Name Variants: Gendun Gyatso

Gendun Gyatso was the reincarnation of Gendun Drup, the First Dalai Lama. He served as abbot of three of the most powerful Gelug monasteries in both U and Tsang, significantly contributing to the spread of the Gelug tradition. Gendun Gyatso retained relations to his family's religious traditions, which included Nyingma, Shangpa Kagyu and Sakya teachings. He built the Ganden Podrang at Drepung around the year 1530, which came to be the residence of the Dalai Lamas and the seat of their government of Tibet in later centuries. His abbacies occurred during a time of intermittent war between the Kagyu rulers of Tsang and the Gelug leaders of Lhasa.

Gendun Gyatso was born in 1475 in the Tanak area of Tsang. He was born to a family of yogic practitioners who had forged a connection to his predecessor the First Dalai Lama, and also had a strong historic connection with Samye Monastery, where an ancestor was an abbot. His paternal grandfather, a Shangpa Kagyupa named Lama Donyo Gyaltsan, was a disciple of the Sakya patriarch Namkha Naljor and founder of the Sakya monastery Tanak. Donyo Gyaltan's son, Kunga Gyaltsan, a disciple of Gendun Drup, was Gendun Gyatso's father. His mother was Kunga Palmo, considered to be a reincarnation of the consort to the Kagyu master Gotsangpa. Gendun Drup was born when his father was 45 years old. He wrote in his autobiography that at the moment of his birth, he faced the direction of Tashi Lhunpo and smiled. His birth name was Sangge Pel.

Gendun Gyatso was, by all accounts, an extraordinary child, speaking in song of his previous lives and expressing the wish to return to his monastery, Tashi Lhunpo to all those who would listen. He records that at three, upon being scolded by his mother, he responded with "Dont get annoyed at me or I won't stay, I'll go back to Tashi Lhunpo." Soon after, a delegation from Tashi Lhunpo came to his home, and it is said that the child manifested extreme delight at their appearance, greeting each of them by name, and relating to them as if they were old friends.

At this time, in the early years of the Gelug lineage in Tibet, the tradition of recognizing reincarnated Lamas was extremely unusual, and Gendun Gyatso remained at home for some time, before being enthroned as the reincarnation of Gendun Drup at Tashi Lhunpo in 1487. He did, however, receive novice vows at age ten or eleven, when he received the name Gendun Gyatso.

Gendun Gyatso trained at the nearby monasteries of Nenying, Nartang and his family's monastery of Tanak. It is likely that among the obstacles to his recognition was the reputation of his family, who openly embraced so many different religious traditions. Gendun Gyatso's continued embrace of his family's eclectic traditions no doubt served him well as he sought to spread Tsongkhapa's Gelug teachings. This was important because during his youth, the Kagyu leaders of Tsang and the Gelug heirarchs of Lhasa were at war, with the Tsangpa occupying Lhasa from 1498 to 1517.

Even before his studies were completed, Gendun Gyatso began to teach and give initiations and was greeted by the faithful in droves. Despite his fame, or, some say, perhaps because of it, Gendun Gyatso found the environment at Tashi Lhunpo increasingly uncomfortable and in 1494 left for central Tibet, where he studied with Jamyang Legpai Chojor at Drepung Loseling Monastery, taking full ordination and completing his studies.

For the next 20 years, Gendun Gyatso spent his life doing practice, pilgrimage and giving teachings, and developed an enormous following in Tibet. During this time, he met and took teachings and instructions from the solitary yogi, Khedrup Norsang Gyatso, and the two spent many months together practicing and meditating. Gendun Gyatso's biographies state that he attained Enlightenment under the tutelage of this master.

Among the many accomplishments of his life, Gendun Gyatso is remembered for the construction of Chokkhor Gyal Metok Tang in 1509. Chokkhor Gyal came to be known as the personal monastery of the Dalai Lamas. Gendun Gyatso also was crucial in the empowerment of Lhamo Lhatso. This lake continued to play an important role in the recognition of later Dalai Lamas, and is still considered the most powerful source of divinations in Tibet. Gendun Gyatso served as abbot of Tashi Lhunpo in 1512, and of Drepung in 1517, following the return of Lhasa to Gelug control. In 1528, he became the abbot of Sera. Gendun Gyatso also founded Ngari Dratsang in 1541, in response to the growing support for Gelug teachings of the kings of Guge in Ngari. His influence stretched from Ngari to Kham.

Around the year 1530, Gendun Gyatso built the Ganden Phodrang at Drepung. It was built on land donated in 1518 by the Phagmodru leader of the time. This came to be the residence of the Dalai Lamas until the Potala was built in the 17th Century, and gave its name to the government of the Dalai Lamas after the time of the Great Fifth.

Gendun Gyatso passed away in meditation in 1542, after displaying miracles of rainbows and flower rains. His body was cremated and he left countless sacred relics behind for the faithful, as well as many volumes of verse, composition and practice instructions.

Teachers

• kun dga' bde legs
• kun dga' bde legs rin chen
• nor bzang rgya mtsho
• lung rigs rgya mtsho

Students

• bsod nams grags pa
• blo gros rgyal mtshan
• Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub b.1505 - d.1556 (Name Variants: Lobzang Dondrub) dge legs dpal bzang

Sources

1. Dge dun rgya mtsho. 1979. Rgyal ba dge dun rgya mtshoi rnam thar. Thimphu: Kunsang topgyel and mani dorji.

2. 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 2, pp. 699-700.

3. Yon tan rgya mtsho. 1994. Dge ldan chos byung gser gyi mchod sdong bar ba. Paris: Yon tan rgya mtsho, pp. 222-229.

4. Heller, Amy. 2005. "The Second Dalai Lama Gendun Gyatso." In Brauen, Martin, ed. The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. London: Serindia, pp. 43-50.

5. Mullin, Glenn. 1986. De-Si Sang-Gye Gya-Tsos the life of the second Dala Lama. Tibet Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 3-16.

6. Miranda Adams September 2008

7. http://www.tibetanlineages.org/biographies/view/93/11114/lineage