Ganden Tripa

The Ganden Tripa or Gaden Tripa ( "Holder of the Ganden Throne") is the title of the spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, the school that controlled central Tibet from the mid-17th century until the 1950s. As of May, 2015 the present head of the Gelugpa order is Thubten Nyima Lungtok Tenzin Norbu, the 102nd Ganden Tripa and not, as is often misunderstood, the Dalai Lama.