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The Third Dalai Lama (Sönam Gyatso)

The Third Dalai Lama (Sönam Gyatso)

1543 CE–1588 CE · Modern · Tölung (Tölung Dechen)

1543–1588 CE

Sönam Gyatso (1543–1588 CE) is the pivotal figure of the Dalai Lama lineage: he was the first to actually bear the title, which the Tümed Mongol leader Altan Khan conferred on him in 1578 ('Dalai' translating his name-element 'Gyatso,' ocean). The title was then applied retrospectively to his two predecessors, making him reckoned the 'third.' His meeting with Altan Khan renewed the alliance between the Gelug school and the Mongols that would later prove decisive for Tibetan history, and he spread the tradition widely among the Mongols, founding Kumbum and Lithang monasteries before dying on tour in Mongol territory. His life and dates are well documented.

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Tölung (Tölung Dechen)

What they did here

DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born in the Tölung valley near Lhasa and recognized as the reincarnation of Gendun Gyatso; he became abbot of Drepung.

About Tölung (Tölung Dechen)

Tölung (Tölung Dechen) is a valley district immediately west of Lhasa, central Tibet, the site of Tsurphu Monastery. The lineage of the Third Dalai Lama, Sönam Gyatso, is connected with the area near Lhasa where he was born in 1543.

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The world in their lifetime

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

Works

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