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The Second Dalai Lama (Gendun Gyatso)

The Second Dalai Lama (Gendun Gyatso)

1475 CE1542 CE · Modern · Tanak (Tanag Sekme), near Shigatse

1475–1542 CE

Gendun Gyatso (1475–1542 CE) was recognized as the reincarnation of Gendun Drup and is counted as the second Dalai Lama, though—like his predecessor—he bore the title only retrospectively, since 'Dalai Lama' was first conferred decades after his death. Born in the Tsang region, he became an influential teacher and administrator, serving as abbot of Drepung, Tashilhunpo, and Sera, and helped strengthen the early Gelug institutions around Lhasa. He is also remembered as a poet and visionary writer. His life and dates are well attested.

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Tanak (Tanag Sekme), near Shigatse

What they did here

DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born into a farming family in the Tanak area of Tsang and recognized as the reincarnation of Gendun Drup.

About Tanak (Tanag Sekme), near Shigatse

Tanak is a district in the Tsang region of central Tibet, near Shigatse. It was the birthplace, in 1475, of Gendun Gyatso, later recognised as the Second Dalai Lama, who built the Ganden Podrang residence at Drepung.

See other sages who lived in Tanak (Tanag Sekme), near Shigatse

The world in their lifetime

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

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.