24 
Sarat Chandra Das —Contributions on Tibet. 
[No. 1, 
of illusive mysticism. Lo-ssah composed four volumes of Nen-gyud, 
(pleasing Tantras). During liis residence at the castle of Ta-gya-dorje he 
acquainted himself with the terminology and signification of the classical 
writings both in the melodious Sanskrit and the insipid Tibetan. In this 
manner when his life and sainthood were uniformly flowing onward, at the 
age of sixty-five in the year 1570 he passed away from mundane suffering. 
Gedundub , 31 the founder of the monastery of Tasi-lhunpo. 
(One of the Grand Lamas of Lhasa.) 
This great Lama was born in the year 1391 A. D., at a place called 
Gun-ru in the Dok-pa 33 country between Sakya and Tasi-lhunpo. His 
mother’s name was Jomo-namkye, and his father’s Gonpo-dorje. They gave 
him the name of Pema Dorje. Unlike other children, he was very handsome 
and of an amiable and pleasing disposition. When a child he used to collect 
around him a number of children of his age, and talk to them gravely, 
as if he were their religious teacher. His sports consisted only in making 
images of Buddhas, erecting chhorten, shrines, altars and viharas. By his 
command his playmates used to raise stone piles as if to repair the school 
walls. He seldom engagedin such sports as other children delighted in. At 
the age of seven he entered the Narthan monastery, where he prosecuted 
his studies up to the fifteenth year of his age. Within this period he learnt 
the Tibetan, Hor (Tartar), Chinese, Wartu and Lanja 33 (ancient Buddhist 
Sanskrit) languages. In his fifteenth year he was admitted into the holy 
order by Dubpa-S'erab, abbot of Narthan, and given the name of Gedun- 
dub-pal. He now acquired great proficiency in grammar, polite learning, 
poetry, arithmetic and other sciences, and also became well acquainted 
with the Sutras and Tantras. At the age of twenty he took the vows 
of priesthood at the hands of the same abbot, and became famed for 
his strict observance of vinaya or moral discipline. By his perseverance 
and assiduity he became an attentive srava/ca, a powerful thinker, and 
an excellent meditator. Unmindful of his personal convenience and 
temporal aggrandisement, and always thoughtful of furthering the cause 
of religion and the well-being of living beings, he went at the age of 
twenty-five to the province of U' to see the great reformer Tsong khapa, from 
whom he received much religious instruction, and who was greatly pleased 
with his conduct, Gedun-dub also received religious instruction from 
the two great Buddhist scholars Semba-chhenpo Kun-ssan and the venera- 
31 The title of Gyal-wa-Rin-po-chhe was then not applied to the grand Lamas 
of Lhasa. They held the position of high priests only. 
32 The mountainous portions of Tibet, are inhabited by the shepherds and 
yakherds who are called Dokpa. 
33 Ranja of the Nepalese. 
