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The First Dalai Lama (Gendun Drup)

The First Dalai Lama (Gendun Drup)

1391 CE–1474 CE · Gyurmey Rupa (near Sakya)

1391–1474 CE

Gendun Drup (1391–1474 CE) was a leading early master of the Gelug school, a direct disciple of its founder Tsongkhapa, and the founder of Tashilhunpo monastery (1447), one of the great Gelug institutions. He was later identified, retrospectively, as the first in the line of Dalai Lamas—the title itself was only conferred on the third figure of the lineage (Sönam Gyatso) by Altan Khan in 1578 and then applied backward to him and his successor, so he was never called 'Dalai Lama' in his own lifetime. Honored in tradition as a great scholar and teacher of the early Gelug, his life and dates are well attested. Following the site's house style, the figure is treated aniconically, with no portrait.

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Did you know?

  • ‘Dalai’ is a Mongolian word for ‘ocean’

    The title "Dalai Lama" was first conferred in 1578, when the Mongol ruler Altan Khan honored Sonam Gyatso; "dalai" is Mongolian for "ocean" and "lama" is Tibetan for "teacher." The man now counted as the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup, had died in 1474 — 104 years before the title existed — and received his number only in retrospect.

    How we know

    Title conferred by Altan Khan on Sonam Gyatso in 1578; Gendun Drup (b. 1391, d. 1474) numbered First Dalai Lama posthumously; 1578 − 1474 = 104 years.

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Stop 1 of 2Born

Gyurmey Rupa (near Sakya)

What they did here

DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born into a pastoral family in the Tsang region of central Tibet; given the name Pema Dorje.

About Gyurmey Rupa (near Sakya)

Gyurmey Rupa is a locality near Sakya in the Tsang region of central Tibet. It was the birthplace, in 1391, of Gendun Drup, the disciple of Tsongkhapa who founded Tashilhunpo Monastery and was later recognised as the First Dalai Lama.

See other sages who lived in Gyurmey Rupa (near Sakya)→

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with The First Dalai Lama (Gendun Drup)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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