○The rise of the Geluk sect and the Dalai lama
Tibet was dominated by several “red hat” Buddhist sect such as the Sakya and Kargyu.
When a brilliant Amdo monk named Tsongkapa came to central Tibet in 1372, he began the Geluk sect, which in Tibetan means,” the system of virtue”.
Tsongkapa’s disciples built Geluk’s largest monasteries—Drepung and Sera(cf.Kawaguchi).Another of Tsongkapa’s disciples, Gendundrup, extended the influence into southwest Tibet(Tsang) when he built Tashilhunpo monastery near the town of Shigatse in 1445.
As a result, civil war among sects(sectarian conflict) outbroke, in which the Geluk was supported by Mongols, in contrast the Kargyu and Sakya were allied with kings in political Tibet like Rimpung and Tsangpa.
The idea of reincarnation of the Dalai lama in the Geluk was derived from that of the Karma Kargyu where they thought some enlightened beings(bodhisattvas)defer their final release from the cycle of birth and rebirth-nirvana-and return to human form to help remaining sentient beings progress toward enlightment.
Incarnation lineage;
①Gendundrup→② Gendun Gyatso→③ Sonam Gyatso
As a result of meeting between Sonam Gyatso and powerful Mongol ruler Altyn Khan in 1578,the lama enhanced the stature of the khan in relation to other Mongol chiefs by giving him the title “king of religion, majestic purity”, and the khan gave Sonam Gyatso the Mongolian title of dalai, ”ocean” in Mongolian, the implication beeng that his knowledge or spirituality as vast as the ocen. Thus was born the Dalai lama