Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gyatso accepted an invitation to meet with Altyn Khan near Kokonor in 1578. At the
meeting, Sonam Gyatso received the title of
dalai,
meaning 'ocean', and implying 'ocean
of wisdom'. The title was retrospectively bestowed on his previous two reincarnations, and
so Sonam Gyatso became the third Dalai Lama.
Their relationship with the Mongols marked the Gelugpa's entry into the turbulent wa-
ters of worldly affairs. It is no surprise that the Tsang kings and the Karmapa of Tsurphu
Monastery saw this Gelugpa-Mongol alliance as a direct threat to their power. Bickering
ensued, and in 1611 the Tsang king attacked Drepung and Sera Monasteries as the country
slid into civil war. The fourth (Mongolian) Dalai Lama fled central Tibet and died at the
age of 25 in 1616.
The Dalai Lamas are depicted in wall paintings holding the Wheel of Law (Wheel of
Dharma) as a symbol of the political power gained under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama.
The Great Fifth Dalai Lama
A successor to the fourth Dalai Lama was soon discovered, and the boy was brought to
Lhasa, again under Mongol escort. In the meantime, Mongol intervention in Tibetan af-
fairs continued in the guise of support for the embattled Gelugpa order.
Unlike the Sakya-Mongol domination of Tibet, under which the head Sakya lama was
required to reside in the Mongol court, the fifth Dalai Lama was able to rule from within
Tibet. With the backing of the Mongol Gushri Khan, all of Tibet was pacified by 1656, and
the Dalai Lama's control ranged from Mt Kailash in the west to Kham in the east.
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, had become both the spiritual and tem-
poral sovereign of a unified Tibet.
The fifth Dalai Lama is remembered as having ushered in a great new age for Tibet. He
made a tour of Tibet's monasteries, and although he stripped most Kadampa monasteries -
his chief rivals for power - of their riches, he allowed them to re-establish. A new flurry of
monastic construction began, the major achievement being Labrang Monastery (in what is
now Gānsù province). In Lhasa, work began on a fitting residence for the head of the
Tibetan state: the Potala.
