Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso

Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama

Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Wyl. ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho) aka Dorje Tokmé Tsal (Wyl. rdo rje thogs med rtsal) (1617-1682), the Fifth Dalai Lama is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in Tibetan history. His many achievements and reforms ensured the continued reign of the Dalai Lamas in spite of the premature deaths that befell many of his subsequent incarnations.

Biography

The Fifth Dalai Lama was prophesied in certain termas as an emanation of the enlightened activity of King Trisong Detsen. He was born in 1617 to descendants of the royal house of Zahor. Out of the chaos of seventeenth century Central Asia, he emerged in 1642 with the whole land of Tibet from Ladakh to Tachienlu under his rule. Ten years later he was invited to Beijing by the emperor Shun-chih, where he was treated as an equal and offered an imperial proclamation inscribed in gold, calling him ‘Dalai Lama, Vajra Holder and Master of the Teaching’.

He constructed the Potala Palace, pioneered the dual system of spiritual and temporal governance of Tibet, and is credited with establishing a national health system and educational programme. He was a prolific writer, his historical and autobiographical writings supplying a crucial source for historians of the period.

He felt a deep connection with the Nyingma tradition of Guru Padmasambhava, and had a number of important Nyingma teachers, such as Zurchen Chöying Rangdrol, Khöntön Paljor Lhundrup, and Terdak Lingpa, Minling Terchen Gyurmé Dorje. He was particularly close to the masters of the Northern Treasures lineage of Rigdzin Gödem, who appear frequently in his visions. In his autobiography he also speaks of Pema Rigdzin, the first Dzogchen Rinpoche, whom he urged to found the Dzogchen Monastery in Kham; he calls him “the great Dzogchenpa who has totally understood the Nyingtik”.

He was a tertön and is especially renowned for his cycle of pure vision teachings known as Sangwa Gyachen, 'Bearing the Seal of Secrecy'.

He passed away in his sixty-sixth year in 1682 in the Potala Palace, while absorbed in meditation on Kurukulla, a deity associated with power and magnetizing.

Writings

• Jampal Shyalung
• Words of the Vidyadharas

Further Reading

• Samten Karmay, Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Serindia, 1998
• Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History, trans. and ed. Gyurme Dorje (Boston: Wisdom, 1991)
• Kurtis Schaeffer, 'The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lopsang Gyatso (1617–1682)' in Martin Brauen (ed.), The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History, Serindia, 2005

Internal Links

• Dalai Lama Incarnation Line

External Links

• Biography at Treasury of Lives
• TBRC profile