H.H. the 2nd Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

b.1476 – d.1542

Incarnations: Dalai Lama ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Tanak རྟ་ནག།
Historical Period: 15^th Century ༡༥ དུས་རབས། / 16^th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Ngari Dratsang མངའ་རིས་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Chokhor Gyel ཆོས་འཁོར་རྒྱལ།; Banak Zhol Gyelkhang སྦྲ་ནག་ཞོལ་རྒྱལ་ཁང།; Lhamo Latso ལྷ་མོའི་བླ་མཚོ།
Offices Held: Tenth Throne Holder of Drepung Monastery; Eleventh Throne Holder of Sera Monastery
Name Variants: Dalai Lama 02 Gendun Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༢ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Gendun Gyatso དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ།

Gendun Gyatso (dge ‘dun rgya mtsho) was born in 1476 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 Kagyu lama named Lama Donyo Gyeltsen, was a disciple of the Sakya patriarch Namkha Neljor (nam mkha’ rnal ‘byor, 1388-1469/70) and founder of the Sakya monastery Tanak (rta nag). Donyo Gyeltsen’s son, Kunga Gyeltsen (kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, 1432-1481), a disciple of Gendun Drub, was Gendun Gyatso’s father. His mother was Kunga Pelmo (kun dga’ dpal mo, d.u.), considered to be a reincarnation of the consort to the Kagyu master Gotsangpa (rgo tsang pa, d.u.). Gendun Drub was born when his father was forty-five years old. He wrote in his autobiography that at the moment of his birth he faced the direction of Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po) and smiled. His birth name was Sangge Pel (sangs rgyas ‘phel).

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, Tashilhunpo to all those who would listen. He records that at three, upon being scolded by his mother, he responded with “Don’t get annoyed at me or I won’t stay, I’ll go back to Tashilhunpo.” Soon after a delegation from Tashilhunpo 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.

H.H. the 2nd Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

At this time, in the early years of the Geluk 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 Drub at Tashilhunpo in 1487. He did, however, receive novice vows at age ten or eleven, when he received the name Gendun Gyatso.

Gendun Gyatso trained at nearby monasteries of Nenying (gnas rnying) Nartang (snar thang), 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 Gyato’s continued embrace of his family’s eclectic traditions no doubt served him well as he sought to spread Tsongkhapa’s Geluk teachings. This was important because during his youth the Kagyu leaders of Tsang and the Geluk 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 Tashilhunpo increasingly uncomfortable, and in 1494 left for U, where he studied with Jamyang Lekpai Chojor (‘jam dbyang legs pa’i chos ‘byor, d.u.) at Drepung Loseling Monastery (‘bras spungs blo gsal gling), taking full ordination and completing his studies.

For the next twenty 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 instruction from the solitary yogi Khedrub Norsang Gyatso (mkhas grub nor sang rgya mtsho, d.u.), 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.

A beautiful thangka of H.H. the 2nd Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

Among the many accomplishments of his life, Gendun Gyatso is remembered for the construction of Chokhor Gyel Metok Tang (chos ‘khor rgyal me tog thang) in 1509. Chokkhor Gyel came to be known as the personal monastery of the Dalai Lamas. Gendun Gyatso also was crucial in the empowerment of Lhamo Latso (lha mo bla mtsho). 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 Tashilhunpo in 1512, and of Drepung in 1517, following the return of Lhasa to Geluk control. In 1528 he became the abbot of Sera. Gendun Gyatso also founded Ngari Dratsang (mnga’ ris grwa tshang) in 1541, in response to the growing support for Geluk teachings of the kings of Guge (gu ge) in Ngari. His influence stretched from Ngari to Kham.

Around the year 1530 Gendun Gyatso built the Ganden Podrang (dga’ ldan pho brang) at Drepung. It was built on land donated in 1518 by the Pakmodru leader of the time. This came to be the residence of the Dalai Lamas until the Potala was built in the seventeenth century, and gave its name to the government of the Dalai Lamas after the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

Local Lhasa knowledge also claims that Gendun Gyatso founded the Banak Zhol Gyelkhang, an oracle shrine in the Banak Zhol neighbhorhood of Lhasa.

Gendun Gyatso passed away in 1542. He left behind many volumes of verse, composition, and practice instructions.

Teachers

• kun dga’ bde legs ཀུན་དགའ་བདེ་ལེགས།
• kun dga’ bde legs rin chen ཀུན་དགའ་བདེ་ལེགས་རིན་ཆེན།
• Khedrub Norzang Gyatso མཁས་གྲུབ་ནོར་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1423 – d.1513
• lung rigs rgya mtsho ལུང་རིགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• Peljor Lhundrub དཔལ་འབྱོར་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1427 – d.1514

Students

• Panchen Sonam Drakpa པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ། b.1478 – d.1554
• blo gros rgyal mtshan བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1487 – d.1567
• The Third Panchen Lama, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༣ དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་གྲུབ། b.1505 – d.1556
• The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང། b.1505 – d.1567
• Shakya Gyeltsen ཤཱཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.mid 15th cent. – d.early 16th cent.
• Miyowa Zhonnu Lodro མི་གཡོ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས། b.1497 – d.1564
• Jedrung Sherab Wangpo ཤེས་རབ་དབང་པོ། b.1502 – d.1586

Previous Incarnations

• The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༡ དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ། b.1391 – d.1474

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༣ བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1543 – d.1588
• The Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༤ ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1589 – d.1617
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.1682
• The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༦ ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1683 – d.1706
• The Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༧ སྐལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1708 – d.1757
• The Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༨ འཇམ་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1758 – d.1804
• The Ninth Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༩ ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1805 – d.1815
• The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1816 – d.1837
• The Eleventh Dalai Lama, Khedrub Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༡ མཁས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1838 – d.1855
• The Twelfth Dalai Lama, Trinle Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༢ འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1856 – d.1875
• The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༣ ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1876 – d.1933
• The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tendzin Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༤ བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1935

Bibliography

• Anon. 1977. Rje dge ‘dun rgya mtsho’i rnam thar nyid kyis mdzad pa. In ‘Phags pa ‘jig rten dbang phyug gi rnam sprul rim byon gyi ‘khrungs rabs deb ther nor bu’i ‘phreng ba, vol. 1, pp. 341-405. Dharamsala: Sku sger yig tshang, 1977. TBRC W22095.
• Anon. 1977. Rje dge ‘dun rgya mtsho’i rnam thar g.yang pa chos rjes mdzad pa’i stod cha. In ‘Phags pa ‘jig rten dbang phyug gi rnam sprul rim byon gyi ‘khrungs rabs deb ther nor bu’i ‘phreng ba, vol. 1, pp. 407-632. Dharamsala: Sku sger yig tshang, 1977. TBRC W22095.
• Dge ’dun rgya mtsho. 1979. Rgyal ba dge ’dun rgya mtsho’i rnam thar. Thimphu: Kunsang Topgyel and Maṇi Dorji.
• 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 pa’i Bla ma Brgyud pa’i Rnam par Thar pa Rgyal mtshan Mdzes pa’i Rgyan Mchog Phul byung Nor bu’i Phreng ba. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, vol 2, pp. 699-700.
• Yon tan rgya mtsho. 1994. Dge ldan chos ’byung gser gyi mchod sdong ’bar ba. Paris: Yon tan rgya mtsho, pp. 222-229.
• Heller, Amy. 2005. “The Second Dalai Lama Gendun Gyatso.” In Brauen, Martin, ed. The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. London: Serindia, pp. 43-50.
• Mullin, Glenn. 1986. “De-Si Sang-Gye Gya-Tso’s the life of the second Dala Lama.” Tibet Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 3-16.
• Rockhill, William Woodville. 1910. “The Dalai Lamas of Lhasa and their relations with the Manchu emperors of China, 1644-1908.” T’oung Pao 11, pp. 1-104.

Source: Miranda Adams, “The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 28, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Second-Dalai-Lama-Gendun-Gyatso/11114.

Miranda Adams

Published September 2008

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Second-Dalai-Lama-Gendun-Gyatso/11114. Click on image to enlarge.

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