In 1622, the First Panchen Lama Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen recognized the boy to be the incarnation of Yonten Gyatso, the Third Dalai Lama, along with further confirmations from Protectors. The Panchen Lama gave him the name Lobsang Gyatso but the recognition was plagued with controversy. Even before the recognition, the boy had also been unsuccessfully recognized to be the reincarnation of a Kagyu Lama, the Fourth Tsurpu Gyaltsap Dragpa Dondrup.

Due to pressures by the Tsang Empire, Panchen Lama had to make great efforts to please the Tsangpa governor so arrangements could be made to bring the Fifth Dalai Lama to Drepung Monastery. At Drepung, the young boy was in competition for the position of Dalai Lama with another candidate, who was later identified as the incarnation of Panchen Sonam Dragpa, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen. In the end, the young Lobsang Gyatso was finally enthroned at Ganden Phodrang in Drepung Monastery at the age of six.

Lobsang Gyatso received his full monastic ordination in 1638. Lingme Shapdrung and the First Panchen Lama were the monastic preceptors and bestowed upon him the name Ngagi Wangchuk. The Fifth Dalai Lama studied at the feet of many leading Lamas of his day. He also began his monastic studies with his tutors, Lingme Shapdrung Konchok Chopel and the First Panchen Lama, in Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, Vinaya and Abhidharma.

He also trained in grammar and poetics, astrology and divination, and related topics, with Mondro Pandita. His accomplishments are legendary as he continues to be considered a significant lineage holder by the Nyingmapas. He trained with the lineage holders of the Changter and Zur tradition of the Kama. His own family also maintained good relations with the Drukpa Kagyu via his cousin Pagsam Wangpo, who was recognized as the Fifth Gyalwang Drukpa.

In 1637, Gushri Khan marched into Tibet with a contingent of 800 soldiers, purportedly on a pilgrimage but most likely to assert political control over Tibet. This was not unusual as the Mongols tribes were fragmented and various tribal leaders sought to reestablish the ideal patron-priest model created by Kubilai Khan and Chogyal Pagpa in the 13th century. It seems that Gushri’s incursion into Tibet was at the invitation of Sonam Chopel, the Fourth Dalai Lama’s treasurer and was part of his covert mission to find a Mongol ally in the Gelug struggle against the Tsang forces who were Kagyupas.

The Dalai Lama had an audience with Gushri at this time and bestowed upon him the title of Tenzin Chogyal –‘Holder of the teachings, King of Dharma’. It was a title that was designed to cement relations and it was highly effective as both the Dalai Lama and Gushri Khan reported receiving visions in which they played a key role in vanquishing the enemies of the Gelug tradition and spreading it far and wide.

During this visit, Gushri, the Panchen Lama, Sonam Chopel, and the Dalai Lama discussed plans for Gushri to invade Kham and vanquish the Bonpo stronghold at the Beri kingdom. The reason for this was a forged letter in which the Beri King declared his intention to invade Lhasa. In his autobiography, the Dalai Lama wrote that Sonam Chopel secretly followed Gushri on his warpath to Kham and attacked Tsang and wiped out all rivals to Gelug dominance of Tibet.

In 1969, Gushri Khan invaded Kham and completely destroyed Beri. Instead of returning to Mongolia, Gushri then marched further into Tibet. The Dalai Lama was horrified and demanded Sonam Chopel to undo his work and tried to convince Gushri to turn back. Naturally, he refused to do so and laid siege to Shigatse, the capital of the Tsang Empire for roughly a year before crushing the enemies and taking control.

However, Gushri did not hand over control of Tibet over to the Dalai Lama. Rather, Gushri declared himself King of Tibet and was enthroned by the Tibetans. He appointed Sonam Chopel as his regent, in charge of political matters, and he gave the Dalai Lama control of religious affairs. This fact became glossed over due to the Dalai Lama’s own account of the events. After Gushri Khan overthrew the Tsang Empire, the regent began a systematic effort to reduce the eminence of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen.

According to the Fifth Dalai Lama, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen was demoted in rank, due to the manipulation of the Regent Sonam Rabten. However, personal relations between Tulku Dragpa Gyeltsen and the Fifth Dalai Lama never seemed to sour.

Tulku Dragpa Gyeltsen is also known to have attended teachings and transmissions by the Fifth Dalai Lama and for even enjoying social gatherings to drink tea together. However, when Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen became ill shortly afterwards, the Regent Sonam Rabten kept the Fifth Dalai Lama from visiting him.

There are variations of how Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen passed away but the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography is one of the authoritative sources that document the affairs of this time. Although it does not shed light on the full situation it does provide many crucial details that more or less concurs with what had been written by Dorje Shugden proponents like Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s Music Delighting the Ocean of Protectors.

In the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography, not long after Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen’s death Nechung possessed an oracle and told the Fifth Dalai Lama that there were disturbances in the teahouse. True enough, the Fifth Dalai Lama had visions of a monkey about eight years old appearing.

Then, the Great Protector told him to go far away from where Tulku’s body was being cremated, and so he went to the Potala Palace where he engaged in purification practices. While he had hoped for signs that the trouble was over, he continued to receive disturbing dreams of a monk who became an animal and other inauspicious signs. This may indicate that he was already aware at this point of foul play associated with the regent and that he was feeling guilty by his association with the regent.

Actually, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s apology and recognition of Dorje Shugden as the reincarnation of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen, is not clearly mentioned in his autobiography. This is only more clearly elucidated in later years by other highly attained lamas. However, accounts of the Fifth Dalai Lama attempting to subdue or destroy Dorje Shugden through various rituals and the building of shrines are found in writings of both Dorje Shugden detractors and proponents, as well as in the Great Fifth’s own autobiography. Other events associated to Tulku Dragpa Gyeltsen remain obscure or even completely omitted from his biography.

According to the White Conch Dictionary, the Fifth Dalai Lama later founded Trode Khangsar, which was on the south side of old Lhasa as a Dorje Shugden shrine. Trode Khangsar was taken care of by monks of Riwo Choling Monastery of Lhoka in Southern Tibet. There was a caretaker from Riwo Choling that performed regular propitiation service and a Dorje Shugden oracle was even established there.

Morchen Kunga Lhundrup, who contributed to the first major Dorje Shugden rituals, mentions Trode Khangsar in his autobiography so it was clear that Trode Khangsar existed and was founded since the time of the Great Fifth. On the east side near the outer gate of Trode Khangsar was a smaller shrine, Monkyi Khangsar where Kache Marpo was invoked. It is interesting to note that among the Great Fifth’s prolific works, is also a propitiation to Kache Marpo, the principal attendant to Dorje Shugden.

The Dalai Lama spent the next several decades consolidating power, a process that involved the construction of the Potala Palace, a declaration of himself as the emanation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (the patron protector of Tibet), a state visit to Beijing, and the invocation of the Golden Age of the Tibetan Empire by tracing his previous incarnations to King Songtsen Gampo.

The Dalai Lama continued to consolidate his power through the removal of all remaining rivals by suppressing the Jonang tradition and by forcing the Karma Kagyu to return Gelug Monasteries that were converted into Karma Kagyu during the reign of the Tsangpa Kings. It was known that many Kagyu institutions converted to the Gelugpa lineage during that time.

Under the Fifth Dalai Lama, the city of Lhasa flourished. Foreign traders and intellectuals came in droves to the city that acted as a confluence of the arts, medicine, and architecture. He established a wide infrastructure of taxation and administration for both secular governance and religious governance of the monasteries. He was also a prolific writer, with his written works spanning histories and religious commentaries, which are all collected into a collection of more than thirty large volumes.

The Fifth Dalai Lama’s death was famously hidden under a shroud of mystery. In 1682, Desi Sangye Gyatso concealed the knowledge of the Dalai Lama’s passing for 15 years. In the meantime, he himself continued to consolidate Gelug power of Tibet, and had the Dalai Lama’s remains mummified and entombed. He also searched and found the incarnation so that within the same year that the death was announced, the 15-year-old Sixth Dalai Lama could be immediately enthroned.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-06/03/content_15458177.htm

XIAHE, Gansu – Thousands of pilgrims gathered Saturday on a grassland near a monastery town in northwest China to attend a four-day Buddhist ritual, known as Kalachakra, offered by the 11th Panchen Lama’s guru, senior Tibetan monk Jamyang Gaytso.

We expect more than 100,000 Tibetan Buddhism devotees to turn out during the ritual,” said a spokesman of Xiahe county, Gansu province, home to Labrang Monastery — one of the six major Gelugpa monasteries in China. “Not just Gansu, people from neighboring Qinghai and Sichuan provinces are also coming.

Kalachakra, which means the wheel of time, is a key ritual of the Gelugpa sect of the Tibetan Buddhism. The ritual, if offered by senior monks, often draws a huge crowd.

Amid rain, the 83-year-old guru gave Buddhist teachings in Tibetan language for hours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the first day. He sat at a center stage surrounded by circles of crimson-robed Tibetan monks and devotees who listened, meditated, and prayed. Some used mobile phones, cameras, and recorders to record the teachings.

Jamyang Gyatso, a native of Xiahe, entered Labrang Monastery at the age of eight. He earned the Gesi title, bestowed only to masters of Tibetan Buddhism, and was chosen in 1998 to guide the Buddhist studies of the 11th Panchen Lama. The guru offered Kalachakra initiation to the Panchen Lama, then 12 years old, at Zhaxi Lhunbo Monastery in Tibet in 2002.

Words of the Saturday’s ritual has been circulating on the Internet for a week, as many Tibetan scholars and religious leaders relayed the news on their Sina Weibo microblogging accounts.

It is an opportunity that can not be missed. Best regards to my guru. ~ Jompo Rinpoche, a senior monk in Xigaze, Tibet.

“It is a blessing to attend the ritual,” said Lobecheri, a monk who came to Xiahe with a dozen monastery fellows from Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai. “If I missed the Kalachakra, I would be very sad.”

As pilgrims came, tents dotted a 10-km stretch of the grassland, typical for the Tibetan nomads, though some set up their tents on flat-bed trucks to avoid the rain-soaked ground. “My family will sleep on the truck tonight. No problem for us. We feel honored to be here already,” said Namgachi, a young herder.

“The government stands ready to provide help for pilgrims coming to temporarily live on the grassland,” said Wang Yan, deputy head of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture government which administrates Xiahe.

Local officials say they have set up medical care booths, deployed seven trucks carrying clean drinking water, and installed about 30 pre-fab toilets on the grassland. More than a hundred traffic police are also mobilized as more and more pilgrims are arriving by car.

“We are more experienced, because a number of key religious activities are held here every year,” said Tserangji, deputy head of Xiahe county government. “Large religious gatherings with more than 10,000 turn-out were held as usual this year and all went on well.”

Panchen Lama with Jamyang Gyatso

The 11th Panchen Lama, or Panchen Erdeni (secular name: Gyaincain Norbu), has been recognized as the reincarnated child of the 10th Panchen Lama on November 29, 1995 after the “lot-drawing from the golden urn” in front of Buddha Shakyamuni Statue in Jokhang Monastery and the approval of the State Council.

Gyaincain Norbu was born on February 13, 1990 in an ordinary family in Lhari County in northern Tibet Autonomous Region. His father Soinam Chaghba and mother Sanggyai Zhoima have both completed their primary school education.

They gave birth to a beautiful boy with fair skin, bright shiny eyes with a mole on his right face. His face resembled a Buddha, thus Sanggyai Zhoima’s father named his grandson “Gyaincain Norbu”, which means “The holy victory banner”.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

The Life of Gyaincain Norbu at Shigatse

On the morning of 30th Nov 1995, The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu arrived at Shigatse, accompanied by leader of Tibet Autonomous Region and high lamas from inside and outside Tibet. This episode tells you life of Gyaincain Norbu at Shitgatse.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

Visiting Reting Monastery

The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu with a group of people went to Reting Monastery at Lhasa for pilgrimage. This was the first time the 11th Panchen Lama doing pilgrimage at this monastery after his enthronement in year 1995.

Visiting Reting Monastery is one of the Dharma activities the 11th Panchen Lama planned to do in his trip to Lhasa. According history, every incarnation of Panchen lama would pay pilgrimage to Reting Monastery including the 10th Panchen Lama when he was young.

When the 11th Panchen lama and the group of people reached Reting Monastery at 9.30am, more than one hundred monks from the monastery and over 100 local people, all lined up at both sides of the road to welcome the arrival of His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Or watch on server | download video (right click & save file)