དོན་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ནི་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་ཞེ་བརྒྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༧༠༢ ནས་༡༧༠༨ བར་ཁྲི་པ་མཛད། འབྲས་སྤུངས་སྒོ་མང་དང་རྒྱུད་སྨད་གྲྭ་ཚང་དུ་སློབ་གཉེར་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པར་གནང་སྟེ་གྲྭ་ཚང་འདི་གཉིས་ཀྱི་མཁན་པོ་མཛད། དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེའི་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་ཆོས་རྗེ་གནང་། དེ་ནས་དགའ་ལྡན་གྱི་གསེར་ཁྲིར་བཞུགས། ཁོང་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་དུག་པའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་གནང་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་སོག་པོ་ལྷ་བཟང་ཁཱང་དང་འགལ་ཟླ་བྱུང་། ཁྲི་པའི་མཛད་འགན་གྲུབ་མཚམས་བྱ་ཡུལ་ཆོས་སྡེར་བཞུགས་ཏེ་སློབ་མ་མང་པོ་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་། ཁོང་གླིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་རིམ་བྱོན་གྱི་དང་པོར་བགྲངས།
The Forty-eighth Ganden Tripa Dondrub Gyatso (dga' ldan khri pa 48 don grub rgya mtsho) was born in Tre Naktsang region (kre nag tshang) in Kham in 1655, the wood-sheep year of the eleventh sexagenary cycle. His father was called Penpa Tsering (spen pa tshe ring) and mother was named Pelsam Dzompa (dpal bsam 'dzom pa). At a young age Dondrub Gyatso expressed his strong desire to take him to U-Tsang where he might learn and practice dharma.
In 1667, at the age of thirteen, Dondrub Gyatso travelled to Lhasa with the leader of Naktsang and enrolled in the Hardong House of Gomang College of the Drepung Monastic University ('bras spungs sgo mang grwa tshang gi har gdong khang tshan) near Lhasa. There he started his monastic education with the memorization of root-texts of logics and other major subjects. He had great intellect and he was said to be able to memorize about twenty pages of standard texts a day. He then studied various texts on Abhisamayālaṃkāra, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakośa, Pramāṇavārttika and Vinaya, the major subjects of the Geshe courses of studies of the Geluk monastic curriculum, under eminent teachers in the monastery, and in a relatively short time emerged as a particularly brilliant student. In the meantime, he received the vows of full ordination (dge slong) from the Fifth Paṇchen Lama Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 05 blo bzang ye shes, 1663-1737). Subsequently, in 1680, at the age of twenty-five, he successfully stood for the Geshe Lharamapa (dge bshes lha ram pa) degree during the traditional examination at the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo.
Dondrub Gyatso then matriculated in Gyume College (rgyud smad grwa tshang) and studied tantra, including commentaries on the major tantric systems, rituals, basic drawings required in tantric performances, and other many related topics. During his two years there he received numerous initiations, empowerments, and transmissions.
In 1682, at the age of twenty-eight, Dondrub Gyatso was appointed as the abbot of Gomang Monastery, a post he served for over a decade. At the age of forty-one, in 1695, he took the position as abbot of the Gyume College as well as choje (chos rje) at Ganden Jangtse. Thereafter he was enthroned as Forty-eighth Ganden Tripa in 1702, the water-horse year of the twelfth sexagenary cycle. While on the Golden Throne he served as the tutor to the Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 06 tshang dbyangs rgya mtsho, 1683-1706).
The previous year, in 1701, a conflict broke out between Desi Sanggye Gyatso (sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653-1705), the Regent of Tibet following the passing of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617-1682) and Lhazang Khan, a king of the Khoshut Mongols. It was the Khoshut Mongols who had conquered Lhasa and enabled the Fifth Dalai Lama to claim control of Tibet in the middle of the seventeenth century, and Lhazang was the main powerbase of the young Tibetan Ganden Podrang government. Largely because of the Sixth Dalai Lama's refusal to ordain and perform the expected duties of the Dalai Lama, relations between the Desi and the Khan deteriorated, and Lhazang Khan had Sanggye Gyatso assassinated. Lhazang Khan then deposed the Sixth Dalai Lama, who died in exile, and, in 1707, replaced him with his own son, who he claimed was the true reincarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The move was roundly rejected by the Geluk hierarchy and government officials, particularly the Ganden Tripa, Dondrub Gyatso, who was forced to retire soon after.
Dondrub Gyatso then moved to Jayul Monastery in To (stod bya yul dgon pa). He served at the Jayul Chode (bya yul chos sde), and performed dharma activities for his followers there. Two decades later, in 1727, at the age of seventy-three he passed into nirvana. A silver stupa of enlightenment (byang chub mchod rten) was built as his reliquary and installed at Deshek Lhakhang at the Yangpachen (yangs pa can gyi bde gshegs lha khang) monastery of Ganden (dga' ldan).
The following year Gendun Tenpai Gyeltsen (dge 'dun bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, 1728-1790) was born; he was later declared to be Dondrub Gyatso's reincarnation, inaugurating the line of Ling Rinpoche incarnations, the sixth incarnation, Yongdzin Ling Tubten Lungtok Namgyel Trinle (yongs 'dzin gling rdo rje 'chang tub bstan lung tog rnam gryal phrin las, 1903-1983) having served as the senior tutor to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (ta la'i bla ma 14 bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho, b. 1935), and the Ninety-seventh Ganden Tripa.
དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།
Bstan pa bstan 'dzin. 1992.'Jam mgon rgyal wa'i rgyal tshab gser khri rim byon rnams kyi khri rabs yongs 'du'i ljon bzang.Mundgod: Drepung Gomang Library, pp. 88-89.
Bstan pa bstan 'dzin. 2003.Chos sde chen pod pel ldan 'bras spungs bkra shis sgo mang grwa tshang gi chos 'byung chos dung g.yas su 'khyil ba'i sgra dbyangs.Lhasa: Dpal ldan 'bras spungs bkra shis sgo mang dpe mdzod khang, pp. 252-253.
Grags pa 'byung gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992.Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon mingmdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su'u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1112-1113.
Grags pa mkhas grub.1810.Khri thog bzhi bcu zhi brgyad pa khri chen don grub rgya mtsho’i rnam tharinDga’ ldan khri rabs rnam thar,pp. 31-50 (TBRC digital page number); pp. kha 1-10b (original text page number).
Grong khyer lha sa srid gros lo rgyus rig gnas dpyad yig rgyu cha rtsom 'bri au yon lhan khang. 1994.Dga' ldan dgon pa dang brag yer pa'i lo rgyus, grong khyer lha sa'i lo rgyus rig gnas deb 02.Lhasa: Bod ljongs shin hwa par 'debs bzo grwa khang, p. 69.