Thus it was the Gelugpa monastery of Ganden Puntsokling that Zanabazar visited in 1650 when he set out to visit places connected with the lives of his previous incarnations. No doubt the damage from the turmoils of 1642 had been repaired, and perhaps the printing press was even operating again. We know that while at Ganden Puntsokling Zanabazar was given a very valuable book, identified in Mongolian sources as the Jad-damba, which was printed in gold on leaves of sandalwood. He probably saw the enormous (forty feet in circumference) three-dimensional Kalachakra mandala fashioned from gold and copper which was one of the main attractions at Ganden Puntsokling. According to one source it remained here until 1680, when it was finally taken to the Potala, where it remains to this day as the stunning centerpiece of the Kalachakra Temple. No doubt he walked up the side valley the original Jonang Monastery and visited all seven stories and dozens of temple niches within the Jonang Kumbum. And maybe be climbed the hillside east of the Kumbum and sat in the cave which Taranatha himself had used as a meditation retreat. Either at Ganden Puntsokling or other monasteries on his itinerary he also collected statues of Tara, Chenresig, and Maitreya. On his way back from Ganden Puntsokling he stopped again at Tashilhunpo to visit the Panchen Lama, and then returned to Lhasa.

Ganden Puntsokling is off the heavily-beaten tourist path in Tibet, but monks in residence say that a fair amount of foreign tourists and pilgrims find their way there in the summertime. There were no other visitors in the wintertime when I was there. There are no tourist facilities anywhere in the area, but monks were kind enough to let us use a guestroom and give us tea and dinner.

Most of the monastery was heavily damaged during the Cultural Revolution. The castle-like building on the high knob overlooking the valley is still in ruins, but two of the temples at the base of the knob have been restored. In one of them, the Shambhala Temple, is a wooden replica, just recently constructed, of the huge three-dimensional Kalachakra mandala which had been removed from here at some point and placed in the Potala in 1680. An hour's walk up the side-valley is the Lingshar Nunnery where about a dozen nuns now live. They are in the charge of huge Jonang Kumbum and act as guides for visitors. The Kumbum was also heavily damaged by the Red Guards but the exterior of the structure and some of the temple niches on its seven floors have now been restored. The fourth-floor is dedicated to one of Taranatha's preoccupations, the Kalachakra, and the temples on this floor contain statues of some of the twenty-five Khalkin Kings of Shambhala, although most are now unrecognizable. From the top of the Kumbum is a good view of the environs of the old Jonang Monastery, supposedly modeled on Shambhala, but the buildings themselves are now totally in ruins. On the hillside can still be seen at the cave the nuns say Taranatha used as a meditation retreat. Unfortunately they have never heard of Zanabazar, and thus are unable to say for sure if he himself ever visited here.

Zanabazar was so deeply impressed by what he had experienced during his travels around Tibet that he wanted to stay in the country indefinitely. During one of his visits to Tashilhunpo he had told the Panchen Lama, "I wish to settle in Tibet and undergo instruction." According to the Rosary White Lotuses, the Panchen Lama finally had to tell him, "It will be much more beneficial to the Teachings and sentient beings if you go back to the Sog country [Mongolia] and set up new monasteries there, rather than stay and study here.". At some point he also intimated to the Dalai that he would like to stay in Tibet, but the Great Fifth gave him the same answer as the Panchen Lama: he could do the most good for sentient beings in Mongolia.

So Zanabazar tried to make the most of his limited time in Tibet. As mentioned, the construction of the Potala was in progress while he was in Lhasa, and there were many artists from Nepal and other countries in the Tibetan capital to assist in the building and furnishing of the Dalai Lama's new palace. Although the Mongolian accounts say nothing of this, it is possible that Zanabazar, who had shown artistic inclinations from early childhood, used this opportunity to acquaint himself with the techniques employed by these various artisans. As we shall see, art historians would later detect a Nepalese influence in many of his most famous works. It's also possible that he became acquainted at this time with the theoretical canons of art contained in the Tengyur, the vast collection of commentaries on the Buddha's teachings.

Interesting as all these subjects may have been it was soon time to return to Mongolia. On the Dalai Lama's advice he took with him numerous Tibetan monks and fifty Tangut monks from the ancient land of Xi Xsia (roughly the modern-day province of Ningxia, China). All of them it would appear were members of the Gelugpa sect and were to assist Zanabazar in converting Mongolia to the Yellow Hat Faith. In addition to the monks were an assortment of artists, painters, and other craftsmen to help Zanabazar build and adorn new monasteries in Mongolia. In total over 600 people accompanied Zanabazar back in Mongolia, in addition to his own entourage. They arrived sometime in 1651, exact date unknown. Thus ended the first Bogd Gegen's first trip to Tibet.

Drepung Monastery, where Zanabazar probably stayed while in Lhasa is still one of the three big monasteries, along with Sera and Gandan, in the Lhasa area, and continues to be an important pilgrimage site for Tibetans, as well as a standard stop on all tourist excursions in Lhasa. I have visited Drepung several times. Once I was there in the winter when the courtyards and hallways were jammed with Tibetan pilgrims from the countryside. On this occasion I had the benefit of a guide and translator, a Tibetan woman in her thirties who spoke excellent English. I explained to her that I would like to ask someone at Drepung whether they knew anything about Zanabazar, the famous Mongolian lama who had visited here in the mid-seventeenth century. I had intended that she ask someone in a position of authority about this, but instead she immediately turned to an old toothless monk who happened to be shuffling by and put the question to him. He was hard of hearing and my translator ended up shouting at him while he cupped his hands to his ears in order to hear. He finally understand her question and after ruminating at length, all the while twirling the half-dozen or so white hairs which constituted his beard, said "Oh," you must mean the famous Mongolian lama whose 9th reincarnation now lives in India." Amazing, he was indeed referring to Zanabazar, whose current reincarnation is now headquartered at a monastery in Simla, India. I was startled to hear that he knew about Zanabazar, but even more so that he aware of Zanabazar's present reincarnation. "Ask him how he knows about the reincarnation in India," I told my translator. After another shouting match she replied, "He heard about this lama on BBC."

"Come," said the monk, "I'll show you where Zanabazar lived." He led us up some cobbled pathways to the back of the monastery and pointed to a mass of ruined walls and rubble covering the hillside. "Zanabazar lived in one of those buildings, but they were destroyed back during the troubles," he said, referring to the Cultural Revolution. Unfortunately the monk could tell us nothing more about Zanabazar's stay in Lhasa during his first trip to Tibet, but it seems significant that even the humblest of the monastery's current inhabitants remember his presence at Drepung.