10th Dalai Lama

Ngawang Lobzang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso or Tsultrim Gyatso (29 March 1816 – 30 September 1837) was the 10th Dalai Lama of Tibet, and born in Chamdo. He was fully ordained in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, studied the sutras and tantras, had several students, and rebuilt the Potala Palace. Tsultrim Gyatso was born to a modest family known as Drongto Norbutsang in Chamdo, eastern Tibet. His father was Lobzang Nyendrak and his mother was Namgyel Butri. The ninth Dalai Lama Lungtok Gyatso had died in 1815, and five years would pass before his incarnation was found. Tsultrim Gyatso was chosen from a field of six potential incarnates of the ninth Dalai Lama Lungtok Gyatso. Preferred as the best by the oracle and government officials in 1820, he travelled to Lhasa in 1821 after which the regent Demo Ngawang Lobzang Tubten Jigme Gyatso died. The enthronement of the 10th Dalai Lama Tsultrim Gyatso at the Potala Palace occurred in 1822, on the eighth day of the eighth month of the water-horse year. In 1825 in his 10th year, the Dalai Lama had many tutors and was enrolled at Drepung Monastery and studied both sutra and tantra. He likely studied at Ganden Monastery and Sera Monastery as well. He studied Tibetan Buddhist texts extensively during the rest of his life. In 1830, the Dalai Lama was put in charge of the Tibetan state, and a report called the "Iron-Tiger Report" on agriculture and tax policies was prepared. In 1831 the Dalai Lama reconstructed the Potala Palace. In 1834 the Dalai Lama gave teachings to the Fifth Kalkha and to the Mongolian King of Torgo, and sent senior monks to Mongolia to establish a Kalacakra center there. The Dalai Lama set about to overhaul the economic structure of Tibet but, unfortunately, did not live long enough to see his plans come to fruition. After becoming ill in 1834 during an epidemic breakout in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama received his full Gelong ordination from the Panchen Lama in his nineteenth year. He remained in poor health for three years and died in 1837.