The Treasury of Lives

The Eighty-seventh Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (dga' ldan khri pa 87 ngag dbang blo bzang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan) was born in Chone in Amdo (mdo smad co ne) in 1864, the wood-dragon year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle. Details of his youth are not known; he was recognized as the Third Tsemonling, the reincarnation of the Second Tsemonling, Ngawang Jampel Tsultrim Gyatso (tshe smon gling 02 ngag dbang 'jam dpal tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1792-1844). who had served as the Seventy-third Ganden Tripa (dga' ldan khri pa).

At a young age he travelled from Amdo to U-Tsang and matriculated in Tsador House of Sera Me College of the Sera Monastic University (se ra smad tsha rdor khang tshan). There he received his basic education and training in monastic life and then commenced systematic studies, starting with logic and epistemology, and then Abhisamayālaṃkāra, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakośa, Pramāṇavārttika, and Vinaya, the five major subjects of the Geluk monastic curriculum. He stood in the traditional examination for the Geshe Lharampa (dge bshes lha ram pa) degree at the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo and obtained the title of Lharampa with top rank, the highest academic accomplishment in the Geluk tradition.

Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen then enrolled in Gyuto College in Lhasa to study tantra and related rites and rituals, such as creating maṇḍala, and so forth, and obtained the title of Ngakrampa (sngags rams pa), master of Tantra. Thereafter he served as chant leader (bla ma dbu mdzad) and abbot of Gyuto and then Shartse Choje (shar rtse chos rje) at Ganden Shartse Monastery, one of two posts that from which one was elevated to the Golden Throne.

In 1907, the fire-sheep year in the fifteenth sexagenary cycle Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen ascended to the Golden Throne as the Eighty-seventh Ganden Tripa. He served for the customary seven years, until 1913 during which he performed the traditional duties of the office, such as giving teachings and leading important religious activities and festivals including the Great Monlam Chenmo of Lhasa during first month of every Tibetan year.

In 1910, the iron-dog year of the fifteenth sexagenary cycle, the Chinese invaded Tibet via Kham, where Zhao Erfeng (趙爾豐, 1845-1911) had been charged with subjugating the Tibetans and bringing the region into the Qing Empire as Xikang Province (西康). Zhao had been appointed amban in 1908, and is often described as 'the last amban'.

Fleeing the Chinese, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (tA la'i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933) appointed Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen as the acting Regent on the third day of the first Tibetan month. The Trichen was left to deal with the occupying Chinese army, which set about dethroning lamas and attempting to strip the Dalai Lama of all authority. Soon after arriving in India the Dalai Lama learned that the Qing Dynasty had collapsed, and he returned in 1912.

Soon after the Dalai Lama's return to Lhasa, Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen retired from the office of the Ganden Tripa in 1913, his seven year tenure completed. Khyenrab Yonten Gyatso (mkhyen rab yon tan rgya mtsho, b.1837) succeeded him on the Golden Throne.

At the age of seventy-six assumingly in late 1919 or early 1920, the earth-sheep year of the fifteenth sexagenary cycle, Ngawang Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen passed into nirvana. Ngawang Tubten Khedrub Gelek Gyeltsen (tshe smon gling 04 ngag dbang thub bstan mkhas grub dge legs rgyal mtshan 1921-1948) was identified as his reincarnation, the Fourth Tsemonling.