The Second Dalai Lama

Even before Sonam Gyatso's posthumous declaration, Gendun Gyatso, the Second Dalai Lama (1475-1542), was recognized as the reincarnation of Gedun Drub as a young boy. Born in Dorjiden, northwest of Shigatse, the high lamas of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery identified him when he was four years old. According to legend, upon learning to speak as an infant, he declared his name to be Pema Dorje, the given name of the first Dalai Lama. At age four, he announced to his parents that he wanted to live in the Tashi Lhumpo monastery.

Gendun Gyatso grew to be a great scholar and poet, who spread the tradition of Gelugpa asceticism throughout Tibet, making pilgrimages to various sacred places in Tibet, including Yarlung, the cradle of Tibetan civilization. In 1509, Gendun Gyatso founded the Chhokhorgyal Monastery above Lake Chhokhorgyal, 90 miles southeast of Lhasa. With its crystal-clear waters, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the site is believed to have the power to reveal the future in its reflection. Each Dalai Lama visits Chhokorgyal at least once in his lifetime.

Gendun Gyatso also became the abbot of three other great monasteries: Tashi Lhunpo in 1512, Drepung in 1517, and Sera in 1526. Drepung is the largest Gelugpa monastery, and has always been closely associated with the Dalai Lamas. Gendun Gyatso died in 1542 at the Ganden Phodang, the Palace of Joy, which had once been the residence of his predecessor Gendun Drub. The written works he left behind include a history of Buddhism, a treatise on the various sects of Buddhism in India, and his own autobiography.