DGE LUGS PA. The Dge lugs pa (Geluk pa) order of Tibetan Buddhism was founded in the early fifteenth century by Tsong kha pa (1357–1419) in the area of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. He established a monastic university on a mountain called Dga' ldan ("the joyous") in 1409, and his sect was thus originally called Joyous Way (Dga' ldan pa'i lugs); later it came to be called Virtuous Way, Dge lugs pa. Students built two other large monastic universities in the Lhasa area, 'Bras spung (Drepung) (1416) and Se ra (1419), and the system gradually spread throughout the country. Within two hundred years the sect had become an important political force, such that around 1640, with the help of the Mongolian potentate Gushri Khan, the fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) assumed power as head of the government. The lineage of Dalai Lamas maintained this position until the Chinese takeover...