Fifth Dalai Lama

Ngawang Lobsang
5th Dalai Lama
Ngawang Lozang Gyatso
Reign	1642–1682
Predecessor	Yonten Gyatso
Successor	Tsangyang Gyatso
Tibetan	ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་
Wylie	ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho
Pronunciation	[ŋɑ̀wɑ̀ŋ lɔ́psɑ̀ŋ cɑ̀t͡só]
THDL	Ngawang Lozang Gyatso
Father	Dudul Rabten
Mother	Kunga Lhanzi
Born	1617 Lhoka Chingwar Taktse, Ü-Tsang, Tibet
Died	1682 (aged 64–65) Lhasa, Tibet

Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Tibetan: ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho) was the Fifth Dalai Lama: a key religious and temporal leader of Tibet who lived from 1617 to 1682. Gyatso is credited with unifying all Tibet after a protracted era of civil wars. As an independent head of state, he established diplomatic relations with China and other regional countries and also met early European explorers. Gyatso – who wrote 24 volumes' worth of scholarly and religious works on a wide range of subjects – was the first Dalai Lama to wield effective temporal and spiritual power over all Tibet, and is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth.

To understand the context within which the Dalai Lama institution came to hold temporal power in Tibet during the lifetime of the fifth, it may be helpful to review not just the early life of Lobsang Gyatso but also the world into which he was born, as Künga Migyur.

The child who would become the 5th Dalai Lama was born in the Chonggye Valley in Ü, south of the Yarlung Tsangpo River and about two days' journey south-east of Lhasa, to a prominent family of nobles with traditional ties to both Nyingma and Kagyu lineages. The aristocratic Zahor family into which he was born had held their seat since the 14th century at Taktsé Castle, south of Lhasa –  a legendary stronghold of Tibetan kings in the days of the early empire, before Songtsen Gampo (604-650 CE) had moved his capital from there to Lhasa.

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