The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang
The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
b.1505 – d.1567
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Lhasa ལྷ་ས།
Historical Period: 16th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Ganden Jangtse College དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེ་དྲྭ་ཚང།; Gyuto Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང།
Offices Held: Twenty-first Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Dewa Chenpa Gelek Pelzang བདེ་བ་ཅན་པ་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་།; Ganden Trichen 21 Gelek Pelzang དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་།; Ganden Tripa 21 Gelek Pelzang ཁྲི ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་།; Olkha Gelek Pelzang འོལ་དགའ་བ་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་།; Trichen 21 Gelek Pelzang ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་།
The Twenty-first Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang (dga’ ldan khri pa 21 dge legs dpal bzang) was born in Olkha Gyangsar (‘ol dga’ gyang gsar) in 1505, the wood-ox year of the eighth sexagenary cycle.
Gelek Pelzang was admitted at a young age to Samten Ling (bsam gtan gling) Monastery where he received the basic monastic training and education in reading and writing, and learning the prayer texts by heart. He then studied the traditional texts of the Geluk curriculum. Gelek Pelzang was granted the vows of novice monk and was also fully ordained by the Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 02 dge ‘dun rgya tsho, 1475-1542) whom he continued to study under.
Gelek Pelzang then matriculated Gyuto College in Lhasa to study the traditional Geluk texts of the four sections of secret tantra (gsang sngags rgyud sde bzhi), rituals, madala drawings, and chanting. At the completion of his studies he served as lobpon at Gyuto and subsequently as lobpon at Shartse College of Ganden Monastic University (dga’ ldan shar rtse grwa tshang).
A painting of one of Buddha Shakyamuni’s Jataka tales created in Central Tibetan Menri School painting style which is part of Rubin Museum of Art’s collection. Click to enlarge. Photo sourced from Himalayan Art Resources.
In 1559, the earth-sheep year of the ninth sexagenary cycle, at the age of fifty-four, Gelek Pelzang was enthroned as the Twenty-first Ganden Tripa. He served for seven years, giving comprehensive teachings especially on the Jataka, the Life Stories of the previous lives of Buddha Shakyamuni, and topics in both sutra and tantra, and leading all the important religious activities, events, and festivals including the annual Great Prayer Festival, the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo.
During his tenure Trichen Gelek Pelzang produced and erected a great gold gilt statue of Buddha Maitreya.
Trichen Gelek Pelzang granted the vows of full ordination to the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 03 bsod nams rgya mtsho, 1543-1588). He also served as the patron-lama (zhal ‘dzin), of Meldro Rinchenling (mal gro rin chen gling) and Pakmo Chode (phag mo chos sde) and other monasteries.
Trichen Gelek Pelzang retired from the post of Ganden Tripa at the age of sixty-one, in 1565, the year of wood-ox in the ninth sexagenary cycle. He settled at Dewachen Monastery in Nyetang (snye thang bde ba can) near Lhasa. Because of his popularity in Dewachen he was also called Trichen Dewa Chenpa (khri chen bde ba chen pa). He was also one of the holders of the Lamrim lineage.
In addition to the Second Dalai Lama, Gelek Pelzang studied also with Sonam Drakpa (bsod nams grags pa, 1478-1554), the Fifteenth Ganden Tripa; and Lobzang Evam (blo bzang e wan, d.u.). Among his disciples were the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Pelzang (bsod nams dpal bzang, d.u.), and Peljor Gyatso (dpal ‘byor rgya mtsho, 1526-1582), the Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa.
In 1567, the fire-hare year of the ninth sexagenary cycle, after two years in retirement, Trichen Dewa Chenpa passed into nirvana, at the age of sixty-three. A silver reliquary was built in his memory and installed at the fourth position on the left rows of the main objects of faith on the east side of Lima Lhakang in Ganden Monastery.
དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང།
དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་ནི་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གཉིས་པའི་སློབ་མ་དང་། ༧རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གསུམ་པའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་ཡིན། གཙོ་བོར་བསམ་གཏན་གླིང་དགོན་པ་དང་། རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང་བཅས་སུ་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་། གཞུང་ཆེན་མོར་གསན་བསམ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པར་མཛད་དེ་རྒྱུད་སྟོད་དང་། དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང་བཅས་སུ་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་མཛད། ཁོང་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་ཉེར་གཅིག་པར་མངའ་གསོལ་ཞིང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༥༥༩ ནས་༡༥༦༥ བར་ལོ་བདུན་ཁྲི་པ་མཛད། དུས་ཡུན་དེའི་ནང་ཁོང་ནས་གསེར་ཟངས་ལས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་བྱམས་པ་མགོན་པོའི་སྐུ་བརྙན་ཆེ་ལེགས་ཤིག་བཞེངས། དགའ་ལྡན་དགོན་པར་མཛད་འགན་གྲུབ་མཚམས་མལ་གྲོ་རིན་ཆེན་གླིང་དང་ཕག་མོ་ཆོས་སྡེ་སོགས་ཀྱི་དགོན་བདག་མཛད།
Teachers
- Panchen Sonam Drakpa པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ། b.1478 – d.1554
- blo bzang e wam བློ་བཟང་ཨེ་ཝམ།
- The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༢ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1476 – d.1542
Students
- bsod nams dpal bzang བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་བཟང་།
- The Twenty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༥ དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1526 – d.1599
- The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༣ བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1543 – d.1588
- ngag dbang chos grags rgya mtsho ངག་དབང་ཆོས་གྲགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
Bibliography
- Don rdor and bstan ‘dzin chos grags. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gig rags can mi sna. Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 592-93
- Grags pa’byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod, Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1555-56
- Ye shes rgyal mtshan. 198?. Rje sgrub khang pa dge legs rgya mtsho’i rnam thar. In Lam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar, vol. 2, pp. 284-302. ‘Bar khams: Rnga khul bod yig rtsom sgyur cus. Also published in 1990 in Lhasa by the Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 783-784.
- 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. Lhasa: Bod ljongs shin hwa par ’debs bzo grwa khang, p. 63.
- 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. 84.
Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 12, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-21-Gelek-Pelzang/12817.
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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Thank you Rinpoche for this short biography of a greatmaster. Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, 1st Panchen Lama – better known as Khedrup Je – was one of the main disciples of Je Tsongkhapa. He became a monk at an early age and studied under great masters. He taught extensively, gave many initiations, and guided many renowned scholars at that time. He is considered to be the First Panchen Lama and was an incarnation of Amitabha Buddha. He wrote an important text on Kalachakra initiation which is still used by Tenzin Gyatso, HH the 14th Dalai Lama. . Amazing , he wrote many prayer books and his collected works total nine volumes in all.
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s