The Twenty-Eighth Ganden Tripa, Gendun Gyeltsen
The Twenty-Eighth Ganden Tripa, Gendun Gyeltsen. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
b.1532 – d.1607
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: U དབུས།
Historical Period: 16th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Gyume Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྨད་གྲྭ་ཚང།
Offices Held: Twenty-eighth Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Ganden Trichen 28 Gendun Gyeltsen དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༨ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Ganden Tripa 28 Gendun Gyeltsen དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༨ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Gendun Gyeltsen དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Gyuto Khenchen Gendun Gyeltsen རྒྱུད་སྟོད་མཁན་ཆེན་དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Lhasawa Gendun Gyeltsen ལྷ་ས་བ་དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Trichen 28 ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༨།; Trichen Gendun Gyeltsen ཁྲི་ཆེན་དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
The Twenty-eighth Ganden Tripa, Gendun Gyeltsen (dga’ ldan khri pa 28 dge ‘dun rgyal mtshan) was born at Lumpa Shar in Lhasa (lha sa’i lum pa shar) in 1532, the water-dragon year of the ninth sexagenary cycle. He was admitted to Sera Monastic University at the young age, where Sera Jetsun Chokyi Gyeltsen (se ra rje btsun chos kyi ryal mtshan, 1469-1544) and Lobpon Sherab Sengge (slon dpon shes rab seng ge, d.u.) granted him vows of novice monk. Thereafter he studied the traditional curriculum of both sutra and tantra at Sera Je Monastery (se ra byes grwa tshang).
Gyume, the Lower Tantric College, is one of the two main Geluk tantric colleges in central Tibet. It was established in 1433. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
At the age of nineteen, Gendun Gyeltsen received the vows of fully ordained monk from Sonam Gyatso (bsod nams rgya mtsho, d.u.) – possibly, but not likely, the Third Dalai Lama, who would have been too young – and Ngari Lhatsun Sonam Pelzang (mnga’ ris lha btsun bsod nams dpal bzang, d.u.), assisted by other senior monks. Subsequently he was enrolled in Gyume College and studied tantra under the tutorship of Tashi Zangpo (bkra shis bzang po, d.u.).
At the age of forty-four, in 1575, the year of wood-pig in the tenth sexagenary cycle, Gendun Gyeltsen served as the lama of Gyume College. He joined Ganden Jangtse Monastery in 1589, the earth-ox year of the tenth sexagenary cycle and served their educator (’chad nyan pa).
In 1603, the water-hare year, at the age of seventy-two, Gendun Gyeltsen was enthroned as the Twenty-eighth Ganden Tripa, serving until 1607. He regularly attended and led the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo, the annual great prayer festival of Lhasa (lha sa smon lam chen mo). Trichen Gendun Gyeltsen performed as lobpon in granting the vows of novice monk to Dechen Chokyi Gyelpo (bde chen chos kyi rgyal po, d.u.) who was a prominent lama of the era but about whom details are not known. He also introduced and raised fund for the daily tea-offering during the Summer Retreat for the participants from Lamoi Sakhok (la mo’i sa khog) to Ganden Monastery.
The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
According to sources, Trichen Gendun Gyeltsen served as the personal lama to the Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (paN chen bla ma 01 blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan,1567-1662) and also the lobpon in granting the vows of novice monk to the Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 04, yon tan rgya mtsho, 1589-1617).
Among the disciples of Trichen Gendun Gyeltsen the only known name according to the sources is Khonton Peljor Lhundrub (‘khon ston dpal ‘byor lhun grub, 1561-1637). This lama served as tutor to the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 05 ngag dbang blo bzang rgya tsho, 1617-1682) and became a favorite. He was also a scholar in Nyingma tradition in which he gave teachings.
At the age of seventy-six, in 1607, the fire-sheep year in the tenth sexagenary cycle Trichen Gendun Gyeltsen retired from the post of Ganden Tripa; he passed into nirvana in the same year. A silver reliquary was built and installed in the Ganden Monastery in his memory and an extensive nirvana-prayer was done.
དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༨ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ནི་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་ཉེར་བརྒྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༦༠༣ ནས་༡༦༠༧ བར་ཁྲི་པ་མཛད། དེ་སྔ་སེ་ར་དང་རྒྱུད་སྨད་བཅས་སུ་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་སྟེ་དགོན་ཆེན་དེ་དག་ཏུ་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་ཐུགས་འགན་བཞེས། དེ་རྗེས་དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང་དུའང་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་གནང་།
Teachers
- bsod nams dpal bzang བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་བཟང།
- bde legs nyi ma བདེ་ལེགས་ཉི་མ།
- Chokyi Gyeltsen ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1469 – d.1544
Students
- Peljor Lhundrub དཔལ་འབྱོར་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1561 – d.1637
Bibliography
- Don rdor and bstan ‘dzin chos grags. 1993. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gig rags can mi sna, bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 613-614.
- Grags pa ‘byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992 Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod. Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, p. 1875.
- Grong khyer lha sa srid gros lo rgyus rig gnas dpyad yig rgyu cha rtsom ’bri au yon lhan khang. 1964. Dga’ ldan dgon pa dang brag yer pa’i lo rgyus, grong khyer lha sa’i lo rgyus rig gnas deb 02. Bod ljongs shin hwa par ’debs bzo grwa khang, p. 64.
- Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 1989 (1698). Dga’ ldan chos ‘byung baiDU r+ya ser po. Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, p. 87.
Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Twenty-Eighth Ganden Tripa, Gendun Gyeltsen,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 17, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-28-Gendun-Gyeltsen/5777.
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 September 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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