Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
Nancy G. Lin1
(Vanderbilt University)
Faced with something immensely large or unknown, of which
we still do not know enough or of which we shall never know,
the author proposes a list as a specimen, example, or
indication, leaving the reader to imagine the rest.
—Umberto Eco, The Infinity of Lists2
I
ncarnation lineages naming the past lives of eminent lamas
have circulated since the twelfth century, that is, roughly
around the same time that the practice of identifying
reincarnating Tibetan lamas, or tulkus (sprul sku), began.3 From the
twelfth through eighteenth centuries it appears that incarnation or
rebirth lineages (sku phreng, ’khrungs rabs, etc.) of eminent lamas
rarely exceeded twenty members as presented in such sources as
their auto/biographies, supplication prayers, and portraits; Dölpopa
Sherab Gyeltsen (Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361), one
such exception, had thirty-two. Among other eminent lamas who
traced their previous lives to the distant Indic past, the lineages of
Nyangrel Nyima Özer (Nyang ral Nyi ma ’od zer, 1124–1192) had up
1
2
3
I thank the organizers and participants of the USF Symposium on The Tulku
Institution in Tibetan Buddhism, where this paper originated, along with those of
the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum—especially José Cabezón, Jake Dalton,
Michael Sheehy, and Nicole Willock for the feedback and resources they shared. I
am further indebted to Tony K. Stewart, Anand Taneja, Bryan Lowe, Dianna Bell,
and Rae Erin Dachille for comments on drafted materials. I thank the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange for their generous
support during the final stages of revision. Finally, I am very grateful to Gedun
Rabsal and Wen-shing Chou for reinvigorating this essay with keen-eyed
responses to my newer translations and research questions.
Eco 2009, 49.
In addition to early Bka’ gdams pa examples noted by Leonard van der Kuijp,
José Cabezón has found anecdotes of Bka’ brgyud and Zhi byed identifications
from roughly the same period, reportedly from the first half of the twelfth
century. Cabezón has further traced the earliest datable incarnation lineage yet
found to an autobiographical work of the Bka’ brgyud master Nyag se Rin chen
rgyal mtshan (1141–1201). van der Kuijp 2005, 28–29; Cabezón 2017, 4–6, 14–16.
Nancy G. Lin, “Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines,
no. 38, Février 2017, pp. 119-156.
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to seventeen; those of Paṇchen Lobzang Pelden Yeshé (Paṇ chen Blo
bzang dpal ldan ye shes, 1738–1780), up to twenty including his
emanational source Amitābha; that of the Zhamar (Zhwa dmar) tulku
lineage, ten as recorded in the fifteenth-century Blue Annals, adding
up to sixteen by the end of the eighteenth century.4 By comparison
the fully elaborated rebirth lineage of the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang
Lobzang Gyatso (Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617–1682)
identified seventy-eight members near the end of his lifetime
(Appendix A, middle and right columns). What could explain such
an extraordinarily abundant lineage? And, as Umberto Eco
encourages us to ask, what does it invite us to imagine?
In this article I argue that lengthy rebirth lineages of the Fifth
Dalai Lama articulated and promoted two complementary projects of
the Ganden Podrang (Dga’ ldan pho brang) court. One was an
aesthetic associated with the phrase sizhi püntsok (srid zhi’i phun
tshogs), which may be translated as “existence and peace replete” or
“all the marvels of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.” This aesthetic of abundance
embraced and celebrated material wealth, variety, numerousness,
and a vision of inclusiveness as the ethos of the court. It also
supported a second project: a fresh paradigm of kingly rule and
legitimacy based on embodied qualities expressed through the Dalai
Lama’s rebirth lineage. While they strove to refashion religio-political
discourses and practices in the seventeenth century and beyond,
these projects had their limits amidst bitter sectarian and regional
conflicts. Nevertheless, the legacy of the Great Fifth’s rebirth lineages
extended well beyond his court, impacting the subsequent formation
of Gelukpa incarnation lineages across Asia.
I begin by analyzing two large lineages, a lineage of fifty-eight
members painted in the Red Palace of the Potala as well as a lineage
of seventy-eight members produced through a supplication prayer,
thangka paintings (thang ka), and biographical writing. Completed
near the end of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s life, these were preceded by
several earlier, shorter rebirth lineages. I sort out and compare these
various versions in order to uncover the process of expanding his
rebirth lineage and the implications for Tibetan kingship that they
entailed. Next, I explore how the multisensory environments of
rebirth lineage productions—poetry, painting, and recitation—
cultivated a paradigm of Buddhist kingship through the aesthetics of
abundance and the dynamics of prayer. Finally, I consider the impact
of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineages and circle back to the
questions of listmaking and numerality.
4
Hirshberg 2016, 55–84; Cabezón 2017, 16; ’Gos Lo tsā ba 1979 (1949), 520–32, 540–
45, 546–552.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
121
The court of the “Great Fifth”—as Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso
widely became known—is credited not only with unifying Tibet
politically, but with making a lasting impact on major aspects of
Tibetan religious and cultural traditions. Their grand achievements
include the architecture and art of the Potala Palace along with
substantial expansion of the Jokhang Temple complex in Lhasa; the
institution of major annual festivals, especially focused on Lunar
New Year; and the compilation and dissemination of systematic
writings in the recognized “fields of learning” (rig gnas, Skt.
vidyāsthāna): Buddhist doctrine, ritual, and history, as well as other
fields such as poetics, medicine, and astrology. The literary and
artistic production of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineages must
thus be understood as one particular area among an array of culturemaking projects.5 Although it is well beyond the scope of this essay to
analyze the full range of the Ganden Podrang’s activities, in future
publications I intend to address further aspects of cultural production
by the Fifth Dalai’s court.
1. Wondrous Plenitude
“Existence and Peace Replete” (srid zhi’i phun tshogs) is the
resplendent name that was bestowed on the main assembly hall of
the Red Palace in the Potala, which was completed in 1694 and also
called the western grand hall (tshoms chen nub) to distinguish it from
the eastern grand hall (tshoms chen shar) of the White Palace
completed in 1648. 6 Anyone who has entered this space is
immediately struck by its imposing scale and majestic grandeur.
With eight tall pillars and thirty-six shorter pillars, it has an estimated
area of 370 square meters, and a height exceeding six meters (Fig. 1).7
5
6
7
For an excellent overview of the Fifth Dalai Lama and previous scholarship on
his history and cultural achievements, see Schaeffer 2005, especially 280n1.
Some recent publications also refer to the eastern grand hall in the White Palace
by the name srid zhi’i phun tshogs, but it is unclear to me when or how this latter
usage began to circulate. Materials attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama that I have
read simply refer to it as the “grand hall” (tshoms chen), the “grand hall of Potala
Palace,” (pho brang po ta la’i tshoms chen), or some variant thereof. In Sde srid
Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho’s supplement to the Fifth’s autobiography, we find
multiple references to the Red Palace’s grand hall with this particular name, e.g.
“the new grand hall Existence and Peace Replete” (tshoms chen gsar pa srid zhi’i
phun tshogs). In any case, I would concur that many visual elements I associate
with the aesthetic of srid zhi’i phun tshogs are also found in the White Palace’s
grand hall, albeit in earlier stylistic forms. Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho,
Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, vol. 6, 135b3=270.3.
Phun tshogs tshe brtan 2000, 263. For additional images of this hall see Jiang
Huaiying 1996, vol. 2, Pls. 146–165; Phun tshogs tshe brtan 2000, 84–102.
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Fig. 1. “Existence and Peace Replete” grand hall, Red Palace, Potala, Lhasa, completed 1694.
(After Phuntsok Namgyal 2002, 124. By permission of Homa & Sekey Books, www.homabooks.com)
The wall painting program features Dalai Lama rebirth lineage
portraits and narrative scenes from the Great Fifth’s life. While the
paintings have undergone restoration—as have the paintings in the
Eastern Great Hall—elements of the original design may still be
discerned in consultation with textual sources.
On the ground level are portraits of principal lineage figures (Fig.
2) accompanied by smaller figures and narrative scenes of the Fifth
Dalai Lama’s life, which also serve as visual transitions between the
iconic figures (Figs. 1, 3). It begins on the north side of the west wall
with the buddha Ödzé Yeshétok (’Od mdzad ye shes tog, Skt.
*Prabhākarajñānaketu), in whose presence the bodhisattva Chenrezik
(Spyan ras gzigs, Skt. Avalokiteśvara) is said to have generated the
aspiration for supreme awakening 991 eons (skal pa, Skt. kalpa) ago.8
According to the catalog of the Great Fifth’s funerary stūpa and other
contents of the Red Palace by Desi Sanggyé Gyatso (Sde srid Sangs
rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653–1705), the remaining procession of figures as
the viewer circumambulates clockwise around the hall are the
8
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, vol. 4, 14a2=31.2.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
123
buddha Öpakmé (Skt. Amitābha) followed by Chenrezik on the north
wall; the Tibetan imperial kings Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsen
(Fig. 2), along with the Indic king Könchok Bang (Dkon mchog
’bangs) on the east wall; the Indic prince Depa Tenpa (Dad pa brtan
pa) and the Nyingma (Rnying ma) treasure revealer Nyangrel Nyima
Özer on the south wall; and the First Dalai Lama Gendün Drub (Dge
’dun grub) on the west wall.9 Apart from the two buddhas who are
biographically linked with Chenrezik, the remaining figures are all
members of the Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage, that is, his emanational
source (Chenrezik) and preincarnations. The lineage portraits are
larger than life, with seated figures at a height of 1.5 meters and the
Fig. 2. Emperor Trisong Detsen, from a series of Fifth Dalai Lama rebirth lineage wall paintings.
“Existence and Peace Replete” grand hall, Red Palace, Potala, Lhasa, 1690–1694.
(After Henss 2014, vol. 1, fig. 161. Photo 1981 by permission of author.)
9
As most of the assembly hall was not accessible for study at the time research
was conducted, I was able to make only limited observations at considerable
distance from the wall paintings. The description in Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya
mtsho’s catalog of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s funerary stūpa is partly reproduced in
Phun tshogs tshe brtan’s book on Potala murals, and generally agrees with a
modern Tibetan-language guide to the Potala; it differs somewhat from Samten
Karmay’s description of the principal figures based on observations made in
1995. The iconic portrait of Dad pa brtan pa appears to have been replaced by one
of ’Brom ston. Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Sole Ornament, vol. 1, 285a3–
285b5=579.3–580.5; Phun tshogs tshe brtan 2000, 263–271; Karmay 2005, vol. 2,
109–118; Ljongs rig dngos do dam u yon lhan khang 2007 (1987), 54–55.
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standing Chenrezik at a height of two meters.10 The Desi’s catalog
continues by listing fifty-seven members of the Dalai Lama’s rebirth
lineage painted on the walls above the balustrade (seng g.yab),
beginning with the Fifth Dalai Lama (Fig. 1).11 Except for Chenrezik,
all of the Dalai Lama rebirth lineage members portrayed on the main
walls reappear as portrait subjects on the walls above the balustrade,
as documented in the left column of Appendix A. This brings the
total number of Dalai Lama rebirth lineage members portrayed in the
grand hall to fifty-eight.
Fig. 3. The Fifth Dalai Lama meets the Shunzhi emperor. Detail of wall paintings.
“Existence and Peace Replete” grand hall, Red Palace, Potala, Lhasa, 1690–1694.
(After Phuntsok Namgyal 2002, 125. By permission of Homa & Sekey Books, www.homabooks.com)
10
11
Measurements are provided for all current lineage portraits except that of the
First Dalai Lama. Jiang Huaiying et al. 1996, vol. 2, 536–37.
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Sole Ornament, vol. 1, 285b5–286b4=580.5–582.4.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
125
If the titular phrase “existence and peace replete” signified the
wondrous plenitude of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, then the Red Palace’s
grand hall simulated that glorious reality in three-dimensional space,
and asserted that the Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage was integral to its
expression. From all sides and from above, the viewer’s gaze was
returned by enlightened beings in their buddha and bodhisattva
forms, powerful kings and noble princes, venerated and charismatic
scholars and adepts. The New Menri (sman ris gsar pa) style
pioneered by Tsangpa Chöying Gyatso (Gtsang pa Chos dbyings
rgya mtsho) was well suited to depicting the array of cosmic and
worldly beings in myriad settings, with its vivid use of color, lively
postures and facial expressions, dynamically flowing robes, and
finely detailed ornamentation (Figs. 2, 3). 12 The aesthetic of
extravagant adornment extended to—and was intensified by—other
surfaces and objects such as the carved and brightly painted pillar
brackets, frames, and balustrade; richly brocaded hangings; the
draped and cushioned high throne; and other furnishings that were
in use by the Ganden Podrang court (Fig. 1). Populated by the
Ganden Podrang court and its visitors, resounding with ritual
instruments and human voices, the multisensory effect would have
been complete. We might echo a line from the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
Sukhāvatī prayer that asks, after describing its array of wonders, “Is
everything in existence and peace replete heaped in a mass in this
place?”13
Amidst this overwhelming environment several themes emerge
in the key of abundance. First, material wealth is celebrated through
the radical ornateness of the grand hall itself, where hardly a surface
is left unembellished from its finely carved and painted architectural
details to the gold-embroidered brocades. It is further mirrored in the
wall paintings, with their unabashed depiction of the riches of cosmic
buddhas and bodhisattvas along with that of earthly kings through
details such as the layering of intricately patterned robes and the
jewelled garlands and pendants bedecking the palaces of Amitābha,
eleven-headed Chenrezik, and the Shunzhi emperor alike (Figs. 2, 3).
Prosperity, the space suggests, is not to be abandoned along with
saṃsāra but enjoyed and shared even by those who have reached the
summit of spiritual practice. Second, the aesthetic of “existence and
peace replete” entails salutary and delightful variety, expressed
12
13
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Fine Silken Dress, 286. The 1648 wall paintings
in the White Palace’s grand hall—executed under the chief artistry of Gtsang pa
Chos dbyings rgya mtsho—exhibit greater dynamism, whimsy, and subtlety than
their 1694 Red Palace counterparts. Nevertheless, the Red Palace wall paintings
retain basic elements of the New Sman ris style.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1991–95, Collected Works, vol. 16, 192a1=389.1.
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through the different bodies inhabited by Chenrezik through time
and space as the Dalai Lama lineage, the alternating of built and
natural environments (Figs. 2, 3), along with the diverse appearances
and activities of all sorts of beings in worlds both earthly and
celestial. Third, the quality of sheer numerousness is striking:
buildings and landscapes teem with people, the sheer number of
scenes defy mental grasp, while the fifty-eight portraits of Dalai
Lama lineage figures—six of them repeated—permeate one’s
awareness from every angle.14 It was not expected that any viewer
could identify and name all fifty-eight iterations, or even that she
could see all of them clearly. Rather, what mattered was the
recognition that these portraits were all precious bodies of Chenrezik
qua Dalai Lamas, and that there were so very many of them, more
than most people could name or imagine.15
A lineage of fifty-eight figures might seem like plenty to
accomplish the Ganden Podrang court’s vision of abundance, filling
as enormous a space as the Red Palace’s grand hall. More than a
decade earlier, however, an even larger lineage had already been
conceived and executed in poetic prayer and in painting. Yangchen’s
Lute (Dbyangs can rgyud mang ma), a lengthy supplication prayer to
the Dalai Lama lineage, is preserved in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
extensive catalog of “support” objects instantiating liberated body,
speech, and mind (sku gsung thugs rten).16 According to the colophon,
it was composed by the Fifth Dalai Lama and scribed by Targyépa
Lobzang Wangpo (Mthar rgyas pa Blo bzang dbang po). Although
the text itself lacks a title in the catalog, Desi Sanggyé Gyatso’s
biographical supplement to the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography
and diaries, Fine Silken Dress (Du kū la’i gos bzang), briefly mentions
an extensive supplication prayer to the Dalai Lama lineage, titled
Yangchen’s Lute and composed by the Great Fifth himself. 17
“Yangchen’s lute” are the opening words of the text in question, in
honor of the goddess of music, poetry, and learning, also known by
her Sanskrit name Sarasvatī. The main text is composed entirely in
verse. After the Fifth Dalai Lama, who is treated as the first lineage
member, each member of the rebirth lineage is marked in the text
14
15
16
17
Phun tshogs tshe brtan assesses the number of wall painting sections at a total of
2,251. Phun tshogs tshe brtan 2000, 263.
My analysis about recognizing the group as a whole rather than each and every
single individual is inspired by the argument Rob Linrothe has made about the
eighty-four mahāsiddhas—another large group—painted on the colossal
Mañjuśrī’s dhotī in the Alchi Sumtsek. However, the emphasis on numerousness
is my own. Linrothe 2001.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 99b–107b=200–216.
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, vol. 4,
136b2=278.2.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
127
with a numerical annotation (Appendix A, middle column). Each
figure is supplicated with a single stanza except for the Great Fifth
and Chenrezik, who are each praised and supplicated with multiple
stanzas. Including the versified conclusion there are a total of ninetysix stanzas; together with the prose colophon and embedded notes,
the text runs a length of eight and a half folios with six lines per side.
Yangchen’s Lute was produced in coordination with a set of sixtyfive thangka scroll paintings illustrating the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
rebirth lineage, called Array of Avadānas (Rtogs brjod kyi zhing bkod).
The thangkas were sponsored by Desi Sanggyé Gyatso. Work on this
large-scale visual production, which began in the Iron-Monkey year
of 1680, was completed the following year. The text of Yangchen’s
Lute was likely completed shortly before or in concert with the
painting work; the colophon states that it was recited while seed
syllables were being written on the backs of the paintings as part of
the consecration ritual.18
Although the thangkas themselves are not known to be extant, a
number of details are known, including the identity of the head
painter, Gönpo Tsering from Mentang (Sman thang nas Mgon po
tshe ring)—that is, as a painter of the New Menri style.19 The Desi
describes in sumptuous detail the materials he sponsored for making
these lineage thangkas in full color, including “cotton cloth as thin as
an eggshell” as the support for the painted area; approximately an
ounce of “cold gold” (grang gser), along with colors “in abundance”
such as azurite, malachite, orpiment, and indigo pigments; green
“old khati (kha thi)” silk brocade for the fabric border (gong gsham)—
ranked first among textiles in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography,
likely in part for its antique status;20 red and yellow khati for the
narrow borders (’ja’) framing the painting; embroidered Chinese
dingpön (ding phon) satin for the brocade patch (mthongs ’jug) on the
central thangka in the set; “Mongolian satin” with phoenix and
dragon figures on a red background of dragons and clouds for the
brocade patches on the remaining thangkas; and not one but two
layers of dust covers (zhal khebs) made of two different kinds of silk.21
All told, the Desi reports, the value of the materials for the sixty-five
thangkas was 464.625 sang (srang) of silver (approaching ten pounds
18
19
20
21
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 107b1=216.1.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 107b2=216.2.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Fine Silken Dress, vol. 3, 241.
For identifying Tibetan textile terms, I have relied on Joachim Karsten’s
unpublished work on the subject. Karsten n.d.
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in weight); the expenses for labor and offerings associated with its
production totaled 854.665 sang of silver (nearly eighteen pounds).22
While the Desi does not comment on the composition of the
painted designs, we may infer from comparable productions that
most scrolls would have consisted of central figures accompanied by
smaller figures, sites, and/or narrative scenes associated with them.
According to the colophon of Yangchen’s Lute, two scribes wrote
inscriptions on the thangkas for each of the central figures,
presumably the verse supplications themselves.23 The earliest extant
thangkas depicting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage likely date
to the late seventeenth century; this set originally consisted of
nineteen thangkas, but only seven are extant and are divided among
various collections.24 A later lineage thangka design that may have
been based on, or borrowed elements from, Array of Avadānas was
made for the Seventh Dalai Lama in thirteen block-prints at the
Narthang Monastery Printing House. A complete set of painted
copies in the gold thangka style (gser thang) is held in the collection of
Tibet House New Delhi.25 In this design the Seventh Dalai Lama
serves as the central figure of the set, while other lineage members
are depicted in three-quarter profile facing the center.
Returning to our thangka set in question, Array of Avadānas, given
its name it may have included more detailed narrative scenes as
observable in numerous avadāna thangka designs. 26 With seventyeight lineage members appearing on sixty-five thangkas, some
thangkas would have featured more than one lineage figure. By way
of comparison, another later set of seven Dalai Lama lineage
thangkas—ending with the Ninth Dalai Lama—groups together up
to four lineage members in a single composition.27 Apart from the
central thangka where the Fifth Dalai Lama’s portrait is dominant,
the compositional strategy of each of the remaining thangkas is
relatively decentralized; moreover, the lineage members are not
22
23
24
25
26
27
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, vol. 4, 201a1–
201b3=407.1–408.3.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 107b3–107b4=216.3–216.4.
Henss 2005, 264. For example, an image of ’Brom ston from this set may be
viewed as HAR item no. 85968 at: http://www.himalayanart.org/items/85968
(last accessed January 20, 2017).
Images of the complete Tibet House New Delhi set may be viewed at:
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=686 (last accessed
December 30, 2016).
For studies of avadāna thang ka paintings see Lin 2011.
For a detailed analysis of this set see Sørensen 2005b, 242–57. Images of the
complete set may also be viewed as HAR items no. 65850–65856 at:
http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/dalaiset7/index.html (last accessed
January 20, 2017).
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
129
grouped in strict chronological order. When mounted for display, the
sixty-five thangkas of Array of Avadānas must have made for an
impressive sight; to fit them consecutively in a single space would
have required a grand assembly hall such as those of the White or
Red Palaces of the Potala, or the main assembly hall of Drepung
Monastery. We may conclude that the thangkas would have shared
the aesthetic values of wealth, variety, and numerousness found in
the Red Palace’s grand hall, as well as the New Menri style of the
wall paintings.
2. Expanding the Rebirth Lineage
It is uncertain how widely the supplication prayer Yangchen’s Lute
was known and recited, or with what frequency and duration the
Array of Avadānas was displayed. Nevertheless, the extensive lineage
developed through these productions was more widely circulated
through the Desi’s biographical supplement to Fine Silken Dress,
where all seventy-eight members of the lineage appear in his prose
account (Appendix A, right column). There they are not numbered
and do not always appear in the same sequence as in Yangchen’s Lute.
Moreover, while the lives of most are narrated through plots ranging
from a few lines to several pages each, some—particularly the lesserknown kings of the imperial period—are merely mentioned by
name.28
The relationship between lineage members in Yangchen’s Lute and
corresponding narratives in the Desi’s supplement to Fine Silken
Dress can be illustrated with the following example from Yangchen’s
Lute, numbered fifth in the lineage:
Born the son of Legkyé, paṇḍita in the ocean of Vedas,
He saw that saṃsāric existence was like a pit of fire,
vowed pure conduct before Lodrö Jikmé, and
took up the path of liberation: supplications to Selwa!29
The stanza offers certain details about the protagonist Selwa (Gsal
ba), such as his father’s name (Legs skyes) and brahmanical status
28
29
This has led to different enumerations of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s lineage in the
Desi’s biographical supplement, with Ahmad listing fifty-nine in his table of
contents and Ishihama listing sixty-seven (in all cases I have included the Fifth
Dalai Lama as part of the count). Sørensen also provides alternate lists of the
Fifth Dalai Lama’s lineage. Ahmad 1999, vii–x; Ishihama 1992, 238–41; Ishihama
2015, 182–87; Sørensen 2005a, 58; Sørensen 2005b, 247–48.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 101a3–101a4=203.3–203.4.
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along with the bare bones of a plot, but is too attenuated to convey
much information on its own. It does not, for example, communicate
that Selwa lived in the city of Kapilavastu, or that he went to a lake
full of geese there and was told by them to seek out the brahmin
monk Lodrö Jikmé (Blo gros ’jigs med), or how, after ordaining as a
monk with him, Selwa practiced diligently for fifty-five years. It does
assume a learned, courtly audience familiar with Indic references and
with a classical poetic style dependent on metaphor, simile, and other
recognized figures of speech. In these respects it resembles
condensed poetic accounts of the buddha Śākyamuni’s lives that
were also produced by the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court to accompany
large-scale painting sets.30
The plot details are provided in the fourth volume of the Desi’s
supplement to Fine Silken Dress, which was completed after
Yangchen’s Lute. In this regard, the section of the Desi’s supplement
treating previous lives of the Fifth Dalai Lama may be regarded as an
explanatory commentary to the condensed verses of Yangchen’s Lute.
While the sources for these narratives predate both texts—a point I
will return to below—Yangchen’s Lute may in fact serve as the textual
authority that preceded and determined the lineage of the Fifth Dalai
Lama’s incarnations that appears in Fine Silken Dress. This would be
consistent with Vostrikov’s observation that lineage supplication
prayers (’khrungs rabs gsol ’debs) are the genre through which
incarnation lineages are compiled, and thus “serve as official acts
specifying the previous incarnations of a person.”31 Given the ritual
use of supplication prayer in liturgical recitation, one may surmise
how this genre would be considered authoritative. While differing
biographical accounts could vary in their mentions and omissions of
previous lives, a supplication prayer adopted for liturgical use would
be repeated, memorized, and internalized. Through this process, it
would become the standard with which its performer would
compare other sources.
The Ganden Podrang’s vision of “existence and peace replete”—
accomplished through the Fifth Dalai Lama’s extraordinarily large
rebirth lineage productions—was elaborated late in his court’s reign;
he was already ill in 1680 when work on Array of Avadānas began,
and passed away long before Desi Sanggyé Gyatso completed
construction of the Red Palace and the writing of his biographical
supplement. Before the activities of the Desi, the Dalai Lama’s rebirth
lineage was much shorter. The 1494 biography of Gendün Drub—
posthumously recognized as the First Dalai Lama—by Paṇchen
30
31
Lin 2011, 37–50.
Vostrikov 1936, 97.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
131
Yeshé Tsemo (Paṇ chen Ye shes rtse mo, b. 1433) mentioned only four
lineage members: his emanational source Chenrezik, Songtsen
Gampo, Dromtön Gyalwé Jungné (’Brom ston Rgyal ba’i ’byung
gnas)—chief disciple of Atiśa and founding figure of the Kadampa
(Bka’ gdams pa) tradition—and Gendün Drub himself. How the
lineage expanded to such massive numbers in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
lifetime, thus lending itself to the aesthetics of abundance explored
above, is investigated in the remainder of this section. As I will
suggest, it also supplied elements for a fresh paradigm of kingship as
understood through embodied lives.
As is well known, multiple lineage supplication prayers for the
same tulku could be composed, and these could also vary in the
number of lineage members invoked. Such was the case for the Fifth
Dalai Lama. The Desi classifies Yangchen’s Lute as the large or secret
version of the lineage, but also mentions two other rebirth lineage
supplication prayers attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama: a short or
outer version called “Lobzang the Victor” and a middle-length or
inner version called “Compassion for the World.” These short and
middle-length versions are said to name only sixteen members of the
rebirth lineage.32 These two lineage lists may have been very similar
to, if not the same as, the list in another prominent text in the Fifth
Dalai Lama’s collected works, thirteen folios in length and briefly
titled Clear Mirror (Gsal ba’i me long).33
Clear Mirror was written to accompany a set of thangkas of the
Great Fifth’s rebirth lineage, called Rebirth Lineage Array (’Khrungs
rabs kyi zhing bkod). It contains a list of sixteen lineage members
plus the Fifth Dalai Lama himself as the seventeenth; while they are
not numbered, individual members are marked by annotations
embedded in the text. Comparison with rebirth lineage members
mentioned in the Great Fifth’s 1646 biography of the Third Dalai
Lama indicates that most of the list in Clear Mirror had already been
established by that date (Table 1). As Ishihama has noted, paintings
of the Dalai Lama rebirth lineage were also appearing in prominent
places within the first decade of the Ganden Podrang government,
from 1642 to 1651.34 While the colophon to Clear Mirror does not
provide a date, it states that the text was composed by the Fifth Dalai
32
33
34
Blo bzang rgyal ba ma and ’Gro la rjes rtse ma. I have not located works with these
titles in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s collected works. According to the Fifth Dalai
Lama’s autobiography and diaries, late in 1665 he gave oral transmission for Blo
bzang rgyal ba ma. Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken
Dress, Vol. 4, 136b1–136b2=278.1–278.2; Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Fine
Silken Dress, vol. 2, 12.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Clear Mirror, 1a–13a=577–601.
Ishihama 1993, 48–49.
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Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
Biography of First Dalai
Lama, 1494
Chenrezik
Biography of Third Dalai
Lama, 1646
Chenrezik
Songtsen Gampo
Dromtön
Nyatri Tsenpo
Lha Totori Nyanshal
Songtsen Gampo
Trisong Detsen
Dromtön
Khaché Gönpa
Sachen Künga Nyingpo
Zhang Drowé Gönpo
Ngadak Nyang Nyima
Özer
Lhajé Gewabum
[DL1] Gendün Drub
Clear Mirror, 1649?
35
[DL5] Ngawang Lobzang
Gyatso
Chenrezik
Jikten Wangchuk
Könchok Bang
Songtsen Gampo
Trisong Detsen
Tri Relpachen
Dromtön
Khaché Gönpawa
Sachen Künga Nyingpo
Zhang Drowé Gönpo
Ngadak Nyang
Lhajé Gewabum
[DL1] Gendün Drub
[DL2] Gendün Gyatso
[DL3] Sönam Gyatso
[DL4] Dechen Chögyal
Table 1. Expansion of the Dalai Lama Rebirth Lineage, 1494–1649?
(for Wylie transliteration see Appendix A)
Lama at the request of “Püsang, the temple caretaker and
madman.”36 I tentatively propose a date of 1649 based on a similar
reference to rebirth lineage thangkas that were made at the request of
“Püsang the madman” in the corresponding year in the Fifth Dalai
Lama’s autobiography.37
35
36
37
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Chariot for an Ocean of Feats, 2b6–4a3=34.6–37.3.
spus srang pa dkon gnyer smyon pas bskul ba'i ngor/_za hor gyi ban dhes pho brang chen
po po ta lar sbyar ba'i yi ge pa ni ngag dbang dge legs so//. Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya
mtsho, Clear Mirror, 13a6=601.6. On the usage of “madman” and related terms for
Buddhist masters, see Larsson 2012, 6–22.
spus srang smyon pas bskul nas ’khrungs rabs bris thang bri ba’i zhing bkod. Ngag
dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Fine Silken Dress, vol. 1, 301. A previous attempt by
Lange to date this text to 1673–1676, while much later in his lifetime, would still
place it before the completion of both Yangchen’s Lute and the Desi’s supplement
to Du kū la’i gos bzang. While I am not fully clear on Lange’s argument, it seems
that she is comparing Clear Mirror with a text dated to 1673 that similarly uses the
epithet Za hor gyi ban dhe and the Potala as the named location, and further that
she is citing another text scribed by Dpal grong sngags rams pa Ngag dbang dge
legs dated to 1676. However, as early as 1644 colophons scribed by Ngag dbang
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
133
Comparing the earlier list of seventeen in Clear Mirror with the
list of seventy-eight in Yangchen’s Lute (Table 2), it is clear that most
of the expansion was effected by adding preincarnations from the
Indic world (lineage nos. 3–36) and from Tibetan imperial succession
(lineage nos. 37–48, 50–58). Addressing each member of the lineage is
well beyond the scope of this article; in the remainder of this section I
limit myself to a few remarks on the source of the Indic
preincarnations, and how they contributed to the Dalai Lama lineage.
The colophon to Yangchen’s Lute states that its stories are from the
Book of Kadam (Bka’ gdams glegs bam), supplemented by various
other sources. The Book of Kadam was compiled in 1302 as a collection
of religious instructions, dialogues, stories, rituals, and prophecies
attributed to the Indian master Atiśa and his chief disciple, the
Tibetan layman Dromtön Gyalwé Jungné. It became a foundational
text for the Gelukpa, and as mentioned earlier, Dromtön had already
been identified as a previous birth of the Dalai Lamas by the end of
the fifteenth century.38
Clear Mirror
[1.] Fifth Dalai Lama
[2.] Chenrezik
[3.] Jikten Wangchuk
[4.] Könchok Bang
Yangchen’s Lute
[1.] Fifth Dalai Lama
2. Chenrezik
3. Jikten Wangchuk
4. *Nangwa
5. Selwa
6. Chakmé
7. Küntuga
8. Lhakyé
9. Könchok Bang
10. Depa Tenpa
11. *Pelzang
12. Depa Rabtu Tenpa
13. Lodrö Pel
14-25. Gadzin, up
through Gendün Pel
26-36. Rāja to Kyabjin
38
Sources and/or identifications
Maṇi Kabum: preincarnation of
Songtsen Gampo
“Teachings for Ngok,” Book of
Kadam
13. Rebirth in China; sole
rebirth outside Indic world in
“Teachings for Ngok”
“Teachings for Khu,” Book of
Kadam, all located in the Indic
world
dge legs used the epithet Za hor gyi bande, and references to pho brang chen po po ta
la were appearing in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s collected works by 1649. I am grateful
to Nicole Willock for her assistance with translating the German; all errors
remain my own. Lange 1969, 212–14; cf. Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho,
Collected Works, vol. 25, 1a6=7.6; Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Collected
Works, vol. 22, 86a–87a=359–61.
For English-language studies and partial translations, see Ehrhard 2002, Miller
2004, Jinpa 2008.
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Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
37-48. Nyatri Tsenpo to
Dertrin Tsen
49. Midak Tsuklakdzin
[5.] Songtsen Gampo
[6.] Trisong Detsen
[7.] Tri Relpachen
50-53. Sajö Drapung
Tsen to Namri Songtsen
54. Songtsen Gampo
55. Düsong Marjé
56. Tridé Tsukten
57. Trisong Detsen
58. Ngadak Tri Rel
59. Chögyel Gewapel
[9.] Khaché Gönpawa
[8.] Dromtön Gyalwa
[10.] Sachen Künga
Nyingpo
[11.] Zhang Drowé
Gönpo
60. Khedrub Gönpa
61. Dromtön Jé
62. Künga Nyingpo
[12.] Ngadak Nyang
65. [Nyangrel] Nyima
Özer
66. Guru Chöwang
67. Sumtön Yeshé Zung
63. Yudrak Drowé
Gönpo
64. Ya Zangpa
68. Pakchen Chökyi
Gyelpo
[13.] Lhajé Gewabum
[14.] [DL1] Gendün
Drub
69. Gewabum
70. Padmavajra
71. [DL1] Gendün Drub
72. Lodrö Gyeltsen Pel
[15.] [DL2] Gendün
Gyatso
73. Khyenrab Chökyi Jé
74. [DL2] Gendün
Gyatso
75. Terchen Pema Wang
76. Chögyel Wangpödé
[16.] [DL3] Sönam
Gyatso
77. [DL3] Sönam Gyatso
[17.] [DL4] Dechen
Chögyal
78. [DL4] Yönten
Gyatso
Tibetan imperial lineage
King of Zahor in
Padmasambhava’s time
Tibetan imperial lineage
Descendant of Tsuklakdzin
(no. 49)
Kashmiri Buddhist master
Chief disciple of Atiśa
Sakya founding figure
Lama Zhang, founder of Tselpa
Kagyü
Yazang Kagyü master (11691233)
Nyingma treasure revealer
Nyingma treasure revealer
Teacher transmitting medical
tantras (rgyud bzhi) (12th c.)
Nephew of Sakya Paṇḍita,
named spiritual leader of Tibet
by Khubilai Khan
Restored dikes of Lhasa to
prevent flooding
Nepalese paṇḍita
Considered one of
Tsongkhapa’s seven principal
disciples
Reincarnation of Sachen Künga
Nyingpo (no. 62)
Sakya lama, Zhalu tradition
Served as abbot of
Tashilhünpo, Drepung, and
Sera
Nyingma treasure revealer
Ngari Paṇchen
Predicted reincarnation of
Trisong Detsen (no. 57)
Full title including “Dalai
Lama” given by Altan Khan,
Tümed Mongol
Altan Khan’s great-grandson
born in Mongolia
Table 2. Expansion and Textual Sources of Yangchen’s Lute (for Wylie transliteration see Appendix A)
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
135
The Book of Kadam is indeed the main source for lineage
reconstruction in the section of Yangchen’s Lute dealing with previous
existences from the Indic world, which draws from the latter part of
the Book of Kadam, known as the “Son Teachings” (Bu chos). The “Son
Teachings” are further divided into teachings for the two disciples of
Dromtön: Ngok Legpé Sherab (Rngog Legs pa’i shes rab) and Khutön
Tsöndrü Yungdrung (Khu ston Brtson ’grus g.yung drung). The
sections are simply referred to as “Teachings for Ngok” (Rngog chos)
and “Teachings for Khu” (Khu chos). The “Teachings for Ngok”
contain a sequence of twenty chapters in which Atiśa recounts
previous lives of Dromtön at Ngok’s request, styled after the jātaka
and avadāna genres.39 These twenty lives are replicated in sequence in
Yangchen’s Lute, as lineage numbers four through ten and twelve
through twenty-five. The two additional lineage members can be
accounted for as plots of earlier lives embedded within chapters of
“Teachings for Ngok.” In the chapter on Selwa (lineage no. 5) the
protagonist relates a prediction from a previous life as Nangwa
(Nang ba, lineage no. 4): he is hanging around the town gate when
Siddhārtha Gautama happens to pass by. Prince Siddhārtha tells him
not to stand there idly and waste this human life. He further predicts
that Nangwa will be reborn as a brahman youth named Selwa who
will act wisely in accordance with karma, undertake meditative
practices, and work for the welfare of sentient beings.40
Similarly, in the Book of Kadam chapter on Depa Rabtu Tenpa
(Dad pa rab tu brtan pa, lineage no. 12), an embedded tale of one of
his previous existences as the king Pelzang (Dpal bzang, lineage no.
11) is narrated, this time in verse. Pelzang had two ministers: Pel
(Dpal), Minister of the Exterior, and Peldrub (Dpal grub), Minister of
the Interior. Being childless, the king and queen treated the ministers
like sons and bestowed political authority upon them. Pel was jealous
of Peldrub’s inside position that made him privy to confidential
information (snying gtam), and plotted to usurp power. Sensing that
all was not well, the king made offerings to the Three Jewels,
constantly keeping wholesome thoughts in mind. Before long, the
jealous minister Pel died. The king gave much wealth to Peldrub and
passed away soon after. The story concludes:
39
40
I have not found sources among canonical jātaka and avadāna literature, nor from
sūtra literature, from which the names or plots are copied. Nevertheless, perhaps
it should not be surprising if the compilers of the Book of Kadam—or the oral
sources that preceded them—were sufficiently familiar with the conventions of
the jātaka and avadāna genres to deliver narratives in their style.
Jo bo rje dpal ldan A ti sha, Kadam Son Teachings, 4–5.
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Peldrub assumed royal duties,
Venerated the Three Jewels for the king’s sake,
Was loving to his subjects, protected the commoners,
And was praised and honored by all.41
The decision to extract these two full-fledged lineage members and
compose separate narratives for them is telling. The story of Nangwa
links the Fifth Dalai Lama to the time, place, and person of
Śākyamuni. While the inclusion of other preincarnation narratives
from the Book of Kadam maps his lives across various kingdoms of the
Indic world at unknown points from the distant past, this one locates
him as a special individual who—however fleeting his encounter
with the latest buddha of our eon—was singled out by him for a
prediction of his future demonstration of good Buddhist deeds.
As for King Pelzang and his ministers, the extraction of their
narrative takes on heightened significance in light of events at the
Fifth Dalai Lama’s court around the period when Yangchen’s Lute and
Array of Avadānas were completed. The Desi quotes the entire
embedded story from the Book of Kadam in his supplement to Fine
Silken Dress, in the fourth volume, which was completed in 1682.42
Given the Desi’s status as the favorite and the heart-disciple of the
Great Fifth, the “confidential information” (snying gtam) enjoyed by
the virtuous interior minister and jealously coveted by the evil
exterior minister may also be understood as the “heart advice”
passed on from lama to disciple. Both the troubles among the king’s
ministers and the king’s death shortly after the determination of his
successor parallel the events of this period. Sanggyé Gyatso had been
appointed in the position of Desi (regent) in 1679, in the wake of
scandal surrounding the previous regent and monk, Lobzang Tutob
(Blo bzang mthu stobs), who stepped down in 1676 after it came out
that he was keeping an aristocratic woman as a mistress.43 The Fifth
Dalai Lama would pass away in 1682, although the Desi would keep
this secret until after the Red Palace was completed in 1694.
As is well known, events would not conclude as happily for the
Desi as they would for his mythological double, the interior minister
Peldrub. 44 Nevertheless, the effort to identify Nangwa and King
41
42
43
44
Jo bo rje dpal ldan A ti sha, Kadam Son Teachings, 307.
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, Vol. 4, 46b5–
47a3=96.5–97.3.
Richardson 1980, 339–40.
Despite the narrative parallels before the Sde srid’s fall from power, Dpal grub
does not appear in the rebirth lineage of the Sde srid. This may be due to its
potentially controversial content, and/or the fact that it was an embedded
narrative in the Dad pa rab tu brtan pa episode of Bka’ gdams legs bam; there is no
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
137
Pelzang as distinct members of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage
highlights three important aspects of his court’s project to reshape his
personhood near the end of his life. The first was to convey the
temporal continuity of his successive lives. While great leaps in time
from one lineage member to the next were evident in earlier, shorter
lists, efforts to lengthen the list in Yangchen’s Lute filled in the gaps
between his lives in the distant Indic past and his earliest rebirths in
Tibet. The second was to emphasize the Dalai Lama’s participation in
Indic culture and society through these additional previous lives,
thereby making it a noticeably more significant dimension of his
personal history. In particular, the story of Nangwa anchored the
Dalai Lamas’ rebirth lineage in the historical and auspicious time and
place of Śākyamuni. The third aspect of their project was to affirm
parallels between the distant Indic past and their present moment in
late seventeenth-century Tibet. Through stories like that of King
Pelzang and his minister, details of past lives became grippingly
immediate, replaying through concerns about leadership transitions
within the Ganden Podrang government. These three aspects
extended beyond efforts to emphasize the Fifth Dalai Lama’s cosmic
origin as Avalokiteśvara, his link to the Tibetan imperial past, or his
place in the line of Tibetan rebirths predicted to Könchok Bang
(lineage no. 9), points that have been previously documented.45 They
constituted elements of an alternative paradigm of kingship that was
based on the embodied qualities of personhood, as exemplified
through a multiplicity of incarnations. Past lives could be called upon
to interpret and refashion the religio-political dynamics of the
present. In the following section, I explore further implications of this
paradigm for Tibet under the Ganden Podrang.
3. A Kingship of Embodied Lives
The aesthetics of “existence and peace replete” apparent in the grand
hall of the Potala’s Red Palace, and in the lineage of Array of
Avadānas, recur in other texts attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama,
where they further build this paradigm of embodied qualities. Here it
45
corresponding rebirth lineage member for the Sde srid from the embedded Snang
ba narrative, either. Instead the Sde srid’s lineage contains the king Zla ba dbang
po (Skt. Sucandra) that bears no relation to Snang ba other than being
contemporaneous with him; this king was the one who requested the buddha
Śākyamuni to teach the Kālacakra Tantra at Śrī Dhānyakaṭaka. The Collected
Works of Liturgy of the Gnas-chuṅ Rdo-rje-sgra-deyaṅs-gliṅ Monastery, 3b2–3b3=6.2–
6.3; Ishihama 1992, 238; Ishihama 2015, 182.
Ishihama 1993; Karmay 2007, 132.
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appears at the close of an undated prayer of supplication and
aspiration directed toward the Dalai Lama rebirth lineage:
I supplicate the illusory incarnations of the white lotus holder
who manifested as earthly lords in the noble land of India
and the snowy land of Tibet, such as Könchok Bang,
Songtsen, Lhé Metok, Relpachen, and Gewapel. ||1||
I supplicate those who manifested as excellent preceptors:
Gyalwé Jungné, the greatly kind Sakyapa,
Yudrak Zhangtön, Nyimé Özer,
and the life-trunk of weal and joy in Tibet, Gewabum. ||2||
I supplicate those who performed the play of emanation,
who became fields of merit by dint of
erudition and adeptness at the crown of the ethical Saṅgha to
place the assembly of disciples in the ocean of wisdom—
scripture and realization. ||3||
I supplicate Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso,
a firefly trailing the stratum of sun and moon
who is graciously accepted by the excellent ones who have
come before
by being overrated on the activation of his good propensities.
||4||
By the virtue of this prayer may the welfare of Dharma and
beings always prevail!
From the golden hands of merit of myself and others
may hundreds of thousands of silver coins—existence and
peace replete—
unceasingly stream until buddhahood is attained! ||5||
This prayer of supplication and aspiration was composed by
the venerable monk of Zahor upon the request of the ruler
from Dakpo Bhrum; the scribe was Nesarpa Jamyang.46
Well-educated reciters, auditors, and readers would recognize the
image of golden hands from narratives such as the forty-fourth
episode of the Wish-Fulfilling Vine of Bodhisattva Stories (Byang chub
sems pa’i rtogs brjod dpag bsam ’khri shing, Skt. Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā). In a previous life the buddha Śākyamuni was born as
46
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Collected Works, vol. 15, 107b1–b6=430.1–430.6.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
139
Hiraṇyapāṇi or “Golden Hands” (Gser gyi lag pa), from whose
hands gold marvelously appeared. Furthermore, every morning a
hundred thousand silver coins issued forth from each of his hands,
thus making him a wish-fulfilling tree of riches. 47 This image of
endless riches serves as a metaphor for sizhi püntsok, “existence and
peace replete” or “all the marvels of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.” It is what
an advanced bodhisattva has the capability and compassion to
provide to everyone, granting worldly delights as well as the
ultimate bliss of liberation.
Framed within the dedication of merit at the end of this
supplication prayer, the allusion opens up an even more amazing
possibility. Just as Śākyamuni provided all this in the past, so now
the reciter imagines “myself and others” doing the same. The final
verse reminds us that rebirth stories inspire people to emulate
spiritually liberated beings, such as those in the Dalai Lama lineage
who are praised as earthly rulers, teachers, and adepts (stanzas 1–3).
As author, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s humble self-positioning in relation
to his predecessors (stanza 4) helps his audience conceive that while
their karmic state may be modest at the present moment, one day
they too may become wish-fulfilling trees lavishing all the marvels of
saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.
If the bodhisattva’s hands grant the silver coins, the bodhisattva
himself is the treasury of sizhi püntsok. The latter is the very image we
find in the opening stanza of another text attributed to the Fifth Dalai
Lama, a condensed verse adaptation of the Wish-Fulfilling Vine
written to accompany wall paintings in the main assembly hall of
Drepung (’Bras spungs) Monastery completed in 1654:
Treasury of all that’s good in existence and peace,
lavishing weal and joy, king of wish-fulfilling gems,
famed as Śuddhodana’s son with a white parasol,
circling up to the peak of existence: homage to him!48
The person of the buddha Śākyamuni—here called by the epithet
Śuddhodana’s son—is the “treasury” (mdzod) of “all that’s good in
existence and peace” (srid dang zhi ba’i dge legs kun), a variant
expression of sizhi püntsok. That person is hardly limited to the
physical frame of Siddhārtha Gautama; he is the person of countless
lifetimes, who has cycled through various lives on his bodhisattva
path “up to the peak of existence.” All along the way he is a “king of
47
48
Kṣemendra (Dge ba’i dbang po) 2004, 226; Kṣemendra 1989 (1959), 278.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Collected Works, vol. 16, 65b2=136.2.
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wish-fulfilling gems,” one who bears the “white parasol” of kingship
while “lavishing weal and joy” for all.
As Yangchen’s Lute tells us, the person of the Fifth Dalai Lama is
another such treasury of wondrous plenitude:
Supplications to enter the ocean of majestic wisdom
on the ferry to awakening by receiving wholesome impressions:
flowing speech singing the song of Yangchen’s lute,
a mind that’s mastered the ten fields of learning.49
As one might expect in a Tibetan literary work composed in the
classical style (snyan ngag, Skt. kāvya), it begins by invoking Yangchen
(Skt. Sarasvatī), Indic goddess of wisdom and learning, of eloquence
and euphony in speech, poetry, and music. The title Yangchen’s Lute,
then, both refers to the opening words of the prayer while also calling
attention to the aesthetic qualities of the text.50 While Sarasvatī is
known as both goddess and river in India, the water imagery here
recalls verses of praise Tibetans have attributed to Kālidāsa and
preserved in the Tengyur. There she is instead compared to an ocean
that washes away torment with powerful waves of compassion, an
ocean that is the source of the wish-granting jewel, fulfilling hopes
and coming to the aid of deluded and bewildered beings.51
49
50
51
The block-print contains a number of orthographical errors; corrections are
suggested in cited passages of this text. Here read ’jug for ’drug with Ngag dbang
blo bzang rgya mtsho 2009, vol. 21, 125. Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho,
Yangchen’s Lute, 99b4=200.4.
Given the highly developed state of monastic and aristocratic education in this
period, a significant number of people at the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court and
beyond were more than sufficiently educated to have appreciated—or
critiqued—the literary qualities and content of the lineage prayer, Yangchen’s
Lute, as well as the aesthetic qualities of the paintings under discussion. Several
individuals involved in these rebirth lineage projects were among the educated
élite, beginning with the Sde srid as patron of Array of Avadānas, along with the
three proofreaders of its inscriptions, which were apparently based on the verses
of Yangchen’s Lute. The proofreaders were eminent scholars who played central
roles in the court’s textual projects: ’Dar pa Lo chen Ngag dbang phun tshogs
lhun grub was the leading Tibetan scholar of Sanskrit at court, Rnam gling Paṇ
chen Dkon mchog chos grags was vital to the transmission of grammatical and
literary arts, and Pha bong kha pa ’Jam dbyangs grags pa was considered the
Great Fifth’s most important scribe. He was a learned monk and Rdzogs chen
adept who edited the third and final volume of his diaries; he also worked with
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho to build the Red Palace of the Potala. Ngag
dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 107b1–107b2=216.1–216.2; TBRC
P2947, P2382, P2277; Karmay 1988, 8.
Nag mo’i khol [Kālidāsa], Praise of Sarasvatī, 345a2–345a3=689.2–689.3. An early
translation was prepared by F. W. Thomas based on a different exemplar
(Thomas 1903). The Fifth Dalai Lama’s work alludes to Kālidāsa and Sarasvatī
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
141
In the mannered style of classical Tibetan poetry, Yangchen and
her lute (rgyud mang, Skt. vīṇā) suggest further metaphorical
congruence. Whose speech also sings the flowing song of her lute,
and who else is being supplicated? The answer is hidden in the text:
it is the Fifth Dalai Lama, whose name—Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso,
“Master of Speech, Excellent-Minded Ocean”—is integrated into the
stanza’s imagery. 52 By embedding his name, the verse draws the
supplicant, listener, or reader into the imaginative and relational
world of the prayer, where the supplicant is ferried to the far shore of
liberative awakening through the compassionate aid of the Dalai
Lama. In this world, the person of the Dalai Lama is dispersive and
comprises a complete sensory environment: he is the ocean under
one’s feet, the song in one’s ear, the wisdom imprinting one’s mind.
He is also the implied boat-captain guiding one across saṃsāra, a
metaphorical role for buddhas and bodhisattvas that is widespread
in canonical and post-canonical sources. Like the buddha, the Fifth
Dalai Lama is a “treasury of all that’s good in existence and peace.”53
The potential of such imagery-laden language is more than
figurative in Tibetan and Buddhist contexts. In addition to appearing
in the illusory human forms most commonly identified as tulkus or
emanational bodies (sprul sku, Skt. nirmāṇakāya), an awakened being
such as Chenrezik is considered capable of manifesting his or her
presence in myriad other forms. In narratives of the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra—an important Sanskrit source on Chenrezik for Tibetan
Buddhists—the bodhisattva emanates in the form of rays of
multicolored light, a bee whose buzzing is the sound of homage to
the Three Refuges, a disembodied voice granting the six-syllable
mantra, the burning wick of a lamp that warns the seafarer Siṃhala
he has landed on an island of rākṣasī demonesses, and then the horse
that safely carries him home. Moreover, each pore of Chenrezik’s
body is described as containing world systems unto themselves
populated by buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other beings, to be
marveled at by the spiritual aspirant Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin who
travels through them.54 The Maṇi Kabum (Maṇi bka’ ’bum)—a key
Tibetan text that emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—
52
53
54
several stanzas later. Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 100a2–
100a3=201.2–201.3.
Given syntactical differences between Tibetan and English, it was beyond my
abilities to retain the same sequence in translation.
Similar imagery is invoked in the full title of the catalog to the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
funerary stūpa as well as the Red Palace of the Potala in which it is housed: it is a
“boat for crossing the ocean to the island of liberation, a treasury of blessings”
(thar gling rgya mtshor bgrod pa’i gru rdzings byin rlabs kyi bang mdzod). Sde srid
Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Sole Ornament.
Studholme 2002, 131–54; Lienhard 1993.
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expands this vision by narrating how Chenrezik radiated light from
his body, creating many world systems containing emanational
bodies of buddhas and bodhisattvas. In each world system with its
southern continent of Jambudvīpa there is also a Land of Snows, a
Tibet with its own Chenrezik who appears as the emperor Songtsen
Gampo.55
The opening stanza of Yangchen’s Lute refracts these cosmological
visions from the distant past by singing of Chenrezik’s continued
appearance for Tibetans. Like the Indic spiritual aspirant of the
Kāraṇḍavyūha-sūtra, the supplicant of Yangchen’s Lute can encounter
Chenrezik through limitless media, of which his bodily manifestation
as the Dalai Lama is only one. These include the words of Yangchen’s
Lute itself—attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama—as well as its
imagined oceanic realm that conduces to liberation by surrounding
and engaging with one’s senses, like the worlds within Chenrezik’s
pores. As the Maṇi Kabum affirms, Tibet itself is one such liberative
realm that not only contains a resident Chenrezik in the human form
of Songtsen Gampo and his rebirths, but is made of the bodhisattva as
another one of his illusory emanations. Yangchen’s Lute extends this
embodiment in historical time and place to its late seventeenthcentury setting, when the Fifth Dalai Lama is recognized as the latest
of Songtsen Gampo’s rebirths in Tibet. At the same time, it recalls
how Chenrezik exceeds his body to surround and support others’
bodies, and to enter their minds. Its poetry invites the supplicant to
engage simultaneously with the particularity of the bodily
manifestation called “Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso,” and with the
expansive personhood of the Dalai Lama-as-Chenrezik comprising
pervasive sensory media in countless times and places.
A similarly encompassing environment would have been created
by the display of Array of Avadānas, and was also effected in the
grand hall of the Potala’s Red Palace. Unlike the imaginary waterworld evoked through language in the opening stanza of Yangchen’s
Lute, through portrait painting the person of the Dalai Lama is visibly
proliferated into dozens of bodies, surrounding its contemporaneous
viewer in a cosmic vision from Chenrezik’s beginning nearly a
thousand eons ago to the here and now of late seventeenth-century
Tibet. Immensities of scale co-exist both in the display space of the
grand hall, as well as in the expanse of time and space compressed
into it, from distant buddha-fields to India to Tibet. Giovanni da Col
has written from an ethnographic perspective that a Tibetan
55
Kapstein 2000, 151.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
143
Being has to be conceived in time, being not a singularity but a
multiplicity, not one life but a multiplicity of lives and
perspective: the sum of all the perspectives it will traverse during
the course of the virtually infinite extension of its possible
lives.56
The painted multiplicity of the Dalai Lama’s rebirths—fluctuating
through different physical frames—makes this mode of conception
instantaneously explicit. Ordinary beings are unable to perceive their
past and future lives and how these are implicated in the present
moment, but the Fifth Dalai Lama, it is suggested, is capable of
perceiving the continuum of his lives. He thereby makes it possible to
begin to imagine the “sum of all perspectives” that make up a certain
kind of person, a tulku who is an emanation of a cosmic bodhisattva.
This is approximated by the visual display of his rebirth lineage,
which immerses its viewers in a more temporally marked fashion
than the metaphorical opening verse of Yangchen’s Lute. As with
avadāna stories in which beings have recurring relationships with the
buddha Śākyamuni across plural lifetimes, the viewer may be
reminded that he or she received karmic impressions from the Dalai
Lama in a previous life, making it possible to encounter him again in
the present through painting (and perhaps the physical frame of his
human body), and yet again in future lives.
Other forms of sensory experience were made available to the
supplicant as well. While the coordinating Array of Avadānas
thangkas were being sketched and consecrated, Yangchen’s Lute was
recited by Paldrong Ngakrampa.57 Recognized by title as a tantric
master, Peldrong Ngakrampa Ngawang Gelek (Dpal grong Sngag
rams pa Ngag dbang Dge legs) was also credited as a scribe for
hundreds of works attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama, including
other prayers accompanying sets of rebirth lineage paintings of the
Dalai Lamas.58 His act of reciting the supplication prayer vocalized
the “flowing speech” attributed to the Great Fifth, so that listeners
would receive the wholesome karmic impressions (bag chags, Skt.
vāsanā) promised in the text, predisposing them to future
awakening.59 The range of usage in Buddhist terminology permits an
56
57
58
59
da Col 2007, 229.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 107a6–107b1=215.6–216.1.
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Collected Works, vol. 15, 577–601; vol. 21, 388–
390, 504–506.
Although cannot be verified that the Fifth Dalai Lama himself composed this
work—it was completed late in life when he was quite ill—it must be
remembered that the Fifth Dalai Lama may well have ritually authorized others
to perform the work of writing for him through abhiṣeka empowerment, as he did
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alternate translation of “receiving wholesome impressions” (bzang
po’i bag chags thos) as “learning excellent dispositions,” wherein
“hearing” (thos, Skt. śruta) can convey both a more passive state of
receiving as well as a more active state of learning that is the gateway
to reflection (bsam, Skt. cintā) and cultivation (sgom, Skt. bhāvanā),
known collectively as the threefold training (bslab pa gsum, Skt.
triśikṣā).60 In this latter sense the supplicant is learning the excellent
dispositions modeled by the Great Fifth, as illustrated by his rebirth
narratives that are the main subject of Yangchen’s Lute. The embodied
qualities of the king—in all their wondrous plenitude and
perfection—could be acquired by his supplicants.
Some of the king’s qualities over his many lifetimes were already
reflected in his supplicants as the people of Tibet. Among the Dalai
Lama’s preincarnations were not only Gelukpas, but also leaders of
Nyingma, Sakya, Tselpa Kagyü, and Yazang Kagyü lineage
traditions (Appendix A, lineage nos. 65, 66, 75; 62, 68, 72, 73; 63; 64).
The person of the Dalai Lama was capacious enough, his rebirth
lineage asserted, to encompass all these as well as the dynastic
ancestry of Tibetan imperial rulers (lineage nos. 37–48, 50–58). If the
claiming of these eminent figures for the Dalai Lama might be
perceived as an act of appropriation, it could equally be interpreted
as an expression of obligation that these Buddhist lineage traditions
and ancient clans would be protected and accommodated under the
aegis of the Ganden Podrang. In addition to wealth, variety, and
numerousness, the aesthetics of abundance articulated by the Dalai
Lama’s rebirth lineage also promoted a vision of inclusiveness for the
subjects of Tibet.
Amidst the highly politicized and turbulent dynamics of the
seventeenth century, however, this was a selective form of
reconciliation and inclusion. The rebirth lineage excluded groups that
did not enjoy the favor of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court. Omitted from
the list were the Karma Kagyüpa (Karma bka’ brgyud pa) and
Jonangpa (Jo nang pa), who were both forced into exile by the
Ganden Podrang in the wake of political and territorial power
struggles. Also excluded were the Bönpo (Bon po) who, despite
improving fortunes by the end of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s lifetime,
continued to be marginalized as non-Buddhist. To return to the
60
elsewhere. I thank Janet Gyatso for this observation in response to other materials
attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama that I presented at the Harvard Buddhist
Studies Forum.
It may be useful to analyze such doubled language in terms of bitextuality, to
borrow Yigal Bronner’s term for śleṣa and related practices in Sanskrit kāvya
(Bronner 2010). A Western-language study of bitextuality and bitextual figures
(sbyar ba) in Tibetan snyan ngag, adapted from kāvya, has yet to be undertaken.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
145
extended metaphor laid out at the opening of Yangchen’s Lute, the
diffused person of the Fifth Dalai Lama was oceanic enough to
contain a cosmologically expansive conception of Tibet, spanning
from timeless and remote buddha-fields to India and Tibet, and even
stretching to accommodate preincarnations in Nepal, China, and
Mongolia (lineage nos. 70, 11, 78). Yet this did not preclude the
specificity of his rebirth history in Tibet, which did not or would not
include figures from major religious lineage traditions with whom
the Gelukpa had come into conflict. For the Ganden Podrang,
accommodation of these groups would have to wait until a future
time.
Even taking these omissions into account, the ambitious sweep of
the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage was unprecedented. As Ernst
Kantorowicz’s classic study of kingship has shown, Tudor jurists
conceived of the king as having two bodies, a “body natural” that
consisted of his mortal physical frame and the “body politic” that
encompassed his “Office, Government, and Majesty royal” and also
the totality of his subjects.61 But they may never have imagined that
the body politic could be embodied in the king’s person through his
manifold lives, thus reflecting back both the diversity of his subjects
and the very best that the Buddhadharma had produced in Tibet and
beyond. Nor could they have imagined that the subjects of the king
could aspire to attain the same spiritual heights as the king himself,
the very “peak of existence,” giving them a place in the vast
continuum of cosmological space-time. Yet these are the possibilities
that the Fifth Dalai Lama’s long rebirth lineages asked the people of
Tibet to imagine.
4. Beyond the List
The Fifth Dalai Lama’s court was hardly the first to articulate a
cosmological vision that made the Indic world a significant part of an
eminent Tibetan lama’s personhood through rebirth lineage, as the
appearance of the Book of Kadam several centuries earlier attests. Nor
were they alone in attending to temporal implications of rebirth
lineage and personhood. Sophisticated rebirth lineage work among
the Jonangpa should also be noted. Dölpopa placed himself favorably
amidst the temporal decline of the yugas by identifying his
preincarnation as the king of Shambhala Kalkī Puṇḍarīka and
claiming his teachings from a perfect age. Beyond this he also
identified himself as the Kagyü master Drigung Kyobpa Jikten
61
Kantorowicz 1997 (1957), 9, 13.
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Sumgön (’Bri gung Skyob pa ’Jig rten gsum mgon, 1143–1207), the
Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna, as well as Chenrezik and Songtsen
Gampo. 62 Overlapping with the Fifth Dalai Lama’s time, Jonang
Tāranātha (1575–1634) located many of his preincarnations in the
Indic world, including the mahāsiddha Kṛṣṇācārya as well as ones
with the prior buddha Vipaśyin and the buddha Śākyamuni while
preaching the Mahābheri Sūtra.63
However, from the late seventeenth century onward the
aestheticized vision of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court had more
widespread impact across the Tibetan cultural world. The rebirth
lineages of the Paṇchen Lamas, the Changkya (Lcang skya) tulku
lineage, and the Qianlong emperor evince comparable concerns with
Indic and Tibetan imperial-era preincarnations, the embodiment of
qualities through rebirth lineage, and models of kingship. 64 The
dramatic increase of tulku lineages during the seventeenth century,
especially among Gelukpa—as documented by Gray Tuttle in his
contribution to this issue—invites further research on how models set
forth by the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court for the personhood of tulkus
and the production of their rebirth lineages may have been adopted,
adapted, and revised. Moreover, although the value of numerousness
in rebirth lineage production may have been hard to imitate—apart
from respect for the Dalai Lama’s uniquely elevated status, there was
the problem of the sheer material resources needed for visual lineage
production, not to mention the space to accommodate them—other
aspects of the aesthetics of abundance were taken up in later courtly
settings of Tibet, as I will discuss in future work.
I close by returning to the question of numbers. As we have seen,
earlier versions of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage were
referred to as consisting of sixteen members—a nice, round,
symmetrical number. Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s biography
consisted of thirty-two lifetimes, matching the number of a buddha’s
major marks (mtshan bzang po, Skt. lakṣaṇa) and thus gesturing to the
culmination of his own path to buddhahood.65 But why construct a
lineage of seventy-eight members? While it has been argued that the
Dalai Lama’s rebirth lineage made a point of including many earthly
kings in their lineage in order to have a free hand with Tibetan
politics, this does not explain the full range of narratives included in
Yangchen’s Lute or the supplement to Fine Silken Dress.66 One such
62
63
64
65
66
Kapstein 2000, 106–116.
Templeman 2009.
In a forthcoming publication, Wen-shing Chou discusses the cultural production
of these three rebirth lineages at the Qianlong court.
Kapstein 2000, 106.
Staël-Holstein 1932.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
147
narrative drawn from the Book of Kadam is simply titled “Hare” (ri
bong). But unlike the well-known jātaka of the virtuous hare who
jumps into a fire to offer himself as food, this hare naughtily eats
tender rice stalks before they are ready to be harvested, and then
laughs at the poor farmer who tries to catch him. Further adventures
ensue; though the hare utters some verses of Dharma here and there,
there is no indication that they benefit anyone in the story.67
Rather, it seems that an attempt at fullness was being made.
Whereas a lineage of sixteen highlighted the most important of the
Dalai Lama’s past lives, a lineage of seventy-eight could serve as a
sufficiently thorough accounting of the Dalai Lama’s lineage given
the sources that were available. Even if some individual stories in the
Book of Kadam were of unclear hagiographic value, the cumulative
effect from proceeding through all seventy-eight lives in prayer
recitation, viewing, or reading, would have been one of majestic
abundance. It would have approached the effects of taking in the 108
episodes of the Wish-Fulfilling Vine of Avadānas, the largest anthology
of the buddha Śākyamuni’s lives commonly known to Tibetans, and
one that was particularly promoted by the Fifth Dalai Lama’s court.68
Even so, Desi Sanggyé Gyatso recognized the limits of
representation. On the topic of emanating beings, he states that they
“display bodily arrangements as numerous as the infinite buddhafields, working for the benefit of beings. Even in this buddha-field,
the number of excellent and ordinary rebirth lineage stories defies the
imagination. So how could it be within the range of an ordinary
person’s understanding?”69
As the opening epigram indicates, Umberto Eco has suggested
that verbal and visual lists can present a “topos of ineffability.”70 The
extent of the rebirth lineage may signify the advanced spiritual state
of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who, it is implied, is able to recall many lives
both distant and proximate. Yet unlike the auspiciously complete
number of 108, the number seventy-eight is striking for its
incompleteness. While a lineage of seventy-eight may have
exhausted its compilers’ sources, it does not have the appearance of
an exhausted chain of rebirths. Yangchen’s Lute, then, may gesture to
a lineage that can extend infinitely into the past and indefinitely into
the future, that indefinite vanishing point echoing the bodhisattva’s
vow to serve until all beings are awakened.
67
68
69
70
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Yangchen’s Lute, 103a3–103a4; Sde srid Sangs
rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, Vol. 4, 68a3–69a2=139.3–141.2.
Lin 2011, chapter 1.
Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, Vol. 4, 136a6–
136b1=277.6–278.1.
Eco 2009, 49.
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Appendix A
Dalai Lama Rebirth Lineage Members, ca. 1680–1694
Sole Ornament, Western Great
Assembly Hall, Red Palace,
Potala (ca. 1694)71
A1. Sangs rgyas ’Od mdzad
ye shes tog
A2. ’Od dpag med
B1 (gtso bo). Rje bla ma chen
po
Yangchen’s Lute (ca. 1680)
Supplement to Fine Silken Dress
(1682)72
[1.] Fifth Dalai Lama
A3. Thugs rje chen po
2. Spyan ras gzigs
B2. ’Jig rten dbang phyug
3. ’Jig rten dbang phyug
B3. Khye’u Snang ba
4. Snang ba
B4. Khye’u Gsal ba
5. Gsal ba
B5. Rgyal bu Chags med
6. Chags med
B6. Rgyal po’i sras Kun tu
dga’
B7. Lha skyes
7. Kun tu dga’
78. Thams cad mkhyen pa
Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya
mtsho: 137b3ff., 234ff.
1. Spyan ras gzigs: 8b2–30a6,
77b1–81b4; 24–42, 127–34
2. Rgyal po ’Jig rten dbang
phyug: 30a6–33b1, 43–47
3. Khye’u Snang ba: 33b1–
33b4, 47–48
4. Khye’u Gsal ba: 33b4–35b1,
48–51
5. Rgyal bu Chags med:
35b1–37b1, 51–55
6. Rgyal bu Kun tu dga’:
37b1–38a3, 55–56
7. Rgyal bu lha skyes: 38a3–
39a4, 56–57
8. Dkon cog ’bangs: 39a4–
43a6, 57–65
9. Dad pa brtan pa, 43a6–
46b5, 65–70
10. Dpal bzang: 46b5–47a6, 71
11. Dad pa rab tu brtan pa:
47a6–48b4, 72–74
12. Rgyal bu Blo gros ’phel:
48b4–50b4, 74–78
13. Khye’u Dga’ ’dzin: 50b4–
52b1, 78–81
14. Dge bsnyen btsun pa:
52b1–53a1, 81–82
A6, B8. Dkon cog ’bangs
8. Bsod nams ’phel gyi
brgyud [Lha skyes]
9. Dkon cog ’bangs
A7, B9. Dad pa brtan pa
10. Dad pa brtan pa
B10. Rgyal ba dpal [bzang]
B11. Dad pa rab brtan
11. Dpal [bzang]
12. Dad pa rab tu brtan
B12. Blo gros ’phel
13. Blo gros ’phel
B13. Khye’u Dga’ ’dzin
14. Dga’ ’dzin
B14. Dge bsnyen btsun pa
15. Dge bsnyen btsun pa
71
72
The sequence of entries in this column has been arranged to correspond
horizontally with the earlier lineage sequence of Yangchen’s Lute in the middle
column. Entries are numbered according to their order of appearance in this
section of the text; “A” designates paintings on the ground floor, while “B”
designates paintings on the walls above the balustrade. Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya
mtsho, Sole Ornament, vol. 1, 285a3–286b4=579.3–582.4.
The sequence of entries in this column has been arranged to correspond
horizontally with the earlier lineage sequence of Yangchen’s Lute in the middle
column. Entries are numbered according to the the order of appearance of their
biographical narratives in this text. The numbers of entries that appear in a
different sequence than Yangchen’s Lute are marked in bold font. Page citations
refer to Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Supplement to Fine Silken Dress, vol. 4,
and Ahmad’s translation respectively.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
B15. [Nor bzang] Rin cen
dpal
B16. Khye’u Zla ba
16. Nor bzang
B17. Rin chen snying po
18. Rin cen snying po
B18. Khye’u Padma
19. Padma
B19. Khye’u ’Od zer
20. ’Od zer
B20. Khye’u Byams pa
21. Byams pa
B21. Seng ge sgra
22. Seng ge’i sgra
B22. Rgyal po Bde mchog
23. Bde mchog
B23. Lha’i rgyal po
24. Lha yi rgyal po
B24. Dge ’dun ’phel
25. Dge ’dun ’phel
B25. Rāja
26. Rāja
B26. Ge sar
B27. Ri bong
27. Ge sar
28. Ri bong
B28. Lo brgyad byis pa
29. Lo brgyad byis pa
B29. Rje bo’i rnam pa
B30. Bram ze Rin cen mchog
30. Rje ba'i rnam par bstan
31. Bram ze Rin cen mchog
B31. Bsam gtan bzang po
32. Bsam gtan bzang po
B32. Dur khrod rnal ’byor pa
33. Dur khrod rnal ’byor pa
B33. Gling phran rgyal po
34. Gling phran rgyal po
B34. Sro long Kun rgyu
35. Sro long Kun tu rgyu
B35. Rgyal po skyabs sbyin
36. Skyabs sbyin
B38. Gnya’ khri btsan po
37. Gnya’ khri btsan po
17. Zla ba
38. Mu khri btsan po
39. Ding khri btsan po
40. Mer khri btsan po
41. Gdags khri btsan po
42. Sribs khri btsan po
43. Po da gung rgyal po
B39. I sho legs
B40. Lde ’phrul gnam gzhung
btsan
44. I sho legs
45. Lde ’phrul gnam gzhung
btsan
46. Se snol nam lde
149
15. Nor bu bzang po: 53a1–
54a2, 82–84
16. Khye’u Zla ba: 54a2–55a4,
84–86
17. Khye’u Rin chen snying
po: 55a4–56a5, 86–88
18. Khye’u Padma: 56a5–
57a6, 88–91
19. Khye’u ’Od zer: 57a6–
58b4, 91–93
20. Byams pa: 58b4–60a2, 93–
96
21. Seng ge sgra: 60a2–61a6,
96–98
22. Rgyal bu Bde mchog, or,
Ba lang skyong: 61a6–63a3,
98–100
23. Lha’i rgyal po: 63a3–64a1,
100–102
24. Khye’i Dge ’dun ’phel:
64a1–65a3, 102–4
25. Pho reng Rāja: 65a3–66a6,
104–6
26. Ge sar: 66a6–68a3, 106–9
27. Ri bong: 68a3–69a2, 109–
11
28. Lo brgyad byis pa: 69a2–
70a5, 111–14
29. Dzi bo: 70a5–70b5, 114–15
30. Bram ze Rin chen mchog:
70b5–71a3, 115
31. Bsam gtan bzang po:
71a3–71b3, 115–16
32. Dur khrod rnal 'byor:
71b3–72a2, 116–17
33. Gling phran rgyal po:
72a2–72b3, 117–18
34. Sro long Kun tu rgyu:
72b3–74a6, 118–21
35. Rgyal po skyabs sbyin:
74a6–75b1, 121–22
38. Gnya' khri btsan po:
81b4–82a3, 134
39. Mu khri btsan po: 82a3,
134–35
40. Ding khri btsan po: 82a3,
135
41. Mer khri btsan po: 82a3,
135
42. Gdags khri btsan po: 82a3,
135
43. Sribs khri btsan po: 82a3,
135
44. Spu de gung rgyal, or Bya
khri bstan po: 82a4, 135
45. I sho legs: 82a4, 135
46. Lde ’phrul gnam gzhung
gtsan: 82a6, 135
47. Lde snol nam: 82b1, 135
150
Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
B41. Pur rgyal byams pas
skyong ba rje rgyal73
B36. Za hor rgyal po Gtsug
lag ’dzin
B42. Khri sgra dpung btsan
B43. Mi rje Tho ri snyan shal
47. Rdzogs pa lde rgyal
48. Lde rgyal po: 82b1, 135
48. Lder sprin btsan
49. Mi bdag Gtsug lag ’dzin
49. Lde sprin btsan: 82b1, 135
36. Rgyal po Gtsug lag ’dzin:
75b1–77a2, 123–25
50. Khri sgra dpung btsan:
82b1–82b2, 135
51. Khri thog rje btsan: 82b2,
135
52. Lha tho tho ri: 82b2–82b5,
135–36
53. Gnam ri srong btsan:
82b5–83a1, 136
54. Srong btsan sgam po:
83a1–85b2, 136–41
50. Sa spyod sgra dpung
btsan
51. Khri thog rje btsun
52. Tho ri snyan shal
53. Gnam ri srong btsan
A4. Chos kyi rgyal po Srong
btsan sgam po
B44. Rgyal ba Srong btsan
sgam po
54. Srong btsan sgam po
55. ’Dus srong mar rje
56. Khri lde gtsug brtan
A5. Tshangs pa lha’i me tog
B45. Khri srong lde btsan
B46. Mnga’ bdag Khri ral
B37. Chos rgyal Dge ba dpal
57. Khri srong lde btsan
58. Mnga’ bdag Khri ral [pa
can]
59. Chos rgyal Dge ba dpal
60. Mkhas grub dgon pa
B47. ’Brom ston rgyal ba’i
’byung gnas
61. ’Brom ston rje
62. Kun dga’ snying po
63. [Bla ma Zhang] G.yu brag
’gro ba’i mgon po
64. G.ya’ bzang pa
A8. Gter chen Chos kyi rgyal
po Nyang ral pa can
B48. Gter chen Gong ma Nyi
ma ’od zer
B49. Gter chen Chos kyi
dbang phyug
65. [Nyang ral] Nyi ma ’od
zer
66. Gu ru Chos dbang
67. Sum ston Ye shes gzungs
B52. Chos rgyal ’Phags pa
68. ’Phags chen chos kyi rgyal
po
69. Dge ba ’bum
B53. Padmavajra
70. Padmavajra
73
55. ’Dus srong mang po rje:
85b2–85b4, 141
56. Khri lde gtsug brtan Mes
ag tshoms: 85b4–86a3, 141
57. Khri srong lde btsan:
86a3–87b5, 142-46
58. Khri ral: 87b5–89a1, 14648
37. Rgyal po Dga’ ba dpal, or,
Dge ba dpal: 77a2–77b1, 125–
26
66. Kha che dgon pa ba:
108a3–108a5, 184
59. ’Brom ston rgyal ba’i
’byung gnas: 89a1–91b2, 148–
53
67. Dpal ldan Sa skya pa chen
po Kun dga’ snying po:
108a5–109a4, 184–85
68. ’Gro ba’i mgon po Zhang
rin po che G.yu brag pa:
109a4–110b5, 185–88
69. G.yam bzang pa: 110b5–
112a2, 188–89
60. Nyang Nyi ma ’od zer:
92a6–94a4, 155–59
61. Chos dbang: 94a4–97a1,
159–64
70. Sum ston Ye shes gzungs:
112a2–112b2, 190
64. ’Phags pa: 105a4–107b5,
178–82
71. Lha rje Dge ba ’bum:
112b2–113b5, 190–92
65. Paṇḍita Padmavajra:
107b5–108a1, 182
This is a tentative identification with Lde rgyal po; the text should perhaps be
emended as sa skyong ba lde rgyal.
Recounting the Fifth Dalai Lama’s Rebirth Lineage
A9, B54. Dge ’dun grub pa
dpal bzang po
71. [DL1] Dge ’dun grub
72. Blo gros rgyal mtshan
dpal
73. Mkhyen rab chos kyi rje
B55. Dge ’dun rgya mtsho
74. [DL2] Dge ’dun rgya
mtsho’i dpal
B50. Mnga’ ris Padma dbang
rgyal
75. Gter chen Padma dbang
B51. Chos rgyal Bkra shis
stobs rgyal
76. Chos rgyal Dbang po’i
sde
B56. Bsod nams rgya mtsho
77. [DL3] Bsod nams rgya
mtsho
B57. Bde chen chos kyi rgyal
po Dpal bzang po
78. [DL4] Yon tan rgya mtsho
151
74. Paṇ chen Dge ’dun grub:
116a6–119b3, 197–202
72. Blo gros rgyal mtshan
dpal bzang po: 113b5–114b5,
192–94
73. Dpal ldan bla ma Rin
chen mkhyen rab chos rje:
114b5–116a6, 194–96
75. Thams cad mkhyen pa
Dge ’dun rgya mtsho: 119b3–
124b1, 202–210
62. Mnga’ ris Paṇ chen
Padma dbang rgyal: 97a1–
100a6, 164–70
63. Dharmarāja Bkra shis
stobs rgyal dbang po’i sde:
100a6–105a4, 170–78
76. Thams cad mkhyen pa
Bsod nams rgya mtsho:
124b1–130b6, 211–21
77. Rje Yon tan rgya mtsho:
130b6–133a5, 221–25
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