3rd Dalai Lama in the context of "Altan Khan"

The Dalai Lama (UK: /ˈdælaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, US: /ˈdɑːlaɪ/; Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" given by Altan Khan. He offered it in appreciation to the Gelug school's then-leader, Sonam Gyatso, who received it in 1578 at Yanghua Monastery. At that time, Sonam Gyatso had just given teachings to the Khan, and so the title of Dalai Lama was also given to the entire tulku lineage. Sonam Gyatso became the 3rd Dalai Lama, while the first two tulkus in the lineage, the 1st Dalai Lama and the 2nd Dalai Lama, were posthumously awarded the title.

Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lama has been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was an important figure of the Gelug tradition, which was dominant in Central Tibet, but his religious authority went beyond sectarian boundaries, representing Buddhist values and traditions not tied to a specific school. The Dalai Lama's traditional function as an ecumenical figure has been taken up by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, who has worked to overcome sectarian and other divisions in the exile community and become a symbol of Tibetan nationhood for Tibetans in Tibet and in exile. He is Tenzin Gyatso, who escaped from Lhasa in 1959 during the Tibetan uprising and lives in exile in Dharamshala, India.

Abtai Sain Khan (Mongolian: ᠠᠪᠲᠠᠶ ᠢᠰᠠᠶᠢᠨ ᠬᠠᠨ Абтай сайн хан; 1554–1588) – alternately Abatai or Avtai (Mongolian: Автай хан, meaning who have the gift of witchcraft (Автай) and good (сайн) – was a Khalkha-Mongolian prince who was named by the 3rd Dalai Lama as first khan of the Tüsheet Khanate in 1587. He zealously propagated Tibetan Buddhism among the Khalkha Mongols and founded the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu in 1585.

Abtai was born in 1554 to the Khalkha Mongol prince Onokhui üizen Noyan (b. 1534). He was the eldest among Onokhui üizen Noyan's five sons which include Abugho, Tarni, Tumengken, and Barai. He was the great-grandson of Batu Mongke Dayan Khan (1464–1517 / 1543) and grandson of Gersenji (1513–1549). Blood smeared on his fingers at birth presaged a great warrior and from 1567 to 1580 Abtai led several campaigns against western Oirat Mongol tribes, finally defeating the Oirats' Khoshut tribe at Köbkör Keriye in the mid-1580s. Abtai then placed his son Shubuudai on the Oirat throne. His ferociousness in battle earned him the moniker The Mad Hero or the Mad Taiji of North Khalkha.