The Twenty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso
The Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click to enlarge.
b.1526 – d.1599
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Mongolia དགེ་ལུགས།
Historical Period: 16th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Gyuto Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Taktse Rinchen Gang སྟག་རྩེ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒང།; Kyormolung སྐྱོར་མོ་ལུང།
Offices Held: Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Choje Gyalkhang Tsepa ཆོས་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་ཁང་རྩེ་པ།; Ganden Trichen 25 Peljor Gyatso དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༥ དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Ganden Tripa 25 Peljor Gyatso དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༥ དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Gyalkhang Tsepa Peljor Gyatso རྒྱལ་ཁང་རྩེ་པ་དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Peljor Gyatso དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Tolungwa Peljor Gyatso སྟོད་ལུང་བ་དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Trichen 25 ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༥།
The Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso (dga’ ldan khri pa 25 dpal ‘byor rgya mtsho) was born into a noble family of Depa Gepa Kapa (sde pa gad pa kha pa) in Tolung Rampa (stod lung ram pa) in 1526, in the fire-dog year of the ninth sexagenary cycle. He was later said to be the reincarnation of a Kuton Rinpoche (khu ston rin po che) whose details are not known.
Peljor Gyatso was granted novice vows and full ordination by the Twenty-first Ganden Tripa, Trichen Dewa Chenpa (dga’ ldan tripa 21 khri chen bde ba chen pa, 1505-1567). He started his education and training at a very young age and later studied the traditional courses in the major subjects of studies in the Geluk monastic curriculum at Kyormolung (skyor mo lung), Rato (ra stod), and Gyuto College (rgyud stod grwa tshang).
According to the sources some of the known teachers of Trichen Peljor Gyatso included the Fifteenth Ganden Tripa, Panchen Sonam Drakpa (dga’ ldan khri pa 15 paN chen bsod nams grags pa, 1478-1554); Lhawang Peljor (lha dbang dpal ‘byor, d.u.), who was known as a teacher in the transmission lineage of the Abhidharmakosa; the Twenty-first Ganden Tripa, Trichen Gelek Pelzang (dga’ ldan khri pa 21 khri chen dge legs dpal bzang, 1505-1567); Lobzang Evam (blo bzang e wam, d.u.), who was also called Tatsakpa Lobzang Evam (ra tshag pa blo bzang e wam); and Chokyi Drakpa (chos kyi grags pa, d.u.) who was also called Zhal-ngane Chokyi Drakpa (zhal snga nas chos kyi grags pa, d.u.).
Peljor Gyatso served as the educator (’chad nyan pa) of Rato and as the lama of Gyuto, and at one point travelled with his retinue to Wolga (‘ol dga’). He thereafter served as the common lama of Shartse College of Ganden Monastic University (dga’ ldan shar rtse grwa tshang) and Gyuto College.
Thangka of His Holiness the 4th Dalai Lama. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
In 1582, at the age of fifty-seven, Tolungwa Peljor Gyatso was enthroned as the Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa, and served for eight years, until 1589. During his tenure he gave many teachings on the topics of sutra and tantra and renovated the residence of Ganden Tripas, sponsoring new wall murals. Trichen Peljor Gyatso attended Lhasa Monlam Chenmo (the Great Prayer Festival of Lhasa) regularly to lead the sessions. According to sources, it was Trichen Peljor Gyatso who gave the name Yonten Gyatso (yon tan rgya mtsho) to the Fourth Dalai Lama, presumably after giving him his monastic vows.
Trichen Peljor Gyatso was sixty-four when he retired from the post of Tripa, and he settled in Gyelkhangtse (rgyal khang rtse). There, because of his fame, he was called Choje Gyalkhang Tsepa (chos rje rgyal khang rtse pa). After his retirement he also travelled to Mongolia and gave extensive teachings.
Trichen Peljor Gyatso served as the patron-lama (zhal ’dzin) of a number of monasteries, including Kyormolung (skyor mo lung), Pakmo Chode (phag mo chos sde), Bartsak Chode (‘bar tshag chos sde), Pelbar (dpal ‘bar), Tangkya (thang skya), and Rinchenling (rin chen gling). He was a major teacher in the transmission lineage in the teaching of Abhidharmakosa.
Among his disciples were the Thirtieth Ganden Tripa, Choje Lodro Gyatso (dga’ ldan khri pa 30 chos rje blo gros rgya mtsho, 1532-1607); Gomdewa Namkha Gyeltsen (sgom sde ba nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan, 1532-1592), who served as an abbot of Gyuto Tantric College; and Konchok Chopel (dkon mchog chos ‘phel, d.u.) who was also called Zhabdrung Konchok Chopel (zhabs drung dkon mchog chos ‘phel).
At the age of seventy-four, in 1599, the earth-pig year in the tenth sexagenary cycle, Trichen Peljor Gyatso passed into nirvana. A silver stupa of descent from Tusita (lha babs mchod rten) was built in his memory and installed at the beginning of the rows of the main objects of faith on the east of Lima Lhakang in Ganden Monastery. Occasional offering-prayers were also being held there.
དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༥ དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
དཔལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ནི་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་ཉེར་ལྔ་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༥༨༢ ནས་༡༥༨༩ བར་ཁྲི་པ་མཛད། པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་བཤེས་གཉེན་དུ་བསྟེན། སྐྱོར་མོ་ལུང་དང་། རྭ་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང་། རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང་བཅས་སུ་སློབ་གཉེར་གནང་། རྗེས་སུ་དགོན་པ་འདི་དག་ཏུ་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་མཁན་པོའི་མཛད་འགན་བསྐྱངས། ཁོང་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ་གནང་བའི་སྐབས་ཁྲི་པའི་བཞུགས་གནས་ཉམས་གསོ་དང་ལྡེབས་རིས་གསར་བཞེངས་སོགས་མཛད།
Teachers
- chos kyi grags pa ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ།
- Panchen Sonam Drakpa པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ། b.1478 – d.1554
- blo bzang e wam བློ་བཟང་ཨེ་ཝམ།
- lha dbang dpal ‘byor ལྷ་དབང་དཔལ་འབྱོར།
- The Twenty-First Ganden Tripa, Gelek Pelzang དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༡ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང། b.1505 – d.1567
Students
- nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1532 – d.1592
- The Thirtieth Ganden Tripa, Lodro Gyatso དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༣༠ བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1546 – d.1618
- dkon mchog chos ‘phel དཀོན་མཆོག་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
Subsequent Incarnations
- Lobzang Chodar བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་དར། b.1732 – d.1812
Bibliography
- Don rdor and bstan ‘dzin chos grags. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gig rags can mi sna, bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, p. 611.
- Grags pa’byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod, Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 783-784.
- Grong khyer lha sa srid gros lo rgyus rig gnas dpyad yig rgyu cha rtsom ’bri au yon lhan khang. 1964. Dga’ ldan dgon pa dang brag yer pa’i lo rgyus, grong khyer lha sa’i lo rgyus rig gnas deb 02. Bod ljongs shin hwa par ’debs bzo grwa khang, p. 64.
- Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 1989 (1698). Dga’ ldan chos ‘byung baiDU r+ya ser po. Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, pp. 85-86.
Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Twenty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 11, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-25-Peljor-Gyatso/5432.
Samten Chhosphel is an independent scholar with PhD from the Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston, MA. After serving as the In-charge of Publication Department of CUTS for 26 years, he immigrated to the United States in 2009 and is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University.
Published September 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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The Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa, Peljor Gyatso was born into a noble family of in Tolung Rampa and was the reincarnation of a Kuton Rinpoche. He studied traditional courses under high lamas such as the Fifteenth Ganden Tripa, Panchen Sonam Drakpa and training in the Geluk monastic curriculum as well. Peljor Gyatso served as the educator, Lama and later as the Twenty-fifth Ganden Tripa. He spent most of his life teaching on the topics of sutra and tantra to many people at the monastery. He also travelled to Mongolia and gave extensive teachings after his retirement. He served as a patron-lama of a number of monasteries. In memory of a great teacher Peljor Gyatso a silver stupa was installed in Ganden Monastery. Hopefully I could see it for myself this stupa of a great teacher .
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing .
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s