among newborn children after the death of the preceding Dalai Lama
His mystical legitimacy – of huge importance to the faithful – stems from the belief that the Dalai Lamas are manifestations of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion