Tsongkhapa [Tib.: tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa - ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་ བཟང་གྲགས་པ་] lived from 1357 to 1419. He was one of the greatest Tibetan lamas and is considered the founder of the Gelug School.
His disciples, especially the first Dalai Lamas, spread his teachings, thereby following the example of their teacher and his far-reaching activities. The school flourished to such an extent that, by the time of the 5th Dalai Lama [1617–1682], it had become the largest school in Tibet in terms of numbers and also spurred the expansion of the other schools. Tsongkhapa was revered as a national hero, the incarnation of the bodhisattva Manjushri.
Tsongkhapa was a great reformer, and his teachings later gave rise to the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1409, Tsongkhapa founded the Ganden Monastery near Lhasa. He left the world eighteen volumes of collected teachings, which contain hundreds of texts on all aspects of Buddhism and clarify some of the most difficult points of the sutras and tantras.
| Our Tsonkhapa Thangkas |
| Video from Himalayan Art Resources |