The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen. Click on image to enlarge. Image credit: himalayanart.org

པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༤ བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།

b.1570 – d.1662

Incarnations: Panchen Lama པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Ngari མངའ་རིས།
Historical Period: 16^th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།; 17^th Century ༡༧ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན།; Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས།; Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Wensa Monastery དབེན་ས་དགོན།; Chakpori ལྕགས་པོ་རི།
Offices Held: Abbot of Gangchen Chopel; Abbot of Tashilhunpo; Abbot of Riwo Gepel; Abbot of Ganden Jangtse College; Fourteenth Throne Holder of Drepung Monastery; Twenty-first Khenchen of Zhalu; Eighteenth Throne Holder of Sera Monastery
Name Variants: Lobzang Chokyi Drakpa བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ།; Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Nangwa Taye Panchen Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་པཎ་ཆེན་བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།

Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan) was born in a village called Drukgya (brug brgya) in the Lhan valley, in Tsang, in either 1567 or 1570. His father, Kunga Ozer (kun dga’ ‘od zer), was a nephew of Wensa Sanggye Yeshe (dben sa sangs rgyas ye shes, 1525-1590/1591), and a member of the illustrious Ba (sba) clan. His mother’s name was Tsogyel (mtsho rgyal). They gave him the name Chogyel Pelden Zangpo (chos rgyal dpal ldan bzang po). The boy was recognized by Langmika Chokyi Gyeltsen (glang mig pa chos kyi rgyal mtshan) as the reincarnation of Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub (dben sa pa blo bzang don sgrub, 1505-1566) and given the name Chokyi Gyeltsen.

As a youth Chokyi Gyeltsen studied with Sanggye Yeshe, then the abbot of Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po) and Wensapa monasteries (dben sa pa). For the first years of his life he was tutored in the autumn by Sanggye Yeshe in Drukgya, receiving from him many blessings and empowerments. There he also received teachings and initiations from his brother and grandfather. At the age of thirteen Chokyi Gyeltsen left Drukgya for Wensa monastery, to further his instruction with Sanggye Yeshe. He took novice vows with his master, and received the name Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen, and began instruction in Lamrim (lam rim). Chokyi Gyeltsen remained at Wensa for the next five years.

In his eighteenth year Chokyi Gyeltsen went to Tashilhunpo where he entered the Tosam Ling college (thos bsam gling grwa tshang), studying with Peljor Gyatso (dpal ‘byor rgya mtsho, d.u.). He spent the next three summers at Wensa, however, receiving further teachings and transmissions from Sanggye Yeshe, including the Ganden Mahamudra of Tsongkhapa. In 1591 he received the news that Sanggye Yeshe was ill with smallpox, and he quickly returned to visit with him one last time, shortly before Sanggye Yeshe passed away. Following a successful examination in Pramanavarttika at Tashilhunpo, Chokyi Gyeltsen returned to Wensa to oversee the funeral.

The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen. Click on image to enlarge. Image credit: himalayanart.org

Chokyi Gyeltsen ordained that same year, 1591, with Panchen Damcho Yarwel (pan chen dam chos yar ‘phel, d.u.), Peljor Gyatso, and Panchen Lhawang Lodro (paN chen lha dbang blo gros, d.u.) officiating. He then traveled to Lhasa, making offerings at the Jokhang and proceeded to Ganden, where he continued his education with Namkai Tsenchen (nam mkha’i mtshan can, d.u.), with whom he studied Kalachakra, and Gendun Gyeltsen (dge’ ‘dun rgyal mtshan, 1532-1605/1607), the Twenty-eighth throne holder of Ganden, who taught him the collected works of the Second Dalai Lama. Chokyi Gyeltsen in turn taught Gendun Gyeltsen the Ganden Mahamudra, making him his successor in the oral lineage of that tradition. Damcho Pelbar (dam chos dpal ‘bar, 1523/1546-1599), the Twenty-sixth throne holder of Ganden, also taught him Cho.

Having returned to Wensa, which he enlarged with new temples and statues, Chokyi Gyeltsen gave public teachings on Lamrim and other topics, but soon felt the urge to enter retreat. He closed himself off from the public for six or seven months, reading scripture between sessions of meditation. It was during this short retreat that he had a vision of Tsongkhapa, and in his sleep received a number of important transmissions from him. He shifted his retreat to his home village, living for a time like a “cotton-clad one” (ras pa) in the tradition of the Kagyu ascetics, before returning to Wensa.

In 1601, his fame now widespread, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen was asked to assume the abbacy of Tashilhunpo. The thirty-one year old was already abbot of Wensa and, beginning in 1598, abbot of Gangchen Chopel (gangs can chos ‘phel), having been requested to assume that post by Lhuntse Depa (lhun rtse sde pa, d.u.). That same year he initiated a Great Prayer Festival, or Monlam Chenmo (smon lam chen mo) at Tashilhunpo, installing a number of new statues in the temples. Eight years later, in 1609, he established a tantric college at the monastery, the Tashilhunpo Gyupa Dratsang (bkra shis lhun po rgyud pa grwa tshang)

Soon after taking the abbacy of Tashilhunpo, Yonten Gyatso (yon tan rgya mtsho, 1589-1616), the Fourth Dalai Lama, visited there, arriving in Tibet from Mongolia for the first time. It would seem that Chokyi Gyeltsen played a role in the Tibetan acceptance of the Mongolian boy as the legitimate incarnation of Sonam Gyatso (bsod nams rgya mtsho, 1543-1588). The Fourth Dalai Lama requested Chokyi Gyeltsen accompanied him to Drepung, where he taught for some time, and then as he traveled to various Kadampa and Gelukpa monasteries in the region, including Reting (rwa sgreng) and various sites connected to Tsongkhapa’s activities in Lhoka.

In 1612 Chokyi Gyeltsen visited Bhutan on invitation from the Lhapa hierarchs of Nyo (gnyos). This clan, Drukpa Kagyu followers who were strong in both Tsang and Bhutan, were rivals to Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal, 1594-1651). Their loss of influence in Bhutan, and the close relations with Chokyi Gyeltsen, led to the Lhapa conversion to the Geluk tradition late in the century. They were one clan-based religious tradition that Chokyi Gyeltsen brought under the Geluk tradition. Chokyi Gyaltsen was again involved in Bhutanese-Tibetan affairs, negotiating a truce to conflicts between the two in the mid-1650s. Among hostages freed by Bhutan was a son of the house of Nenying (gnas rnying), another clan-based religious tradition whose merger with the Geluk was accomplished by Chokyi Gyeltsen.

The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.

Chokyi Gyeltsen continued to go back and forth between Shigatse and Lhasa, teaching at Tashilhunpo, Drepung, Sera, Ganden, and other Geluk monasteries. In 1617 the Fourth Dalai Lama passed away, and Chokyi Gyeltsen assumed the abbacy of both Drepung and Sera. These were not the last monasteries where he served as abbot; in 1626 he was made abbot of Ganden’s Jangtse college, and in 1642 of Zhalu (zha lu).

In 1618 the ruling family of most of Tibet, the Pakmodrupa (phag mo dru pa), was overthrown by the ruling family of Tsang, based in Shigatse. Supporters of the Kagyu tradition, the new rulers repressed Gelukpa institutions and religious practice, including the large Geluk monasteries of the Lhasa region, although he tolerated the presence of Tashilhunpo and Chokyi Gyeltsen. Curing him of a disease the King believed to have been inflicted by the Fourth Dalai Lama, Chokyi Gyeltsen was able to secure permission from the King of Tsang to confirm the reincarnation of the Fourth Dalai Lama in the person of a boy he named Lobzang Gyatso (blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617-1682) and who later became the Fifth Dalai Lama, although he was forbidden to install him in Lhasa.

Over the next decade relations between Lhasa and Shigatse continued to deteriorate, and Chokyi Gyeltsen was forced to mediate time and again. He was also forced to confront Mongol invasions, first in 1621 when Mongolian troops, brought in after secret negotiations with Geluk hierarchs, laid seige to Tsang authority in Lhasa and drove Tsang forces to Chakpori (lcags po ri), a small rocky hill in Lhasa. Only after Chokyi Gyeltsen’s intervention were the forces allowed to retreat to Shigatse. With Tsang forces out of Lhasa, in 1622 Chokyi Gyeltsen was able to enthrone the Fifth Dalai Lama at Drepung.

Following the defeat of the Tsang King and the ascent of the Fifth Dalai Lama as King of Tibet in 1641, the fortunes of Chokyi Gyeltsen grew greater still. Chokyi Gyeltsen was given the title of Panchen Lama. Two separate systems of enumeration exist; according to the system of Tashilhunpo, three previous lamas, identified as Chokyi Gyeltsen’s previous incarnations, are identified as the First through Third Panchen Lamas: Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang (mkhas grub rje dge legs dpal bzang, 1385-1438), Sonam Chokyi Langpo (bsod nams phyogs kyi glang po, 1439-1505), and Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub. For this reason Chokyi Gyeltsen is either listed as the First or the Fourth Panchen Lama (the convention used on the Treasury of Lives is to list him as the Fourth, following common standard).

Chokyi Gyeltsen continued to teach for the next two decades, passing away in 1662.

Teachers

• nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1532 – d.1592
• dam chos yar ‘phel དམ་ཆོས་ཡར་འཕེལ།
• sangs rgyas rgya mtsho སངས་རྒྱས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• Sanggye Yeshe སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1525 – d.1591

Students

• chos rgya mtsho ཆོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1571 – d.1635
• dkon mchog rgyal mtshan དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1612 – d.1687
• The Fifth Tatsak Jedrung, Ngawang Chokyi Wangchuk རྟ་ཚག་རྗེ་དྲུང ༠༥ ངག་དབང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག། b.1606 – d.1652
• blo bzang dam chos rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་དམ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo bzang pad+ma བློ་བཟང་པདྨ།
• dge ‘dun don grub དགེ་འདུན་དོན་གྲུབ།
• sangs rgyas bkra shis སངས་རྒྱས་བཀྲ་ཤིས།
• Drakpa Gyeltsen གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1619 – d.1656
• ngag dbang dge legs rgyal mtshan ངག་དབང་དགེ་ལེགས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1631 – d.1668
• brtson ‘grus rgyal mtshan བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1567 – d.1650
• nam mkha’ rdo rje ནམ་མཁའ་རྡོ་རྗེ།
• blo bzang bstan dar བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་དར།
• ngag dbang rdo rje ངག་དབང་རྡོ་རྗེ།
• blo bzang bstan pa rab rgyas བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པ་རབ་རྒྱས།
• grags pa dpal ldan གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་ལྡན།
• blo bzang chos ‘phel བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
• The First Tukwan, Lobzang Rabten ཐུའུ་བཀྭན ༠༡ བློ་བཟང་རབ་བརྟན། d.1679
• rnam rgyal dpal ‘byor རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དཔལ་འབྱོར། b.1578 – d.1651
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.1682
• The Second Zhabdrung Karpo, Lodro Gyatso ཞབས་དྲུང་དཀར་པོ ༠༢ བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1610 – d.1659
• blo bzang bstan pa dar rgyas བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པ་དར་རྒྱས།
• dge legs rgya mtsho དགེ་ལེགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• dkon mchog rgyal mtshan དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1635 – d.1723
• blo bzang bstan ‘dzin rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1639 – d.1704
• The First Rongwo Drubchen, Shar Kelden Gyatso རོང་པོ་གྲུབ་ཆེན ༠༡ ཤར་སྐལ་ལྡན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1607 – d.1677
• bstan ‘dzin blo bzang rgya mtsho བསྟན་འཛིན་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1593 – d.1638
• The Fourth Tongkhor, Dogyu Gyatso སྟོང་འཁོར ༠༤ མདོ་རྒྱུད་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1640 – d.1683
• ngag dbang bstan ‘dzin ‘phrin las ངག་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་འཕྲིན་ལས། b.1639 – d.1682
• don yod chos kyi rgya mtsho དོན་ཡོད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• snying stobs rgya mtsho སྙིང་སྟོབས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• The Third Tongkhor, Gyelwa Gyatso སྟོང་འཁོར ༠༣ རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1588 – d.1639
• The Third Kirti, Tenpa Rabgye ཀིརྟི ༠༣ བསྟན་པ་རབ་རྒྱས། b.1564 – d.1643
• The Fourth Kirti, Lobzang Jamyang ཀིརྟི ༠༤ བློ་བཟང་འཇམ་དབྱངས། b.1656 – d.1708

Previous Incarnations

• Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང། b.1385 – d.1438
• bsod nams phyogs glang བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་གླང། b.1439 – d.1504
• The Third Panchen Lama, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༣ དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་གྲུབ། b.1505 – d.1556

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Fifth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༥ བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1663 – d.1737
• The Sixth Panchen Lama, dpal ldan ye shes པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༦ དཔལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1738 – d.1780
• The Seventh Panchen Lama, bstan pa’i nyi ma པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༧ བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ། b.1782 – d.1853
• The Eighth Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༨ བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག། d.1882
• The Ninth Panchen Lama, thub bstan chos kyi nyi ma པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༩ ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ། b.1883 – d.1937
• The Tenth Panchen Lama, phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན །b.1938 – d.1989

Bibliography

• Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan. 1973 (1720). Chos smra ba’i dge slong blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan spyod tshul gsal bar ston pa nor bu’i phreng ba. In Collected Works (Gsung ‘bum) of Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, the 1st Paṇchen Lama, reproduced from tracings from prints of the Bkra shis lhun po blocks, pp. 5-454. New Delhi: Mongolian Lama Gurudeva. Also published as The Autobiography of the First Paṇchen Lama Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1969, Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo.
• Kapstein, Matthew. 2006. The Tibetans. Boston: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 134-139.
• Smith, Gene. 2001. “The Autobiography of the First Paṇchen Lama.” In Among Tibetan Texts, pp. 119-131. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
• Tshe mchog gling yongs ‘dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1970 (1787). Biographies of Eminent Gurus in the Transmission Lineages of the teachings of the Graduated Path, being the text of: Byang chub Lam gyi Rim pa’i Bla ma Brgyud pa’i Rnam par Thar pa Rgyal mtshan Mdzes pa’i Rgyan Mchog Phul byung Nor bu’i Phreng ba. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, vol 1, pp. 88-235.
• Willis, Janice D. 1985. “Preliminary Remarks on the Nature of rNam-thar: Early dGe-lugs-pa Siddha Biographies.” In Soundings in Tibetan Civilizations. Barbara Aziz and Matthew Kapstein, eds. Delhi: Manohar, pp. 304-319.
• Willis, Janice D. 1995. Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 85-96.

Source: Alexander Gardner, “The Fourth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 11, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Lobzang-Chokyi-Gyeltsen/9839.

Alexander Gardner is Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007.

Published December 2009

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Lobzang-Chokyi-Gyeltsen/9839. Click to enlarge.

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