4th Dalai Lama

Yonten
Title	4th Dalai Lama
Personal life
Born	1589 Northern Yuan
Died	1617 (aged 27–28) Tibet
Religious life
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
Senior posting
Period in office	1601–1617
Predecessor	Sonam Gyatso
Successor	Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso

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Yonten Gyatso or Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho (1589–1617), was the 4th Dalai Lama, born in Tümed on the 30th day of the 12th month of the Earth-Ox year of the Tibetan calendar.^[1] Other sources, however, say he was born in the 1st month of the Earth Ox Year.^[2]

As the son of the Khan of the Chokur tribe, Tsultrim Choeje, and great-grandson of Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols and his second wife PhaKhen Nula,^[3] Yonten Gyatso was a Mongol, making him the only non-Tibetan to be recognized as Dalai Lama other than the 6th Dalai Lama, who was a Monpa—but Monpas can be seen either as a Tibetan subgroup or a closely related people.^{[citation needed]}