H.H. the 3rd Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

b.1543 – d.1588

Incarnations: Dalai Lama ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Tibetan Autonomous Region
Historical Period: 16^th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Kumbum Jampa Ling སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང།; Litang Chokhor Ling ལི་ཐང་ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང།; Chekar Chode འཆད་དཀར་ཆོས་སྡེ།; Jangchen བྱང་ཆེན།; Arik Gonchen ཨ་རིག་དགོན་ཆེན།; Namgyel རྣམ་རྒྱལ་།
Offices Held: Twelfth Throne Holder of Drepung Monastery; Fifteenth Throne Holder of Sera Monastery; Thirteenth Throne Holder of Chamdo Jampa Ling
Name Variants: Chamdo Trirab 13 Sonam Gyatso ཆབ་མདོ་ཁྲི་རབས ༡༣ བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Dalai Lama 03 Sonam Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༣ བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Sicho Pelzang སྲིད་ཆོད་དཔལ་བཟང།; Sonam Gyatso བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།

Sonam Gyatso (bsod nams rgya mtsho) was born in 1543 in the Kyisho (skyid shod) region of U to a family with strong ties to the Sakya tradition and the Pakmodru rulers of Tsang. His father Namgyel Drakpa (rnam rgyal grags pa) was an official in the government. His mother, whose family also had ties to the Pakmodru family, was Peldzom Butri (dpal ‘dzom bu khrid). Her father, Wangchuk Rinpoche (dbang phyug rin po che) was a renowned tantric master in the service of the royal household. Because of negative omens that preceded his birth, his parents gave him the milk of a white nanny goat, earning him the name Ranusi Chopel Zangpo (ra nu sri chos ‘phel bzang po) – “happy boy protected by goat’s milk.”

An old thangka of H.H. the 3rd Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso. Image credit: Wikimedia. Click to enlarge.

From a young age he demonstrated unusual interest in all things ritual, and spoke to his parents and those around him of visions of buddhas and bodhisattvas that appeared to him on a seemingly regular basis. A local lama received a vision in which the young child was prophesied to be the incarnation of Avalokitesvara, and from this point forward his reputation spread. By the time he was two years old rumors were spread that he was the reincarnation of Gendun Gyatso (dge ‘dun rgya mtsho, 1476-1542) a famous abbot of Drepung (’bras spungs) and Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po), and the following year, in 1546, he was enthroned at Drepung by the rulers of the house of Nedong (sne’u gdong). He took his novice vows with Panchen Sonam Drakpa (paN chen bsod nams grags pa, 1478-1554), who gave him the name Sonam Gyatso Pelzangpo Tenpai Nyima Chok Tamche Le Nampar Gyelwa (bsod nams rgya mtsho dpal bzang po bstan pa’i nyi ma phyogs thams cad las rnam par rgyal ba). In 1552 he was made abbot of Drepung, and in 1558 he became abbot of Sera as well.

Another depiction of H.H. the 3rd Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

Like his previous incarnation, Sonam Gyatso cultivated relations with members of ruling houses across Tibet, receiving an invitation from the king of Guge, Jigten Wangchuk Pekarde (‘jig rten dbang phyug pad dkar lde) to propigate the Geluk tradition in Ngari (mnga’ ris), although he seems to have declined this. He did become a court minister to the Pakmodru family, visiting the seat at Nedong (sne gdong) in 1559.

In 1564, at the age of twenty-two Sonam Gyatso took full ordination and gave his first teachings at Tashilhunpo Monastery.

Sonam Gyatso founded a number of monasteries. Best known of these is Namgyel Monastery, later the personal monastery of the Dalai Lamas. Initially it was a house at Drepung, named Dratsang Pende Lekshel Ling (grwa tshang phan bde legs bshad gling), and was later absorbed into the Potala by the Fifth Dalai Lama. In 1578, on his way to Mongolia, Sonam Gyatso stopped at the site of Tsongkhapa’s birth, where a monk named Rinchen Tsondru Gyeltsen (rin chen brtson ‘grus rgyal mtshan) had founded a small temple in 1560. Sonam Gyatso asked him to expand it, and in 1583 consecrated it as Kumbum Jampa Ling (sku ‘bum byams pa gling), which would grow to be one of the largest Geluk monasteries in the world.

An old painting of Altan Khan. Image credit: Wikipedia. Click on image to enlarge.

Sonam Gyatso’s greatest missionary triumph was his forging of a relationship with the Mongol leaders. Altan Khan, the leader of the Tumet Mongols, initially sent a delegation to Drepung in the early 1570s, to invite Geluk heirarchs to Mongolia, without success. A second delegation arrived in 1577, and successfully pursuaded Sonam Gyatso to return with them.

Upon meeting the two agreed to enter into a “patron-priest” relationship (yon mchod) modeled on that of Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen (‘phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) and Khubilai Khan in the thirteenth century. For Altan, patronage of the growing Geluk tradition was a way to recreate his forebears’ influence in Tibet; for Sonam Gyatso, the opportunity for Mongol support for his missionary work both inside and outside of Tibet (he had earlier spent time on the Amdo borderlands spreading the Geluk teachings) was surely extremely attractive. It was at this time that Altan Khan gave Sonam Gyatso the title, in Mongolian, of ghaikhamsigh vcir-a dar-a say-in cogh-tu buyan-tu dalai, meaning “wonderful Vajradhara, good, brilliant, commendable ocean” and subsequently shortened to Dalai Lama.

THE SEVENTH DALAI LAMA WITH PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS. The Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso, along with a selection of the previous incarnations according to the Kadam Lekbam. H.H. the 3rd Dalai Lama is the figure at the bottom centre. More at himalayanart.org

In 1579, with the patronage of Altan Khan, Sonam Gyatso founded Jangchen Monastery in the Khalkha lands. While still in Mongolia Sonam Gyatso received an invitation from the Ming Emperor Wanli to visit Beijing, an offer he refused. On his return to Tibet he passed through Kham and established Litang Chode, also known as Ganden Tubchen Chokorling (li thang chos sde; dga ldan thub chen chos ‘khor gling) in 1580. The following year the twelfth abbot of Chamdo Jampa Ling, Jedrung Lhawang Chokyi Gyeltsen (rje drung lha dbang chos kyi rgyal po, 1537-1604), invited him to assume the duties of abbot of that monastery, and Sonam Gyatso thus spent about six months in Chamdo teaching, giving transmissions, and revising the monastery’s codes. He then returned to Lhasa.

Although Altan Khan died in 1582, Sonam Gyatso again returned to Mongolia, this time at the invitation of Altan’s son, Dugureng. He also spent time among the Odros Mongols, converting them to Buddhism, and the Khalkha Mongols, at the invitation of Abadai Khan, who founded the first Buddhist monastery in Khalkha.

Sonam Gyatso passed away in 1588, in Mongolia, after a period of illness. His remains were interred at Kokekhota.

Teachers

• Panchen Sonam Drakpa པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ། b.1478 – d.1554
• bsod nams dpal bzang བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་བཟང།
• dbang phyug rgyal mtshan དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo gsal rgya mtsho བློ་གསལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1502
• The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང། b.1505 – d.1567

Students

• chos rgya mtsho ཆོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1571 – d.1635
• nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1532 – d.1592
• The Second Tongkhor, Yonten Gyatso སྟོང་འཁོར ༠༢ ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1557 – d.1587
• dam chos yar ‘phel དམ་ཆོས་ཡར་འཕེལ།
• bsod nams dpal bzang བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་བཟང།
• The Thirty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Konchok Chopel དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༣༥ དཀོན་མཆོག་ཆོས་འཕེལ། b.1573 – d.1646
• chos dpal bzang po ཆོས་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།
• The Fourth Tatsak Jedrung, Lhawang Chokyi Gyeltsen རྟ་ཚག་རྗེ་དྲུང ༠༤ ལྷ་དབང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1537 – d.1603
• Peljor Lhundrub དཔལ་འབྱོར་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1561 – d.1637
• don yod chos kyi rgya mtsho དོན་ཡོད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• chos kyi ‘byung gnas ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས།

Previous Incarnations

• The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༡ དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ། b.1391 – d.1474
• The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༢ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1476 – d.1542

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༤ ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1589 – d.1617
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.1682
• The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༦ ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1683 – d.1706
• The Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༧ སྐལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1708 – d.1757
• The Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༨ འཇམ་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1758 – d.1804
• The Ninth Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༩ ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1805 – d.1815
• The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1816 – d.1837
• The Eleventh Dalai Lama, Khedrub Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༡ མཁས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1838 – d.1855
• The Twelfth Dalai Lama, Trinle Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༢ འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1856 – d.1875
• The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༣ ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1876 – d.1933
• The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tendzin Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༤ བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1935

Bibliography

• Anon. 1977. Rje thams cad mkhyen pa bsod nams rgya mtsho’i rnam thar.In ‘Phags pa’jig rten dbang phyug gi rnam sprul rim byon gyi ‘khrungs rabs deb ther nor bu’i ‘phreng ba, vol. 2, pp. 1-171. Dharamsala: Sku sger yig tshang, 1977.TBRC W22095.
• Kam Tak-sing. 2000. “The dGe-lugs-pa Breakthrough: The Uluk Darxan Nangsu Lama’s Mission to the Manchus.” Central Asiatic Journal. 44:2, p. 161-176.
• Kollmar-Paulenz, Karenina. 2005. “The Third Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso and The Fourth Dalai Lama Yonten Gyatso.” In Brauen, Martin, ed. The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. London: Serindia, pp.. 53-59.
• Rawski, Evelyn S. 1998. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 244-262.
• Rockhill, William Woodville. 1910. “The Dalai Lamas of Lhasa and their relations with the Manchu emperors of China, 1644-1908.” T’oung Pao 11, pp. 1-104.
• 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 2, pp. 703‑721.
• Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho. 1982. Rje btsun thams cad mkhyen pa bsod nams rgya mtsho’i rnam thar dngos grub rgya mtsho’i shing rta and ’jig rten dbang phyug thams cad mkhyen pa yon tan rgya mtsho dpal bzang po’i rnam thar thar pa nor bu’i ’phreng ba. Dolanji: Tashi Dorjee.
• Okada Hidehiro. 1992. “The Third Dalai Lama and Altan Khan of the Tumed.” In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Narita 1989, edited by Ihara Shoren and Yamaguchi Zuiho. Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji, pp. 645-652.

Source: Miranda Adams, “The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 28, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Dalai-Lama-Sonam-Gyatso/12828.

Miranda Adams

Published September 2008

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

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Dalai-Lama-Sonam-Gyatso/12828o. Click on image to enlarge.

For more interesting information:

• The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
• The Tsongkhapa category on my blog
• The Great Lamas and Masters category on my blog
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