LATE 17TH-EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) is the founder of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism, the "newest" of the extant schools. Tsongkhapa studied the traditions of the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyü, and particularly Kadam lineages, and codified certain principles of all of them in the Gelug tradition. Today, the order is the most popularly followed in Tibet, with its head, the Dalai Lama, seen as the spiritual leader of the country.