Person · fifth Dalai Lama · India
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama
Also known as Great Fifth, Nga pa chen po
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617-82), the Fifth Dalai Lama — the 'Great Fifth' — the only Dalai Lama acknowledged by Tibetan tradition as a political as well as a spiritual sovereign. With the military support of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Mongols, who defeated the Tsangpa dynasty in 1642, he founded the Ganden Phodrang government and brought the whole of Tibet (U, Tsang, Kham and much of Amdo) under a single administration led from Lhasa. He built the Potala Palace on the Marpori hill above the city from 1645, confirmed Tashilhunpo as the seat of the Panchen Lama lineage, invited the Qing emperor Shunzhi to visit (1652), and composed a prolific body of philosophical, historical and poetic writing. His regent Sangye Gyatso concealed his death for fifteen years to protect the political order he had built.
- Periods
- Early Modern Age, British Colonial Age
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (3)
- Founder ofPotala Palace, Lhasa
The Great Fifth Dalai Lama began the Potala Palace on Marpori ('Red Hill') in Lhasa in 1645, three years after Güshi Khan's Khoshut Mongols defeated the Tsangpa dynasty and placed Tibet under his unified Ganden Phodrang government. The palace was built around the 7th-century shrine of Songtsen Gampo and finished only in 1694, twelve years after the Fifth's death.
- Patron ofGelug — the Yellow Hat school
The Great Fifth consolidated Gelug supremacy under the Ganden Phodrang government from 1642 onward.
- Patron ofTashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse
The Great Fifth Dalai Lama confirmed Tashilhunpo as the seat of the Panchen Lama lineage.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard reference.
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