Grand lama

It was through this person, whose family held the office of high priest to the kings of Thibet for ten generations, that the succession of the ancient Buddhist patriarchs was continued, and that of Grand Lamas commenced; and it was also since his time that Lamaism, or reformed Buddhism, became the common religion of all Mongols.

The Buddhist natives of Tibet hold the grand Lama to be always the same person, the same Buddha, only re-incarnated or renovated, in a new mundane case or body; and Jesus Christ was considered by some Christians to be a renewed incarnation of both Adam and Noah; and this was one of the reasons for the careful setting forth of His pedigree in the New Testament.

The Tibetans believe that when a Grand Lama dies, his soul is reincarnated in a child born at about the time of his death.

At that time, Ladakh was an independent kingdom under the suzerainty of the Grand Lamas of Tibet.