The Dalai Lama Tulku lineage (UK: , US: ; Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) began in the 1430s with the first tulku Gendun Drupa, a student of Tsongkhapa. More than a hundred years later, the title of Dalai Lama was given to the tulku lineage by Altan Khan, the first Mongolian Shunyi King during the Ming dynasty. He offered it in appreciation to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, Sonam Gyatso, who was presented the spiritual title of Dalai Lama in 1578 at Yanghua Monastery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama
The Dalai Lama Tulku lineage (UK: , US: ; Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) began in the 1430s with the first tulku Gendun Drupa, a student of Tsongkhapa. More than a hundred years later, the title of Dalai Lama was given to the tulku lineage by Altan Khan, the first Mongolian Shunyi King during the Ming dynasty. He offered it in appreciation to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, Sonam Gyatso, who was presented the spiritual title of Dalai Lama in 1578 at Yanghua Monastery.
