Geluk

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Geluk (dge.lugs.pa, ‘Virtuous Way’). One of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism and that to which the Dalai Lama belongs. Established in 1409 with the founding of the Riwo Ganden (‘Joyous Mountain’) monastery by Tsong Khapa, the Geluk was the last of the great schools to be formed, and is now the largest. That Tsong Khapa was at pains to differentiate his school from the others is revealed by his prescription of Yellow Hats for his monks, while the other schools wore Red.

The head of the Geluk school is not (as is commonly supposed) the Dalai Lama, but the Khri Rinpoche (or throne-holder), an office passed on by educational attainment, not by incarnation.