The first stage in the process of election is to write the names of these three children on lots, and place them in a golden urn. Then the Khutuktus assemble together in solemn conclave. For six days they remain in retirement. During all that period they are supposed to fast and to be engaged in repeating prayers. On the seventh day, the leading Khutuktu draws a lot, and the infant or child whose name comes out is proclaimed Dalai Lāma. The Panchen Lāma and the representatives of China must be present at the time[132].
In a similar manner, the Panchen Lāmas, Khutuktus, and ordinary Avatāra Lāmas are elected.
The Mongolian mode of election is thus described by M. Huc. (The quotation is not literal, and is abridged.)
The election and enthronization of the living Buddhas is extremely curious. When a Grand Lāma is ‘gone away,’ that is to say, is dead, the event is by no means made a matter of mourning in the convent. There are no tears or regrets, for every one knows that the living Buddha will soon re-appear. The apparent death is only the commencement of a new existence, a new link added to a boundless and uninterrupted chain of successive lives—a simple palingenesia. While the saint is in the chrysalis state, his disciples are in the greatest anxiety, and the grand point is to discover the place where their master has returned to life. If a rainbow appears, they consider it as a sign sent to them from their Grand Lāma, to assist them in their researches.
Every one then goes to prayers, and especially the convent which has been widowed of its Buddha is incessant in its fastings and orisons, and a troop of chosen Lāmas set out to consult the Churchun or diviner of hidden things. They relate to him the time, place, and circumstances under which the rainbow has appeared: and he then, after reciting some prayers, opens his books of divination, and at length pronounces his oracle; while the Tartars who have come to consult him, listen on their knees with the most profound devotion.
‘Your Grand Lāma,’ they say, ‘has returned to life in Tibet—at such a place—in such a family;’ and when the poor Mongols have heard the oracle, they return full of joy to their convent, to announce the happy news. Sometimes the living Buddha announces himself, at an age when other infants cannot articulate a word; but whether his place of abode be found by means of the rainbow, or by this spontaneous revelation, it is always at a considerable distance, and in a country difficult of access. A grand procession is then made, headed by the king, or the greatest man in the country, to fetch the young living Buddha. The Mongols often go through incredible fatigue and hardships, traverse frightful deserts, and sometimes, after being plundered by robbers, stripped of everything, and compelled to return, set out again with undiminished courage. When the living Buddha is found, however, he is not saluted Grand Lāma without a previous examination. Doubtless, the simple Mongols are in this matter often the dupes of those who have an interest in making a Grand Lāma of the baby. The title of the living Buddha having been confirmed, he is conducted in triumph to the monastery of which he is to become Grand Lāma; and as he passes along, the Tartars come in great troops and prostrate themselves before him, and bring him offerings. As soon as he arrives at the convent, he is placed on the altar, and every Tartar, from the highest to the lowest in the land, bows down before this child. There is no Tartar kingdom which does not possess one of these living Buddhas; but there is always another Grand Lāma, chosen among the members of the royal family, with whom the real government of the convent rests. The famous maxim ‘Le roi règne et ne gouverne pas’ has been of old application among the Tartars. [See note [p. 306] of these Lectures.]
It should be noted that the Lāmistic community like to keep up the fiction of these re-incarnations; and therefore they pretend to ascertain the genuineness of every re-birth by clear signs. Hence before a re-born saint is installed, his identity is established by his passing a kind of examination before a solemn assembly, thousands of witnesses being present.
Some of the books, clothes, and sacred or secular utensils which the dead Lāma was in the habit of using, are brought and mixed with others. The child is then asked to pick out the true ones, or he has to answer questions as to the events in his previous state of existence. If the replies are satisfactory, he is installed as the re-born Lāma amid great rejoicings.
Koeppen asserts that no positive information as to the relationship between the Dalai and Panchen Lāmas is forthcoming. Some maintain that both hierarchical systems developed simultaneously. Some say that the Panchen Lāma of Tashi Lunpo was the first Grand Avatāra Lama, while others hold that the elevation of the Panchen Lāmas took place later, and only resulted from the increase in importance of the Tashi Lunpo monastery in which they reside ([p. 284]).
The Dalai Lāmas may be enumerated as follow:—
The first is said to have been Gedun grub pa (otherwise pronounced Gedun dubpa). Probably he was the nephew and chief pupil of the Reformer Tsong Khapa. It was he who founded the monastery of Tashi Lunpo in 1445, and he is by some therefore called the first Lāma of that monastery. His birth is supposed to have occurred in 1391 or 1419, and his death in 1473 or 1476. Then he was born again after ten months as Gedun GyamThso (or Gedun Yamtso), the second Grand Lāma, who is held by some to have been the real founder of the Avatāra system of perpetual succession by reincarnations. He filled the Dalai Lāma Chair from 1474 or 1476 to 1540 or 1542.
The third embodiment took place in 1543, and bore the name Sod nam GyamThso (or Sod nam Yamtso), ‘sea of virtue.’ He was the first who really took the half Mongolian title of Dalai Lāma. Moreover, he laboured hard to spread Buddhism among the Mongolians, and founded the first Great Lāma’s Chair in Mongolia.