Panchen Lama IV

Chokyi Gyaltsen was untitled, but he knew the llama of the Tashilunpo monastery. When the Dalai Lama IV was brought to the Lhasa monastery of Drepung from Khalkha in 1603 , Chokyi Gyaltsen became his main mentor. In gratitude, the Dalai Lama gave him the title “ Panchen Rinpoche ”, that is, “The Precious Great Pandita .” ^[1] After the sudden death of the Dalai Lama IV, Chokyi Gyaltsen became the mentor of the next, fifth Dalai Lama , and in the early 1650s and another eminent tulku - the rebirth of Taranatha , the Mongol Dzanabadzar . During the life of Chokyi Gyaltsen left more than three hundred works.

In 1662, after the death of the Panchen Lama at the age of ninety-three, the Dalai Lama V composed a special prayer urging him to reincarnate and ordered him to be read in monasteries, and the monks of Tashilunpo began to search for his rebirth. Having found a suitable boy in Tobgjel ( Tsang ), they turned to the Dalai Lama for his approval. ^{[2] The} Dalai Lama V confirmed their choice by declaring the Panchen Lam incarnations of Amitabha Buddha and appointing Tashilunpo as their permanent residence. ^{[3] [4]} Since that time, the title of “great pandita” was assigned exclusively to this line of tulkus , ^[5] and the title of the Panchen Lama was posthumously assigned to three other mentors, starting with Kedrub Jae .