The dissertation delineates how the writings compiled in The Collected Works (Gsung ’bum) of Jey Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (1357–1419), the founder of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism, constitute the centrality of the Geluk thought and philosophy and have contributed towards the school’s formation. It details how the texts have played a prominent role in establishing doctrinal authority, defining philosophical boundaries, postulating intellectual identity, and reorienting monastic education for the school. These texts have also considerably enhanced the intellectual, spiritual, and charismatic authority of Jey Tsongkhapa as a teacher and philosopher. This dissertation bases its approach on the premise that the life and writings of Tsongkhapa define the core identity of the Geluk School and that an explicit rejection of either tantamount to an outright abnegation of its membership. The dissertation begins with a critical retelling of Tibet’s religious history to contextualize the subject. The second chapter presents the culture and practice of life writing in Tibet to inform about the mechanism employed in traditional auto/biographies. Given the enormous attention drawn by the study of Jesus Christ (c. 4 BCE–c. 33 CE) in western academia, the chapter includes a literary review of contemporary studies and research for their emulation in the study of Tibetan hagiographies. The life story of Tsongkhapa is recounted in the third chapter. The fourth chapter details significant historical events that helped recenter Tsongkhapa in the Tibetan religio-cultural landscape. The fifth chapter presents his oeuvre—The Collected Works, the first extensive xylographic work printed in Tibet in the early fifteenth century. It also outlines the volume contents, presents sample texts, and chronicles the history of its publication and printing. The sixth chapter illustrates the centrality of Jey Tsongkhapa’s writings and its integration into the Geluk monastic educational system. The seventh chapter explicates on the topic of textual transmission and demonstrates how the texts were passed down through unbroken lineages to this day. The dissertation concludes with an epilogue and other back matters, including a list of transliteration of names, which are phoneticized in the main body for the ease of reading.

This dissertation explores the innovation and creativity behind elite Gelukpa thinking and writing about Buddhist place in Tibet in the long eighteenth century. It argues that writing about place offered Geluk thinkers a way to embed themselves in the land and history of Tibet, giving a rooted support to their expanding influence. More broadly, it demonstrates a growing spatialization of religious thought in Tibet and reveals a continuous and dynamic conversation around Tibetan Buddhist place and the nature of Buddhist space. This conversation went to the heart of matters of history, power, religion, and aesthetics and was tied intimately to the historical context of its production. To contextualize the period of Gelukpa growth, I begin by presenting the history of Tibetan Buddhist place writing across the longue durée. Based on my collection and analysis of over 400 place writing texts, including guidebooks, histories, poetry, and ritual texts, I suggest for the first time a periodization for this history, delineating distinct phases in the development of place writing across time. This periodization reveals that at most points throughout this history, Nyingma writers dominated place writing production. From the twelfth to seventeenth centuries, they set the standard for traditional place writing genres like guidebook literature. Beginning at the end of the seventeenth century, however, Gelukpa authors joined the conversation with great energy, producing both traditional and new styles of place writing in greater numbers than ever seen before. Why did the long eighteenth century see a burgeoning of place writing, both generally and by Gelukpa authors, specifically, and what characterized these new texts? I explore these questions by looking more closely at the work of three Gelukpa writers. First, I show how place writing was part of the Gelukpa rise to political and institutional dominance by an analysis of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s use of the supine demoness narrative in his efforts to unify Tibet under his government. Gelukpa place writing of this period was forced to grapple with earlier Nyingma narratives that in many cases dominated the conversation. Sumpa Khenpo’s Annals of Blue Lake offers an example of the creativity with which writers presented their new visions for Buddhist place in Tibet. Finally, I look at the poetry of Tukwan Lozang Chökyi Nyima as evidenced of the incorporation of new spatial configurations and the cultural exchange happening due to increased interactions with the Qing capital and imperial patronage. These snapshots ultimately show that the Gelukpa used place writing as part of its efforts to cement a growing influence politically, geographically, and culturally in Tibet and across Asia in the long eighteenth century. Just as importantly, however, these examples exhibit the creative power of writers in shaping the Buddhist landscape of Tibet. Through an analysis of an array of place writing texts, this dissertation brings to light one moment in the long history of Tibetan Buddhist place writing and demonstrates that Buddhist place has been a site of dynamic conversation (and often contestation) throughout that history.