The History between Panchen Erdeni and Dalai Lama

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The History between Panchen Erdeni and Dalai Lama

After the death of the 4th Yundan Gyatso in 1616, the great master of Tashilhunpo Monastery - Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen took charge of looking for the reincarnated soul boy of Yundan Gyatso. Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen came to Lhasa and managed the religious affairs. At that time, the political leader in Tibet region - Lhazang Khan did not agree to find the reincarnation of Dalai Lama. Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen was good at medical skill and he cured Lhazang Khan. Afterwards, he successfully persuaded Lhazang Khan to allow him to find the incarnated Lama. Hence the 5th Dalai Lama - Awong Losang Gyatso was finally confirmed. He took Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltse as his teacher later on.

In 1641 during Ming Dynasty, the 5th Dalai Lama and Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltse introduced Mongolian force to enter Tibet and took advantage of it to eradicate Lhazang Khan. Meanwhile, the Mongolian leader officially confirmed Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltse as the Panchen Lama. Later on, the 5th Dalai Lama took advantage of Qing Dynasty to drive off the Mongolians, again. In 1653, the name of Dalai Lama was officially conferred by Qing Dynasty. Since then on, Dalai Lama has become the leader of Tibet.

In 1662, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltse died. The 5th Dalai Lama decided to find the reincarnated soul boy of him. Therefore the second reincarnation system – Panchen Living Buddha has appeared. According to the seniority of Gelug Sect, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltse was confirmed as the 4th Panchen Lama. The former three Panchen Lamas were subsequently confirmed. The 5th Panchen was Lobsang Yeshe. He was officially conferred the name of Panchen Erdeni by Qing Dynasty in 1713.

From this we can find that even though the reincarnation system of Panchen Erdeni was 100 years later than the reincarnation system of Dalai Lama's, they became the two important role of Gelug Sect as they are both the disciples of Tsongkhapa. Gelug Sect became the leader of Tibetan religions afterwards.

In Tibet history, Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni are officially conferred by Qing Dynasty and they are the teachers alternately for each other. Well, almost like that. The elder should be the teacher of the young one.

In order to prevent the cheating of incarnated lama, Qing Dynasty decided to collect the one by draw lots. There could be few candidate incarnated lamas, and one of them would be collect to be the reincarnation of the last Living Buddha. It was a way also used by the reincarnation systems of other Living Buddha.

On the other hand, Dalai Lama was said to be the reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara and Panchen Lama was said to be the reincarnation of Amitabha. According to Buddhist theory, the status of Panchen Lama is more important than Dalai Lama. But Dalai Lama was more important than Panchen Lama in common customs. Dalai Lama's permanent residence is in Lhasa City and Panchen Lama's permanent residence is in southern Tibet.

As of now, there are 14 Dalai Lama and 11 Panchen Lama.