Thirteenth Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso

CHINA, Tibet, Lhasa

Thubten Gyatso was recognized as the reincarnation of the Twelfth Dalai Lama when he was two years old. The following year, he received his pre-novice vows from the Panchen Lama, and at age four, he was enthroned as the Thirteenth Dalai Lama at Potala Palace. He began studying the five sciences and debate when he was 11, studied the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism at age 18, and when he turned 20, he took his full monastic vows and assumed political power.
In 1917, he established the Tibetan Medical and Astrology Institute in Lhasa to preserve the unique traditional Tibetan medical and astrological systems. While industrious in politics, he was also diligent in studying the scriptures, in addition to politics, economics, law, astronomy, geography, music, and sculpture. He authored 39 treatises on Buddhism, Buddhist sculpture, and stupas. Many original prints of his most well-known articles still exist today.