The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso () (1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles.
He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being the key religious and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet. He is credited with unifying all of Tibet under the Ganden Phodrang, after Gushri Khan's successful military interventions.
As an independent head of state, he established priest and patron relations with both Mongolia and the Qing dynasty simultaneously,Gangchen Khishong, Tibet and Manchu: An Assessment of Tibet-Manchu Relations in Five Phases of Historical Development. Dharmsala: Narthang Press, 2001, p.1-70. and had positive relations with other neighboring countries.
He began the custom of meeting early European explorers.
The 5th Dalai Lama built the Potala Palace, and also wrote 24 volumes' worth of scholarly and religious works on a wide range of subjects.
Early life To understand the context within which the Dalai Lama institution came to hold temporal power in Tibet during the lifetime of the 5th, it may be helpful to review not just the early life of Lobsang Gyatso but also the world into which he was born, as Künga Migyur.
Künga Migyur's family The child who would become His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama was born in the Chonggye Valley in Ü, south of the Yarlung Tsangpo RiverKarmay 2014, pp.39–41 and about two days' journey south-east of Lhasa,Bell 1946, p.43 to a prominent family of nobles with traditional ties to both Nyingma and Kagyu lineages.Karmay 2014, p.43
The aristocratic Zahor family into which he was born had held their seat since the 14th century at Taktsé Castle, south of Lhasa – a legendary stronghold of Tibetan kings in the days of the early empire, before Songtsen Gampo (604–650 CE) had moved his capital from there to Lhasa.
Parents and naming His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama's father was called Dudul Rabten, the local ruler of the Chonggye valley,Karmay 2014, p.41 also known as Hor Dudül Dorjé.Shakabpa 2010, p.327 et seq. His mother was called Tricham,Karmay 2014, p.42 Kunga LhadzeKarmay 2009, p.506 or Kunga Lhanzi.
His father had friendly relations with the Drugpa Kagyu and his mother had connections with the Jonangpa Kagyu through her family at Nakartse Dzong.
Thus, after his birth on the 22nd day of the 9th month of the Fire-snake year (late 1617),Karmay 2014, p.39 Taranatha, the most remarkable scholar and exponent of the Jonang school (a.k.a. Tagten Tulku, a.k.a. Kunga Nyingpo),Karmay 2014, p.9 named the child "Künga Migyur Tobgyal Wanggi Gyalpo."Karmay 2014, p.40 His family called him "Künga Migyur."
Künga Migyur's childhood
The child's father, Dudul Rabten, was arrested in 1618 for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Karma Phuntsok Namgyal, leader of the Tsang hegemony. Karma Phuntsok's grandfather Zhingshak Tseten Dorje (also known as Karma Tseten) had originally been appointed Governor of Tsang by the Rinpung Prime Minister Ngawang Namgyel in 1548.
Tseten Dorje had rebelled against the heirs of Ngawang Namgyel starting in 1557, eventually overthrowing the Rinpung and establishing the Tsang hegemony in 1565 by declaring himself King of Tsang. Tseten Dorje established his residence at Samdruptse castle, also called Shigatse, near the Gelug monastery of Tashilhunpo, and together with his nine sons, eventually extended the reach of his power over both of Tibet's central provinces of Ü and Tsang.
The secular government of King Tseten Dorje and his descendants enjoyed general support from the Sakya, Jonang, and Kagyu schools, while maintaining somewhat tense but cordial relations with his Gelug neighbours at Tashilhunpo.
Then Altan Khan, King of the Tumed Mongols, invited Drepung Monastery's abbot Sonam Gyatso to Mongolia. In 1577–78 Sonam Gyatso accepted, went there and converted him and his subjects to Buddhism, receiving the Mongolian name "Dalai" in the process by which action his lineage became known as the "Dalai Lamas" and he became the 3rd Dalai Lama.
His two predecessors became known as the 1st and 2nd Dalai Lamas posthumously.
The Samdruptse government saw this development as a politico-religious alliance between the Gelugpa and a foreign power.
When Sonam Gyatso died, the Gelugpa recognised a Mongolian prince as his incarnation and so a Mongolian 4th Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso (1589–1617), was installed as the abbot of Drepung. This increased Mongolian involvement with the Gelugpa even further and enabled more Mongolian intervention in Tibetan affairs.
As a result, King Tseten Dorje's suspicions about Gelugpa ambitions rose and when in 1616 the 4th Dalai Lama died young, at the age of 28, in an attempt to defeat the identification process, the King prohibited the Gelugpa monks from searching for his incarnation.
Dudul Rabten's arrest occurred at roughly the same time that his infant son had been recognized, in secret, by lamas of the Gelug order as the reincarnation of the 4th Dalai Lama, while Tashilhunpo's abbot Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen used diplomacy to persuade King Karma Phuntsok Namgyal to lift the ban he'd put in place on seeking out the 5th Dalai Lama. Dudul Rabten escaped his captors and tried to reach eastern Tibet, but was rearrested. Dudul Rabten died in captivity in 1626 at Samdruptse – Karma Phuntsok Namgyal's castle also known as Shigatse – and thus, he never lived to see his son again.
The young 5th Dalai Lama's family were ordered by Karma Phuntsok Namgyal to live at court in Samdruptse, but his mother, Kunga Lhanzi, fearing retribution from the king, returned with her son to her family's home, Narkatse castle, in Yardrog.
Künga Migyur's recognition The infant Künga Migyur's name had been drawn, by lot, from among the names of three children considered likely candidates in a series of divination rituals including a doughball divinationMullin 2001, pp.190–191 which was held in secret (on account of king Karma Phuntsok Namgyal's prohibition against seeking the 4th Dalai Lama's reincarnation) at Radeng monastery. The former 4th Dalai Lama's chief attendant, Sonam Choephel (1595–1658),Karmay 2014, p.365 (date of death) is credited with having discovered the incarnation.
While the Karma, Drugpa and Jonangpa Kagyu orders, (beside the Gelug group from Drepung monastery) had all independently sought to claim Künga Migyur as a reincarnation of one or another of their own lamas who'd also died in 1616, young Künga Migyur's parents reportedly resisted their demands.
Monastic life
Ordination Lobsang Gyatso was the name which Künga Migyur received from Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen upon taking novice monastic ordination from him at Drepung.Karmay 2014, p.51
In 1638, when he took full ordination at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Ngawang was added to his name, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso.Karmay 1988, p. 8Karmay 2014, p.62 At this time, his interest in the Nyingmapa teachings began to deepen and his devotion to the Nyingma master Zur Choying Rangdrol became somewhat conspicuous.
Relations with the Panchen Lama
Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570–1662), the Panchen Lama and the first to be accorded this title during his lifetime, was the tutor and a close ally of the 5th Dalai Lama,Mullin 2001, p.174 who, according to Thubten Jigme Norbu and Hugh E. Richardson, declared or pronounced the Panchen to be 'an incarnation of Dhayani Buddha Amitābha'Tibet is My Country: Autobiography of Thubten Jigme Norbu, Brother of the Dalai Lama as told to Heinrich Harrer, p. 121. First published in German in 1960. English translation by Edward Fitzgerald, published 1960. Reprint, with updated new chapter, (1986): Wisdom Publications, London. .Richardson 1984, p.54 – although other sources all appear to indicate that he was considered as such from the start.
After the 5th Dalai Lama returned from China, on a teaching tour of Tsang, he visited his senior tutor and close friend the elderly Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo to receive lineage transmissions which he still lacked and at this point, he requested the Panchen to accept Tashilhunpo Monastery, built by the 1st Dalai Lama, as his multi-lifetime seat for future incarnations.Mullin 2001, p.205 Since then, every incarnation of the Panchen Lama has been the master of Tashilhunpo Monastery and it is there that they have all received their education and their mummified bodies were enshrined.
When Panchen Gyaltsen died in 1662 at 93, the 5th Dalai Lama immediately commenced the tradition of searching for his next incarnation. He composed a special prayer asking his master "to return" and directed the monks of Tibet's great monasteries to recite it. He also reserved the traditional title of Panchen (short for Pandita chen po "Great Scholar") – which had previously been a courtesy title for all exceptionally learned lamas – exclusively for the Panchen Lama and his successors (and, for those who consider him the 4th Panchen, for his three predecessors, as well)."The Institution of the Dalai Lama", by R. N. Rahul Sheel in The Tibet Journal, Vol. XIV No. 3. Autumn 1989, p. 32, n. 1 He had also predicted that Gyaltsen would continue to be reincarnated in the future as the "Panchen Lama."Richardson 1984, pp.54–55
The two had a teacher/disciple relationship going back to the 1st Dalai Lama Gendun Drup and his teacher Khedrup Je, considered by some in retrospect as the 1st Panchen Lama. From the time of His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama, the two offices were known as Yab Sey Gonpo or "Father/Son Protectors" characterising their spiritual provenance as emanations of Amitābha and Avalokitesvara, as well as their interchangeable guru/disciple relationship. This continued, lifetime after lifetime well into the 20th century with whichever was elder becoming the teacher of the younger, giving both monastic ordination and passing on tantric lineage transmissions.
Education and practice
Although the 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, completed all his formal monastic training as a Gelugpa, proving to be an exceptional scholar, he also studied Nyingmapa doctrines, and took Nyingma tantric empowerments.Tibet is My Country: Autobiography of Thubten Jigme Norbu, Brother of the Dalai Lama as told to Heinrich Harrer, p. 249. English translation by Edward Fitzgerald, published 1960. Reprint, with updated new chapter, (1986): Wisdom Publications, London. . The great Gelug scholar Sumpa Khenpo acknowledged that Lobsang Gyatso took a special interest in Nyingma tantric doctrines.Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization, pp. 171–172. Stanford University Press, Stanford California. (cloth); (paper).
In fact, His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama stated in his autobiography that rather than the Panchen Lama or any other Gelug masters, the great Nyingma lama Zur Choying Rangdrol ‘the omniscient’ (kun mkhyen zur chos dbyings rang grol, 1604–1657) was his 'root guru', 'spiritual master' and his 'root master'.Karmay 2014, pp. 200, 215 and 355 (Dukula 264, 284 and 479)
Ruler of Tibet His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso's rule over central Tibet may be characterized, in very broad terms: politically – by the Mongol military intervention which ended decades of clan-wars in Dbus and Gtsang provinces,Ronald M. Davidson, Tibet. In: Robert M. Buswell (ed.), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p.856 c.q. the Tibetan civil war of 1639–1642, whereafter he was invested with temporal power over Tibet; domestically – Reestablishing Lhasa as capital; Establishing Nechung as state oracle, and disposing of "perfidious spirit" Dolgyal, which later came to be identified with Dorje Shugden; Resolving sectarian divides; Establishing a pluralist theocracy. In terms of foreign policy – by the formal establishment of friendly diplomatic relations with China's imperial court during the formative years of the Qing dynasty, and