H.H. the 10th Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

b.1816 – d.1837

Incarnations: Dalai Lama ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Litang ལི་ཐང།
Historical Period: 19^th Century ༡༩ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Namgyel རྣམ་རྒྱལ་།; Potala པོ་ཏ་ལ།; Norbulingka ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ཁ།
Name Variants: Dalai Lama 10 Tsultrim Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Ngawang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso ངག་དབང་འཇམ་དཔལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Ngawang Lobzang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་འཇམ་དཔལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Tsultrim Gyatso ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།

The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 10 tshul khrims rgya mtsho) was born in Litang (li thang) in 1816, on the twenty-ninth day of the third month of the fire-mouse year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle. His family was known as Drongto Norbutsang (grong stod nor bu tshang); his father was named Lobzang Nyendrak (blo bzang snyan grags) and his mother was named Namgyel Butri (rnam rgyal bu khrid). Following the identification, Lobzang Nyendrak was given a title and the Yutok estate, initiating an important Tibetan noble family.

The boy was one of six candidates for the reincarnation of the Ninth Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 09 lung rtogs rgya mtsho, 1805-1815). He was chosen as the best candidate by oracles and government officials, including the regent, Demo Ngawang Lobzang Tubten Jigme Gyatso (de mo ngag dbang blo bzang thub bstan ‘jigs med rgya mtsho, 1778-1819). Before the boy could be officially enthroned, however, the regent died. His replacement was Ngawang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso (ngag dbang ‘jam dpal tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1792-1862/64), the founder of Tsemonling (tshe smon gling) monastery and later the Seventy-third Ganden Tripa.

Qianlong Emperor in Ceremonial Armour on Horseback, by Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione. Image credit: Wikipedia. Click on image to enlarge.

The Qing government insisted that the selection be confirmed by use of the Golden Urn, which was mandated by the Qianlong Emperor in 1793 as a way to both assert Qing authority in Tibet and to prevent Tibetan noble families from controlling the selection process. The Beijing government thus forced a delay in the confirmation process, and Tsultrim Gyatso, who had been brought to Lhasa in 1821, was not officially confirmed until 1822; whether or not the Urn was used remains a point of controversy in Tibetan history. According to Tibetan historians Tibetan officials allowed the amban announced that the Urn had been used to satisfy the Emperor, despite the reality that the Urn had not been employed. The enthronement took place on eighth day of the eighth month of the water-horse-year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle, and was supervised by the regent.

During the first month of 1822 Tsultrim Gyatso was brought to Dewachen in Nyetang (snye thang bde ba chen) where the Seventh Panchen Lama, Lobzang Tenpai Nyima (paN chen bla ma 04 blo bzang dpal ldan bstan pa’i nyi ma, 1782-1853) cut his crown-hair and gave him the name Ngawang Lobzang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso (ngag dbang blo bzang ‘jam dpal tshul khrims rgya mtsho). The following month the Panchen Lama him gave the vows of novice monk (sramanera).

A number of prominent lamas were appointed as his tutors, including the Seventieth Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Chopel, (dga’ ldan khri pa 70 ngag dbang chos ‘phel, 1760-1839); Ngawang Nyendrak, who had served as the Sixty-sixth Ganden Tripa (dga’ ldan khri pa 66 khri chen ngag dbang snyan grags, 1746-1824); Lobzang Trinle Namgyel (blo bzang ‘phrin las rnam rgyal, d.u.); and the Seventy-third Ganden Tripa, Trichen Ngawang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso (dga’ ldan khri pa 73 khri chen ngag dbang ‘jam dpal tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1792-1855).

A recent picture of Drepung Monastery. Image credit: Wikipedia. Click on image to enlarge.

In 1825, at the age of ten, Tsultrim Gyatso matriculated in Drepung Monastery to study sutra and tantra according to the Geluk curriculum. He likely received teachings at Ganden and Sera as well.

The Tenth Dalai Lama was placed in charge of the Tibetan state in 1830. That year, an iron-tiger year, a seven-year governmental review of agriculture and tax policy was completed, with a report issued known as the “Iron-Tiger Report.”

At the age of nineteen, in 1834, Tsultrim Gyatso met with the Fifth Kalkha Jetsun Dampa Lobzang Tsultrim Jigme Tenpai Gyeltsen (khal kha rje btsun dam pa 05 blo bzang tshul khrims ‘jigs med bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1815-1841) and the king of Torgo (thor rgod rgyal po) of Mongolia and gave them teachings. At request of the king the Dalai Lama sent some senior monks to Torgo to help them in establishing a Kalacakra practice center.

A biographical thangka of H.H. the 10th Dalai Lama Tsultrim Gyatso, surrounded by scenes from his life. Image credit: embracingcompassion.com. Click to enlarge.

That year an epidemic broke out in Lhasa and the Dalai Lama was confined to the Potala; when the Panchen Lama came to Lhasa to give him final ordination, he was forced to stay at Norbulingka save for during the ceremony itself. Nevertheless, Tsultrim Gyatso fell ill, and passed away several years later, in 1837. His body was installed in a golden reliquary called “The Supreme Ornament of the Three Realms” (gser gdung khams gsum rgyan mchog) in the Potala.

Despite passing at the young age of twenty-two, the Tenth Dalai Lama was said to have several disciples. These included Oro Zhabdrung Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (o rod zhabs drung blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, b.1819); Kure Khenchen Ngawang Yeshe Tubten (khu re mkhan chen ngag dbang ye shes thub bstan, d.u.); the Ninth Tashak, Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (rta tshag 09 ngag dbang blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1811-1848), the Third Gyakar, Konchok Tenpai Gyeltsen (rgya dkar 03 dkon mchog bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1794-1854); and the Seventh Peling Sungtrul of Bhutan, Pema Tendzin (pad gling gsung sprul 07 pad+ma bstan ‘dzin, 1819-1842).

Teachers

• blo bzang ‘phrin las rnam rgyal བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།
• The Seventieth Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Chopel དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༧༠ ངག་དབང་ཆོས་འཕེལ། b.1760 – d.1839
• The Sixty-Sixth Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Nyendrak དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༦༦ ངག་དབང་སྙན་གྲགས། b.1746 – d.1824
• The Second Tsemonling, Ngawang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso ཚེ་སྨོན་གླིང ༠༢ ངག་དབང་འཇམ་དཔལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1792 – d.1862/1864
• ‘jam dpal ye shes bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan འཇམ་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།

Students

• blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1819? – d.1871
• dkon mchog bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan དཀོན་མཆོག་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1794 – d.1854
• Ngawang Yeshe Tubten ངག་དབང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐུབ་བསྟན། b.1807?/1815 – d.1889/1897
• The Ninth Tatsak Jedrung, Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen རྟ་ཚག་རྗེ་དྲུང ༠༩ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1811 – d.1848
• pad+ma bstan ‘dzin པདྨ་བསྟན་འཛིན། b.1819 – d.1842

Previous Incarnations

• The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༡ དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ། b.1391 – d.1474
• The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༢ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1476 – d.1542
• 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

Subsequent Incarnations

• 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. Rgyal dbang thams cad mkhyen pa tshul khrims rgya mtsho’i rnam thar. In ‘Phags pa’jig rten dbang phyug gi rnam sprul rim byon gyi ‘khrungs rabs deb ther nor bu’i ‘phreng ba, vol. 4, pp. 1-267. Dharamsala: Sku sger yig tshang, 1977.TBRC W22095.
• Anon. 2009. Rgyal dbang thams cad mkhyen pa sku ‘phreng bcu pa. In Mdzad rnam rgya chen snying rje’i rol mtsho, vol. 1, pp. 147-152. Dharamsala: Norbulingka. TBRC W2CZ7990.
• Bkra shis dbang ‘dus. 1989. Gong ma chen po rda’o kong gis rgyal mchog dang kun gzigs paN chen rin po che bcas thugs rdzogs ‘bul bzhes grub par bka’ lung gnang skyes bstsal ba. In Bod kyi lo rgyus yig tshags dang gzhung yig phyogs bsdus dwangs shel me long, pp. 255-256. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W22022.
• Blo bzang rgya mtsho. 1997. Rgya la dbang tA la’i bla ma sku phreng bcu ba tshul khrims rgya mtsho’i skabs. In Bod kyi lo rgyus gzhon nu dga’ ba’i gtam phreng, pp. 539-550. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang TBRC W19965.
• Blo bzang ‘phrin las rnam rgyal. N.d. Tshul khrims rgya mtsho’i rnam thar. Lhasa: ‘Bras spungs.
• Bstan pa bstan ‘dzin. 1992. ‘Jam mgon rgyal wa’i rgyal tshab gser khri rim byon rnams kyi khri rabs yongs ’du’i ljon bzang. Mundgod: Drepung Gomang Library, pp. 106-107.
• Don rdor and Bstan ‘dzin chos grags. 1993. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gi grags can mi sna. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 914-916.
• Grags pa ‘byung gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 395-396, 486-488.
• Jigs med bsam grub. 2000. Rgyal ba sku phreng bcu pa tshul khrims rgya mtsho’i chos srid mdzad rnam. In Gong sa tA la’i bla ma sku phreng rim byon gyi chos srid mdzad rnam, pp. 614-637.
• Maher, Derek. 2005. “The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso.” In The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. Martin Brauen, ed. London: Serindia, pp. 131-133.
• Rin chen nor bu and Khri bsam gtan. 1996. Rgyal dbang sku phreng bcu pa tshul khrims rgya mtsho’i skor. In Bod kyi lo rgyus slob gzhi blo gsar ‘jug pa’i ‘bab stegs, pp. 260-261. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W19354.

Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed August 03, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Tenth-Dalai-Lama-Tsultrim-Gyatso/4314.

Samten Chhosphel is an independent scholar with PhD from the Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston, MA. After serving as the In-charge of Publication Department of CUTS for 26 years, he immigrated to the United States in 2009 and is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University.

Published November 2011

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

Source:https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Tenth-Dalai-Lama/TBRC_P260. Click on image to enlarge.

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