82 Sarat Chandra Das —The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lama. [Extra No. 
the provinces of U and Tsang the headquarters of the Yellow 
Church. On account of his profound learning and holiness, though 
of humble and obscure parentage, Gadundub was regarded as a saint. 
He himself never pretended to have been of saintly origin, but people 
believed that he must have possessed in him the spirit of Bodhisattva 
Avalokite 9 vara—the guardian saint of Tibet. About three years 
after Gadundub’s death the possibilitv of the reappearance of the 
spirits of deceased Lamas for the first time dawned in the minds of the 
members of the reformed Church. The monks of Dapung over which 
Gadundub had latterly presided thought that the spirit of one who had 
loved his country and all living beings so much could hardly have 
become freed from his longings, to work for them even when he had 
passed out of his mortal tenements. They, therefore, sent emissaries 
to the different places which the Lama had visited during his lifetime, 
to inquire if there was born, seven weeks after his demise, any child in 
whom could be traced the signs of its indicating any incidents ,of 
Gadundub’s life. They also consulted their tutelary deities for 
guidance in the right identification of Gadundub’s spirit should it have 
re-appeared in any child. 
At last, a child was discovered at Tanag born in the family of 
Sreg-ton Darma, who had settled in Tsang from Lower Kham. It 
revealed some signs of having been the re-embodiment of the Lama’s spirit 
and successfully claimed as his own certain articles for which Gadundub 
used to evince much liking and which were kept mixed up with other 
people’s properties. This fortunate child was removed to Tashilhunpo 
for religious and monastic education. His father, who was a lay 
Tantrik priest of the Nin-ma sect, instructed him in the Tantrik cult. 
When twelve years old he took the vows of an Updsaka (lav devotee) from 
Panchen Lungrig Gya-tsho of Tashilhunpo ; after wtiich he was admitted 
into monkhood by the abbot of N'e-nin. 2 When he passed all the ex¬ 
aminations in the sacred scriptures he was elevated to the highest rank 
in the order of monkhood, after being given tiie name of Gadun gya-tsho 1 
and placed on the high priest’s chair in loll. He ably presided over 
the monastery of Tashilhunpo for a period of five years. He received 
instruction in the Buddhist scriptures and metaphysics from such 
eminent scholars as Ye- 9 es zang, hierarch of Gahdan, Yontan Gya-tsho 
of Tsang and Panchen ye 9 e.s tse of Tashilhunpo. He founded the 
monastery of Choikhor Gyal in the plain of Metog thang in 1508. In 
the 43rd year of his age, in the year 1516, he was appointed to the 
NO ^ 
WFYF 1 
2 
