REFORMED LAMAISM The New Teaching..-The translation of the rules of dis cipline had brought to serious minds the need of reform. One thing further required was a leader with sufficient moral impetus to carry it through. Tsong-kha-pa was born about 1356 in the prov ince of Amdo in North-east Tibet. He entered the Order early, and after a period of careful preparation settled near Lhasa. There he began his reform, in which he was effective both through his eloquent preaching as well as through his writings. He aimed in the first place at the restoration of monastic discipline. Celibacy was enforced and the use of the yellow dress—hence the name of the Yellow Hat sect for his followers as against the older Red Hat sect. The pratimoksha was restored with the fortnightly meeting, the repetition of the rules, confession and the annual period of retreat (varsha). A religious assembly was instituted, attended annually in the first half of the first month by monks of the three great monasteries (see LHASA). In 1409 the first monas tery of the new teaching was founded some miles east of Lhasa and known as Galdan. The next was at Bras-spungs west of Lhasa, and the third at Sera on the north. The reformed school was known at first as Ga-ldan-pa, and finally as Ge-lug-pa (dGe-lugs pa), "the virtuous sect." The elaborate ritual of the religious serv ices, the ceremonial dresses of the monks, their organization in hierarchical ranks, and the local divisions into dioceses, dependent on a central authority, have been often noticed and compared with similar features in the Roman Catholic Church. On closer examination some of the resemblances are seen to be purely accidental and shared by Buddhism in all countries. It has been held that Tsong-kha-pa had a Catholic missionary as teacher, but this, though possible, appears to be unproved. The Nestorians had been long in Asia, and it is probable that some ceremonies were borrowed from them. Schulemann holds that in the last cen turies Catholic ritual has doubtless in many cases been the model.
During the next century the new sect strengthened its position, until the system which recognized two grand lamas was firmly established, but the native historians trace back the succession of lamas, and hold that dGe-hdun-grub-pa, nephew of Tsong-kha-pa, was the first Dalai lama. The first to bear this title was the third, who is credited with the second con version of the Mongols to Buddhism. He was invited to Mon golia in 1568, and received from the Mongol chief the title of Vajradhara Dalai lama, dalai being a Mongolian term—"ocean." The greatest of the Dalai lamas, the one who established the pres ent constitution, was the fifth, Ngag-dbang-bLo-bzang (1617 82). Gushri Khan, the head of a branch of the Mongols and a
friend of the reformed sect, had defeated in 1639 Beri Khan, a supporter of the Bon religion. Soon afterwards he overran another Tibetan province, and took the chief or king prisoner. He then presented the conquered districts to the Dalai lama and received compensating concessions. This lama was an able but unscrupulous politician, and under him the temporal power of the Yellow Hat sect was definitely established. He began the erection of the great palace, the Potala at Lhasa, in which the Dalai lamas have since resided.
As in the case of the Dalai lama there is also a doubt about the early succession of the other grand lama, the Tashi lama, whose Tibetan title is Pan-chen-rin-po-che, "great jewel pandit." From 1663 his residence has been at Tashilhunpo, a monastery half a mile from Shigatse. His temporal power is confined to one province. The succession of these lamas depends upon the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation. It is taught in the earliest documents that one who has entered the first stage of the Path is exempt from rebirth in a lower state of existence, so that the reappearance of a departed person is to be expected. Further, an arhat acquires the power of recognizing such rebirths, but the Tibetans, not content with this, have applied their highly devel oped system of magic to determining the rebirth of any particular person, and it is done in accordance with the Mahayana belief that every individual may become a Buddha. Everyone who has made a vow to attain Buddhahood is a bodhisattva, and is repeat edly reborn in order to teach others. The Dalai lama is the incarna tion of the great bodhisattva Avalokitegvara, the ancestor of the Tibetans, and the Tashi lama is an earthly reflex of Amitabha, one of the Buddhas of the ten directions of space. When either of them dies it becomes necessary for the other to determine in which of the recently born infants he has been reincarnated. The proceedings are carried out by a number of lamas from the chief monasteries and the details have varied at different times. Three or four boys are first selected according to certain omens and one finally chosen, according to the characteristics which he exhibits. In 1793 the Chinese prescribed the regulations following which the election was carried out under Chinese control, but according to Sir Charles Bell they have been discarded. At what time the incarnation theory was established is not certainly known. It has been extended to several other grades of monks, who are known as incarnation lamas. For the latest history of the country and the external political relations see TIBET and MONGOLIA.