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::link Dalai Lama, an epithet used for the first time in 1578 by the Mongol
ruler Altan Khan for Sonam Gyatso, the Third Dalai Lama, or the third
in the bodhisattva reincarnation line later identified as the Dalai
Lama lineage, is a combination of two terms, ‘Lama’ meaning a Buddhist
monk, and ‘Dalai’, ocean-like profound, wide and deep, that is, the
monk having ocean-like breadth and depth of knowledge. ‘Dalai’ was
actually the Mongolian equivalent of ‘Gyatso’, a Tibetan term that
emerged in use as an epithet during the lifetime of the second Dalai
Lama, Gendun Gyatso, as the distinction of the Lamas in reincarnation
lineage of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. ‘Gyatso’ had the same
meaning as ‘Dalai’.
King Altan Khan, a descendant of the known Mongol
ruler Kublai Khan, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism in early thirteenth
century, was tired of bloodshed and warfare and wished to have peace on
his soil. He invited Sonam Gyatso, the best known Buddhist monk of his
time, to his court and wished that by his teachings he led his
blood-thirsty subjects to the path of peace, love and humanity.
Influenced by Sonam Gyatso’s profound knowledge and spiritual energy
king Altan Khan honoured him with ‘Dalai Lama’ as his epithet. Then
onwards, though the term ‘Gyatso’ was retained as before to comprise
the later half of the name in the Dalai Lama lineage but it was the
epithet ‘Dalai Lama’ that gave the lineage its unique distinction ever
since. The epithet was used not only for Sonam Gyatso and his eleven
subsequent reincarnations but also for the two preceding ones – Gendun
Drubpa and Gendun Gyatso, posthumously.
CONTINUATION OF LIFE, BODHISATTVA, DALAI LAMA AND TIBETAN PREFERENCES
Not merely that the Dalai Lama is the highest
office of the present day Buddhism, it is also one of its three most
significant institutions, the other two being the Buddha and the
Bodhisattva, that emerged in Buddhism over centuries. Enlightenment is
the attribute of them all, even of the Dalai Lama who, possessed of
oceanic breadth and depth of knowledge, attains the same state of
enlightenment as a bodhisattva. However, while the Buddha defined the
state of utter spiritual perfection leading to ‘nirvana’ – final
extinction, a bodhisattva, in his role as a teacher seeking
accomplishment of his two-fold objective, the worldly and the
transcendental, keeps on postponing attainment of this state of utter
spiritual perfection and his own liberation in preference to a
controlled or chosen birth or rebirth. In Tibetan Buddhism, or rather
in entire Tibetan tradition, irrespective of this or that branch or
school, rebirth and continuation of one’s deeds or perfection level
that one attains in one birth into the next is a universally accepted
principle. Obviously with humanitarian, social and political
compulsions conditioning its life, Tibet developed a natural preference
for bodhisattva cult. Its reason was obvious. A bodhisattva by a will
to reincarnate as many times as required and by his ability to postpone
his own liberation at his will could better help Tibet in resolving its
spiritual as well as social and political problems – political
instability, infighting, enmity among others.
This Tibetan preference for the bodhisattva cult
had early, perhaps pre-historic, roots. Apart that Tibet was till
sixteenth century a land divided into innumerable ruling segments and
as many tribes and stood in dire need of some power that brought them
under one umbrella, its mythical past too has identical connotations.
As popular Tibetan myths have it, Tibet was initially the habitation of
unruly beasts. Then Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara emanated in a thousand
animal-reincarnations and mixed with various extant animal groups.
Through these emanated forms he taught them peace and harmony and when
external conditions were suitable, took birth as a monkey. He
encountered a horrible looking female ascetic, an emanation of the
Goddess Tara. They mated and gave birth to the ever first human beings,
all different from each other in body-colours, nature and everything.
They were the progenitors of original six tribes of Tibet. Soon their
number multiplied and now there were eighteen tribes, which number
further expanded and Tibet finally had hundreds of tribes inhabiting
it. Soon, out of the will to govern there evolved as numerous ruling
seats fragmenting this terrace of the earth into small political
entities, each engaged in designs to expand, conquer and defeat.
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