Editing 1st Dalai Lama

{{short description|Dalai Lama of Tibet (1391–1474)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name               = 1st Dalai Lama, Gedun Drupa
| native_name        = ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་དང་པོ།, ཀེ་ཏུན་ཏེ་ལུའུ་པ།
| native_name_lang   = Tibetan
| image              = Gendun Drup, 1st Dalai Lama.jpg
| caption            = {{lang|bo|དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ།}}
| religion           = [[Tibetan Buddhism]]
| birth_name         = Péma Dorjee
| birth_date         = 1391
| birth_place        = Shabtod, [[Ü-Tsang]], [[Tibet]]
| death_date         = {{death year and age|1474|1391}}
| death_place        = Ü-Tsang, [[Tibet]]
| title              = 1st Dalai Lama (posthumous designation)
| mother             = Jomo Namkha Kyi
| father             = Gonpo Dorjee
| successor          = [[2nd Dalai Lama|Gedun Gyatso]]
| module             = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes| headercolor=#FFCC33
| c                = 根敦朱巴
| p                = gēndūn zhūbā
| tib              = དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ
| wylie            = dge 'dun grub pa
| thdl             = Gedün Drubpa
| zwpy             = Kendun Drup pa
}}
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| title = Original name: Péma Dorjee
| headercolor = #FFCC33
| c = 巴玛多杰
| p = bāmǎ duōjié
| tib = པད་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་
| wylie = pad ma rdo rje
}}

The '''1st Dalai Lama, Gedun Drupa'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Short Biographies of the Previous Dalai Lamas |url=https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/previous-dalai-lamas/previous-dalai-lama |access-date=May 13, 2018 |website=DalaiLama.com}}</ref> ({{bo|t=དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ།|w=dge 'dun grub pa}}; 1391–1474) was a student of [[Je Tsongkhapa]], and became his first [[Khenpo]] (Abbott) at [[Ganden Monastery]]. He also founded [[Tashi Lhunpo Monastery]] in Shigaste. He was posthumously awarded the spiritual title of [[Dalai Lama]].<ref name="TBRC">{{Cite web |title=dge 'dun grub pa |url=http://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P80 |access-date=May 20, 2015 |website=Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center}}</ref>

== Biography ==
[[File:1st Dalai Lama.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Gedun Drupa, 1st Dalai Lama]]

Gedun Drupa was born in a cow-shed in Gyurmey Rupa near Sakya in the [[Ü-Tsang|Tsang]] region of central Tibet, the son of Gonpo Dorjee and Jomo Namkha Kyi, nomadic tribespeople.<ref>[http://www.dalailama.com/page.51.htm#Gedun_Drupa Gedun Drupa] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051213024822/http://www.dalailama.com/page.51.htm |date=December 13, 2005 }} at Dalai Lama website.</ref> He was raised as a shepherd until the age of seven. His birth name (according to the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, his personal name) was '''Péma Dorjee''' ({{bo|t=པད་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་}}, "[[Vajra]] Lotus").

=== Ordination ===
Later he was placed in [[Narthang Monastery]]. In 1405, he took his ''[[śrāmaṇera|getsul]]'' (novitiate) vows from the abbot of Narthang, Khenchen Drupa Sherap.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} When he was 20 years old, in about 1411 received the name Gedun Drupa upon taking the vows of a ''[[bhikkhu|bhikṣu]]'' (monk) from the abbot of Narthang Monastery.{{sfnp|Samphel|Tendar|2004|p=75}} Also at this age he became a student of the scholar and reformer [[Je Tsongkhapa]] (1357–1419),{{sfnp|Farrer-Halls|1998|p=77}} who some say was his uncle.{{Sfnp|Samphel|Tendar|2004|p=35}} Around this time he also became the first abbot of [[Ganden Monastery]], founded by Tsongkhapa himself in 1409.<ref>{{Citation |title=Simhanada, The Lion's Roar of Mahayana Buddhism |url=http://www.simhas.org/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711005439/http://www.simhas.org/ |archive-date=11 July 2016}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2023}}

=== Career ===
By the middle of his life, Gedun Drupa had become one of the most esteemed scholar-saints in the country.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} Gedun Drupa founded the major monastery of [[Tashi Lhunpo Monastery]] at [[Shigatse]], which later became the seat of the [[Panchen Lama]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chö Yang: The Voice of Tibetan Religion and Culture |date=1991 |publisher=Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs |edition=Year of Tibet |location=Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala |page=79}}</ref>{{volume needed|date=February 2023|i=no}}

Gedun Drupa did not hold national political power. It was in the hands of viceroys such as the [[Sakya (tribe)|Sakyas]], the prince of Tsang, and the Mongolian [[Khagan]]. The Tibetan national political leadership positions of the successive Dalai Lamas began much later during the reign of the [[5th Dalai Lama]], in 1642.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

He remained the Khenpo of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery until he died while meditating in 1474 [[East Asian age reckoning|at the age of 84 (83 by Western reckoning)]].{{sfnp|Samphel|Tendar|2004|p=35}}<!-- This age range does not match up with that in the infobox: 82-83. Sorry that I can't research it right now! ...I looked through the history after saving and found the problem, I think. The syntax "|date of death = {{death year and age|1474|1391}}" did an automatic calculation based on the given year of death, which is one of the two possible years, and without the birth and death dates in the calculation, the result gives the two possible ages of death **for that year only**. Please feel free to fix this problem. Otherwise, I'll come back and post in the discussion &/or research the best solution (manual or automatic correction?) when I can. Thanks! --~~~~ -->

== Legends ==
Tradition states that [[Palden Lhamo]], the female guardian spirit of the [[sacred lake]], [[Lhamo La-tso]], promised the First Dalai Lama in one of her visions "...that she would protect the reincarnation lineage of the Dalai Lamas." Since the time of [[2nd Dalai Lama|Gedun Gyatso]], who formalized the system, monks have gone to the lake to meditate when seeking visions with guidance on finding the next reincarnation.{{sfnp|Laird|2006|pp=139, 264–265}}

== Notable contemporaries ==
The [[Samding Dorje Phagmo]] (1422–1455), the highest female incarnation in Tibet,{{sfnp|Dowman|1988|p=268}} was a contemporary of Gedun Drupa. Her teacher, the [[Bodongpa]] Panchen Chogley Namgyal was also one of his teachers; he received many [[Tibetan Buddhism#Transmission and realization|teachings]] and [[empowerment (Vajrayana)|empowerments]] from him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bodong.info |url=http://www.bodong.info/en/bodong/chogleynamgyal.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828022618/http://www.bodong.info/en/bodong/chogleynamgyal.html |archive-date=August 28, 2008 |access-date=March 7, 2009}}</ref>

==Works==
Some of the most famous texts Gedun Drupa wrote were:
* ''Sunlight on the Path to Freedom'', a commentary on [[Abhidharma-kosa]]
* ''Crushing the Forces of Evil to Dust'', an epic poem on the life and liberating deeds of [[Gautama Buddha]]
* ''Song of the Eastern Snow Mountain'', a poem dedicated to [[Je Tsongkhapa]]
* ''Praise of the Venerable Lady Khadiravani Tara'', an homage to [[Tara (Buddhism)|Tara]]

{{Clear}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dowman |first=Keith |title=The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide |date=1988 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=0-7102-1370-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Farrer-Halls |first=Gill |title=World of the Dalai Lama |date=1998 |publisher=Quest Books |page=77}}
* {{Cite book |last=Laird |first=Thomas |title=The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama |publisher=Grove Press |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-8021-1827-1 |location=N.Y.}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Samphel |first1=Thubten |last2=Tendar |title=The Dalai Lamas of Tibet |date=2004 |publisher=Roli & Janssen |isbn=81-7436-085-9 |location=New Delhi |author-link=Thubten Samphel}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* McKay, A. (editor) (2003): [https://books.google.com/books?id=l6eTjiivK-UC&dq=gelugpa+mongol+power&pg=PA19 History of Tibet]. Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon. {{ISBN|0-7007-1508-8}}
* Mullin, Glenn H. (2001). ''The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation'', pp.&nbsp;50–85. Clear Light Publishers. Santa Fe, New Mexico. {{ISBN|1-57416-092-3}}.
* Dalai Elan Roebuck. (1991) ''Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama.'' San Francisco, CA.
* ''Selected Works of the Dalai Lama I'' by Anne Kandt, Christine Cox, Dalai Lama Dge-Dun-Grub I, Glenn H. Mullin, Sidney Piburn (1985)

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090802162134/http://www.tbrc.org/kb/tbrc-detail.xq Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center]

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Dalai Lama]]|years=N/A<br />Posthumously recognized}}
{{s-aft|after=[[2nd Dalai Lama|Gedun Gyatso]]}}
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{{Dalai Lamas}}
{{Buddhism topics}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drupa, Gedun}}
[[Category:1391 births]]
[[Category:1474 deaths]]
[[Category:Dalai Lamas|*1]]
[[Category:Tibetan writers]]
[[Category:Tibetan people]]
[[Category:15th-century Tibetan people]]