1st Dalai Lama

Gendun Drup
1st Dalai Lama (posthumous designation)
དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ།
Reign	N/A
Successor	Gendün Gyatso
Tibetan	དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ།
Wylie	dge ’dun grub pa
Pronunciation	[kẽ̀tyn tʂʰùppa]
Transcription (PRC)	Gêdün Chubba
THDL	Gendün Druppa
Father	Gonpo Dorje
Mother	Jomo Namkha Kyi
Born	1391 Shabtod, Ü-Tsang, Tibet
Died	1474 (aged 82–83) Tibet

Gendün Druppa (Tibetan: དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ།, Wylie: dge 'dun grub pa, 1391–1474) was considered posthumously to be the 1st Dalai Lama.

Gendün Druppa was born in a cowshed in Gyurmey Rupa near Sakya in the Tsang region of central Tibet, the son of Gonpo Dorje and Jomo Namkha Kyi, nomadic tribespeople. 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 Dorje (Tibetan: པད་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, "Vajra Lotus"). Later he was placed in Narthang Monastery. In 1405, he took his śrāmaṇera (novitiate) vows from the abbot of Narthang, Khenchen Drupa Sherap.

When he was 20 years old, in about 1411, he received the name Gendün Druppa upon taking the vows of a bhikṣu (monk) from the abbot of Narthang Monastery. Also at this age he became a student of the scholar and reformer Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), who some say was his uncle. Around this time he also became the first abbot of Ganden Monastery, founded by Tsongkhapa himself in 1409. By the middle of his life, Gendün Druppa had become one of the most esteemed scholar-saints in the country.

Tradition states that Palden Lhamo, the female guardian spirit of the sacred lake, Lhamo La-tso, promised the First Dalai Lama in one of his visions "...that she would protect the reincarnation lineage of the Dalai Lamas." Since the time of Gendün Gyatso, who formalized the system, monks have gone to the lake to meditate when seeking visions with guidance on finding the next reincarnation.

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Wikipedia