5th Dalai Lama

5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang
5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lozang Gyatso
Title	His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama
Personal
Born	1617 Lhoka Chingwar Taktse, Ü-Tsang, Tibet
Died	1682 (aged 64–65) Lhasa, Tibet
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
Parents	Dudul Rabten (father) Kunga Lhanzi (mother)
Senior posting
Period in office	1642–1682
Predecessor	4th Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso
Successor	6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་
Transcriptions Wylie Ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho THL Ngawang Lozang Gyatso

This article contains Tibetan script. Without proper rendering support, you may see very small fonts, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Tibetan characters.

The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Tibetan: ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: Ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho; Tibetan pronunciation: [ŋɑ̀wɑ̀ŋ lɔ́psɑ̀ŋ cɑ̀t͡só]; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama and the first Dalai Lama to hold both political and spiritual leadership over Tibet. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being a key religious and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet. He is credited with unifying all of Tibet under the Ganden Phodrang, after Gushri Khans successful military interventions. As an independent head of state, he established relations with both Mongolians and with the Qing dynasty, as well as with neighboring countries. He began the custom of meeting early European explorers. The 5th Dalai Lama built the Potala Palace, and also wrote 24 volumes' worth of scholarly and religious works on a wide range of subjects.