Passing Away

Tsongkhapa continued to live and write and teach in Ganden, and he died there in 1419 at the age of 62. He attained enlightenment after his death by—instead of bardo, achieving an illusory body after the clear light of death and then went on from that to enlightenment. And this was to emphasize the need for monks to follow strict celibacy, because to achieve enlightenment in this lifetime requires practice with a consort at least once. Only once. It’s basically to be able to move the energy-winds that are on the surface of the skin to get them to dissolve into the central channel. So it requires a certain type of powerful blissful awareness that will actually get those energies to start to move; those subtle energies. We only have to have it once, and then you can start to manipulate those energies and get them to centralize in the central channel. That’s the only purpose. Quite technical.

And before Tsongkhapa passed away, he gave his hat and robe to Gyaltsabje, his senior disciple, who held the Ganden throne for twelve years afterwards. This began the tradition of the Ganden Throne Holder (dGa’-ldan khri-pa, Ganden Tripa), the head of the Gelug order. The next throne holder was Kedrubje, who later had five visions of Tsongkhapa. During these five visions, Tsongkhapa clarified some of his doubts and answered some of his questions. And the Gelug lineage has flourished ever since then.

Source

[[1]]