Name Variants: Lobzang Chokyi Drakpa; Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen; Nangwa Taye Panchen Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen

Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen was born in a village called Drukgya in the Lhan valley, in Tsang, in either 1567 or 1570. His father, Kunga Ozer, was a nephew of Wensa Sanggye Yeshe (1525-1590/1591), and a member of the illustrious Ba clan. His mother's name was Tsogyal. They gave him the name Chogyal Pelden Sangpo. The boy was recognised by Langmika Chokyi Gyaltsen as the reincarnation of Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub (1505-1566) and given the name Chokyi Gyaltsen.

As a youth, Chokyi Gyaltsen studied with Sanggye Yeshe (1525-1591), the abbot of Tashi Lhunpo and Wensapa Monasteries. For the first years of his life he was tutored in the autumn by Sanggye Yeshe in Drukgya, receiving from him many blessings and empowerments. There he also received teachings and initiations from his brother and grandfather. At the age of 13, Chokyi Gyaltsen left Drukgya for Wensa Monastery to further his instruction with Sanggye Yeshe. He took novice vows with his master, received the name Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen, and began instruction in Lamrim. Chokyi Gyaltsen remained at Wensa for the next five years.

In his 18th year, Chokyi Gyaltsen went to Tashi Lhunpo where he entered the Tosam Ling College, studying with Paljor Gyatso. He spent the next three summers at Wensa however, receiving further teachings and transmissions from Sanggye Yeshe, including the Ganden Mahamudra of Tsongkhapa. In 1591 he received the news that Sanggye Yeshe was ill with smallpox, and he quickly returned to visit with him one last time, shortly before Sanggye Yeshe passed away. Following a successful examination in Pramanavarttika at Tashi Lhunpo, Chokyi Gyaltsen returned to Wensa to oversee the funeral.

Chokyi Gyaltsen ordained that same year, 1591, with Panchen Damcho Yarwel, Paljor Gyatso, and Panchen Lhawang Lodro officiating. He then traveled to Lhasa, making offerings at the Jokhang and proceeded to Ganden, where he continued his education with Namkai Tsenchen, with whom he studied Kalachakra, and Gendun Gyaltsen (1532-1605/1607), the 28th throne holder of Ganden, who taught him the collected works of the Second Dalai Lama. Chokyi Gyaltsen, in turn, taught Gendun Gyaltsen the Ganden Mahamudra, making him his successor in the oral lineage of that tradition. Damcho Pelbar (1523/1546-1599), the 26th throne holder of Ganden, also taught him Cho.

Having returned to Wensa, which he enlarged with new temples and statues, Chokyi Gyaltsen gave public teachings on Lamrim and other topics, but soon felt the urge to enter retreat. He closed himself off from the public for six or seven months, reading scriptures between sessions of meditation. It was during this short retreat that he had a vision of Tsongkhapa and, in his sleep, received a number of important transmissions from him. He shifted his retreat to his home village, living for a time like a cotton-clad one in the tradition of the Kagyu ascetics, before returning to Wensa.

In 1601, his fame now widespread, Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen was asked to assume the abbacy of Tashilhunpo. The 31-year-old was already abbot of Wensa and, beginning in 1598, abbot of Gangchen Chopel, having been requested to assume that post by Lhuntse Depa. That same year, he initiated a Great Prayer Festival, or Monlam Chenmo at Tashi Lhunpo, installing a number of new statues in the temples. Eight years later, in 1609, he established a tantric college at the monastery, the Tashi Lhunpo Gyupa Dratsang.

Soon after taking the abbacy of Tashilhunpo, Yontan Gyatso (1589-1616), the Fourth Dalai Lama, visited there, arriving in Tibet from Mongolia for the first time. It would seem that Chokyi Gyaltsen played a role in the Tibetan acceptance of the Mongolian boy as the legitimate incarnation of Sonan Gyatsho (1543-1588). The Fourth Dalai Lama requested Chokyi Gyaltsen to accompany him to Drepung, where he taught for some time and then as he traveled to various Kadampa and Gelugpa monasteries in the region, including Reting and various sites connected to Tsongkhapa's activities in Lhoka.

In 1612, Chokyi Gyaltsen visited Bhutan on invitation from the Lhapa hierarchs of Nyo. This clan, Drukpa Kagyu followers who were strong in both Tsang and Bhutan, were rivals to Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651). Their loss of influence in Bhutan, and the close relations with Chokyi Gyaltsen, led to the Lhapa conversion to the Gelug tradition late in the century. They were but one clan-based religious tradition that Chokyi Gyaltsen brought under the Gelugpa tradition. Chokyi Gyaltso was again involved in Bhutanese-Tibetan affairs, negotiating a truce to conflicts between the two in the mid-1650s. Among hostages freed by Bhutan was a son of the house of Nenying, another clan-based religious tradition whose merger with the Gelug was accomplished by Chokyi Gyaltsen.

Chokyi Gyaltsen continued to go back and forth between Shigatse and Lhasa, teaching at Tashilhunpo, Drepung, Sera, Ganden and other Gelug monasteries. In 1617, the Fourth Dalai Lama passed away and Chokyi Gyaltsen assumed the abbacy of both Drepung and Sera. These were not the last monasteries where he served as abbot; in 1626, he was made abbot of Ganden Jangtse college, and in 1642 of Shalu.

In 1618, the ruling family of most of Tibet, the Pakmodrupa, was overthrown by the ruling family of Tsang, based in Shigatse. Supporters of the Kagyu tradition, the new rulers repressed Gelugpa institutions and religious practice, including the large Gelug monasteries of the Lhasa region, although he tolerated the presence of Tashi Lhunpo and Chokyi Gyaltsen. Curing him of a disease the King believed to have been inflicted by the Fourth Dalai Lama, Chokyi Gyaltsen was able to secure permission from the King of Tsang to confirm the reincarnation of the Fourth Dalai Lama in the person of a boy he named Lobzang Gyatso, although he was forbidden to install him in Lhasa.

Over the next decade, relations between Lhasa and Shigatse continued to deteriorate, and Chokyi Gyaltsen was forced to mediate time and again. He was also forced to confront Mongol invasions, first in 1621 when Mongolian troops, brought in after secret negotiations with Gelugpa hierarchs, laid siege to Tsang authority in Lhasa and drove Tsang forces to Chakpori, a small rocky hill in Lhasa. Only after Chokyi Gyaltsen's intervention were the forces allowed to retreat to Shigatse. With Tsang forces out of Lhasa, in 1622 Chokyi Gyaltsen was able to enthrone the Fifth Dalai Lama at Drepung.

Following the defeat of the Tsang King and the ascent of the Fifth Dalai Lama as King of Tibet in 1641, the fortunes of Chokyi Gyaltsen grew greater still. Chokyi Gyaltsen was declared the Fourth Panchen Lama and three previous lamas were posthumously identified as the first through third: Khedrubje (1385-1438), Sonam Chokyi Langpo (1439-1505) and Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub (1505-1566). For this reason Chokyi Gyaltsen is either listed as the First or the Fourth Panchen Lama.

Chokyi Gyaltsen continued to teach for the next two decades, passing away in 1662.

Incarnation line of the Panchen Lamas of Tashilhunpo

1. Kedrubje (1385-1438),
2. Sonam Chokyi Langpo (1439-1505)
3. Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub (1505-1566)
4. Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen (1567-1662)
5. Lobzang Yeshe (1663-1737)
6. Lobzang Palden Yeshe (1738-1780)
7. Lobzang Tenpai Nyima Chole Namgyal (1781-1854)
8. Lobzang Tenpai Wangchuk Palden Chokyi Drakpa(1855-1882)
9. Lobzang Tubten Chokyi Nyima Gelek Namgyal (1883-1937)
10. Chokyi Gyaltsen Trinle Lhudrub (1938-1989)
11. Gendun Chokyi Nyima (b. 1989)

Teachers

• nam mkha' rgyal mtshan
• dam chos yar 'phel
• sangs rgyas rgya mtsho
• Sanggye Yeshe b.1525 - d.1591 (Name Variants: Chokyab Dorje; Kedrub Sanggye Yeshe; Wensapa Sanggye Yeshe)

Students

• chos rgya mtsho
• dkon mchog rgyal mtshan
• ngag dbang chos kyi dbang phyug
• blo bzang dam chos rgyal mtshan
• blo bzang pad+ma
• dge 'dun don grub
• sangs rgyas bkra shis
• grags pa rgyal mtshan
• ngag dbang dge legs rgyal mtshan
• brtson 'grus rgyal mtshan
• nam mkha' rdo rje
• blo bzang bstan dar
• ngag dbang rdo rje blo
• bzang bstan pa rab rgyas
• grags pa dpal ldan
• blo bzang chos 'phel
• blo bzang rab brtan
• rnam rgyal dpal 'byor
• Dalai Lama 05 Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso b.1617 - d.1682 (Name Variants: Dorje Togmetsal; Ganshar Rangdrol; Jangsem Nyugusel; Nagpo Silgnon Dragpotsal; Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso; Sahor Ngaknyon Silgnon Shepatsal; Silngon Dragtsal Dorje; Silngon Shepatsal)
• blo gros rgya mtsho
• blo bzang bstan pa dar rgyas
• dge legs rgya mtsho
• dkon mchog rgyal mtshan
• blo bzang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan (Name Variants: jnanavajra)
• blo bzang bstan 'dzin rgyal mtshan
• skal ldan rgya mtsho
• bstan 'dzin blo bzang rgya mtsho
• mdo rgyud rgya mtsho
• ngag dbang bstan 'dzin 'phrin las
• don yod chos kyi rgya mtsho
• snying stobs rgya mtsho

Sources:

Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan. 1973 (1720). Chos smra bai dge slong blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan spyod tshul gsal bar ston pa nor bui phreng ba. In Collected Works (Gsung bum) of Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, the 1st Panchen Lama, reproduced from tracings from prints of the Bkra shis lhun po blocks, pp. 5-454. New Delhi: Mongolian Lama Gurudeva. Also published as The Autobiography of the First Panchen Lama Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1969, Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo.

Kapstein, Matthew. 2006. The Tibetans. Boston: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 134-139.

Smith, Gene. 2001. The Autobiography of the First Panchen Lama. In Among Tibetan Texts, pp. 119-131. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

Tshe mchog gling yongs dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1970 (1787). Biographies of Eminent Gurus in the Transmission Lineages of the teachings of the Graduated Path, being the text of: Byang chub Lam gyi Rim pai Bla ma Brgyud pai Rnam par Thar pa Rgyal mtshan Mdzes pai Rgyan Mchog Phul byung Nor bui Phreng ba. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, vol 1, pp. 88-235.

Willis, Janice D. 1985. Preliminary Remarks on the Nature of rNam-thar: Early dGe-lugs-pa Siddha Biographies. In Soundings in Tibetan Civilizations. Barbara Aziz and Matthew Kapstein, eds. Delhi: Manohar, pp. 304-319.

http://tibetanlineages.org/biographies/view/163/9839/lineage