Gelug

The Gelug, Gelug-pa, dGe Lugs Pa, dge-lugs-pa or Dgelugspa is the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader. The first monastery he established was named Ganden, and to this day the Ganden Tripa is the nominal head of the school, though its most influential figure is the Dalai Lama. Allying themselves with the Mongols as a powerful patron, the Gelug emerged as the pre-eminent Buddhist school in Tibet since the end of the 16th century.

"Ganden" is the Tibetan rendition of the Sanskrit name "Tushita", the Pure land associated with Maitreya Buddha. At first, Tsongkhapa's school was called "Ganden Choluk" meaning "the Spiritual Lineage of Ganden". By taking the first syllable of 'Ganden' and the second of 'Choluk' this was abbreviated to "Galuk" and then modified to the more easily pronounced "Gelug".

Origins and development

Tsongkhapa

The Gelug school was founded by Je Tsongkhapa. A great admirer of the Kadam school, Tsongkhapa was a promoter of the Kadam emphasis on the Mahayana principle of universal compassion as the fundamental spiritual orientation. He combined this with extensive writings on Madhyamaka and Nagarjuna's philosophy of Śūnyatā (emptiness) that, in many ways, marked a turning point in the history of philosophy in Tibet.

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama /ˈdɑːlaɪ ˈlɑːmə/ is a monk of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa. The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, called Chenrezig in Tibetan. The name is a combination of the Mongolic word dalai meaning "ocean" (being the translation of the Tibetan name, 'Gyatso') and the Tibetan word བླ་མ་ (bla-ma) meaning "guru, teacher, mentor". The Tibetan word "lama" corresponds to the better known Sanskrit word "guru".

From 1642 until the 1950s (except for 1705 to 1750), the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government or Ganden Phodrang which governed all or most of the Tibetan plateau from Lhasa with varying degrees of autonomy, up to complete sovereignty. This government also enjoyed the patronage and protection of firstly Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720) and then of the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912).

Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama

Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen (Tibetan: བློ་བཟང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་, Wylie: Blo-bzang Phrin-las Lhun-grub Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan, ZYPY: Lobsang Chinlai Lhünchub Qoigyi Gyaicain ; 19 February 1938 – 28 January 1989) was the tenth Panchen Lama of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism. He was often referred to simply as Choekyi Gyaltsen (which can be Choekyi Gyaltse, Choskyi Gyantsen, etc.), although this is also the name of several other notable figures in Tibetan history.

Early life and selection

The 10th Panchen Lama was born Gonpo Tseten on 19 February 1938 in today's Xunhua Salar Autonomous County of Qinghai, to Gonpo Tseten and Sonam Drolma. When the Ninth Panchen Lama died in 1937, two simultaneous searches for the tenth Panchen Lama produced two competing candidates, with the government in Lhasa (who had selected a boy from Xikang) and the Ninth Panchen Lama's officials (who picked Tseten) in conflict. The Republic of China government, then embroiled in the Chinese Civil War, declared its support for Tseten on 3 June 1949. Guan Jiyu, the head of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, joined Kuomintang Governor of Qinghai Ma Bufang in presiding over Tseten's enthronement on 11 June as Choekyi Gyaltsen at Kumbum Monastery. The Dalai Lama's government in Lhasa still refused to recognize Gyaltsen.

Karma Chagme

The name Karma Chagme refers to a 17th-century Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayāna) lama and to the tülku (reincarnate lama) lineage which he initiated. Including the first, seven Karma Chagme tülkus have been recognized. The Neydo Kagyu (Wylie: gnas mdo bka' brgyud ) sub-school of the Karma Kagyu was established by the first Karma Chagme, Rāga Asya.

The First Karma Chagme, Rāga Asya

Karma Chakme (born Wangdrak Sung; ordained Karma chags med; alias Rā-ga a-sya; 1613-1678) was born in Salmo Gang (Wylie: zal mo sgang ), a place near Riwoche (Wylie: ri bo che ) in the district of Ngoms in Kham. His father, Pema Wangdrak (Wylie: Pad-ma dbang-grags ) was an established tantric siddha from the ruling lineage of Dong khachö (Wylie: gdong mkha' spyod ) and his mother Chökyong Kyi (Wylie: 'Chos-skyong skyid ) was descended from the family line of Gyuli. Said to have been the reincarnation of Chokro Lü Gyeltsen (Wylie: cog ro klu'i rgyal mtshan ) and of Prince Sad na legs, his father gave tertön Ratna Lingpa longevity empowerments during his birth.

Mahamudra

Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit, Tibetan: Chagchen, Wylie: phyag chen, contraction of Chagya Chenpo, Wylie: phyag rgya chen po) literally means "great seal" or "great symbol." It "is a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism" which "also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian Buddhist esotericism."

The name refers to a body of teachings representing the culmination of all the practices of the Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, who believe it to be the quintessential message of all of their sacred texts. The mudra portion denotes that in an adept's experience of reality, each phenomenon appears vividly, and the maha portion refers to the fact that it is beyond concept, imagination, and projection.

History and semantic field

The usage and meaning of the term mahāmudrā evolved over the course of hundreds of years of Indian and Tibetan history, and as a result, the term may refer variously to "a ritual hand-gesture, one of a sequence of 'seals' in Tantric practice, the nature of reality as emptiness, a meditation procedure focusing on the nature of Mind, an innate blissful gnosis cognizing emptiness nondually, or the supreme attainment of buddhahood at the culmination of the Tantric path."