4th Dalai Lama

Yonten
Title4th Dalai Lama
Personal
Born1589
Died1617 (aged 27–28)
ReligionTibetan Buddhism
Senior posting
Period in office1601–1617
PredecessorSonam Gyatso
SuccessorNgawang Lobsang Gyatso
Chinese name
Chinese雲丹嘉措
Transcriptions
Tibetan name
Tibetanཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་
Transcriptions
Wylieyon tan rgya mtsho
Tibetan PinyinYoindain Gyaco

Yonten Gyatso or Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho (1589–1617), was the 4th Dalai Lama, born in Tümed on the 30th day of the 12th month of the Earth-Ox year of the Tibetan calendar.[1] Other sources, however, say he was born in the 1st month of the Earth Ox Year.[2]

As the son of the Khan of the Chokur tribe, Tsultrim Choeje, and great-grandson of Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols and his second wife PhaKhen Nula,[3] Yonten Gyatso was a Mongol, making him the only non-Tibetan to be recognized as Dalai Lama other than the 6th Dalai Lama, who was a Monpa—but Monpas can be seen either as a Tibetan subgroup or a closely related people.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Thubten Samphel and Tendar (2004), p.87.
  2. ^ Mullin (2001), p. 167.
  3. ^ Yonten Gyatso Archived 2005-12-13 at the Wayback Machine, Dalai Lama website.