10th Dalai Lama

Who was 10th Dalai Lama?

Tsultrim Gyatso was the 10th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Born to a modest family in Chamdo, he was recognised as the reincarnation of Lungtok Gyatso, the 9th Dalai Lama, in 1820. At the time his family did not even have an heir to their land, but he took the name Tsultrim Gyatso and was enthroned at the Potala Palace in 1822.

After Lungtok Gyatso died in 1815, eight years had passed before the new Dalai Lama was chosen. The political events in this period are murky, but finally Palden Tenpai Nyima intervened and used the Golden Urn for the first time as part of the tests for the choice of the new Dalai Lama.

In 1822 the 10th Dalai Lama was placed upon the Golden Throne and soon after his enthronement received his pre-novice ordination from Palden Tenpai Nyima, who gave him the name of Tsultrim Gyatso. He administered the Gelong vows to Tsultrim Gyatso in 1831.

In 1826, he was enrolled at Drepung Monastery and mastered both sutra and tantra. He studied Tibetan Buddhist texts extensively during the rest of his life.

In 1831 he reconstructed the Potala Palace and, at the age of nineteen, he took the Gelong vows from the Panchen Lama the same year.