Grand Lama

English

Noun

Grand Lama (plural Grand Lamas)

1. (dated) The Dalai Lama.

   Synonym: Great Lama

   • 1857, M. L'Abbé [Évariste Régis] Huc, Christianity in China, Tartary and Thibet, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, page 286:

     It was through this person, whose family held the office of high priest to the kings of Thibet for ten generations, that the succession of the ancient Buddhist patriarchs was continued, and that of Grand Lamas commenced; and it was also since his time that Lamaism, or reformed Buddhism, became the common religion of all Mongols.

   • 1887, Marie [Sinclair], Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages Contained in the Secret Doctrine of All Religions, 3rd edition, London: C. L. H. Wallace, page 368:

     The Buddhist natives of Tibet hold the grand Lama to be always the same person, the same Buddha, only re-incarnated or renovated, in a new mundane case or body; and Jesus Christ was considered by some Christians to be a renewed incarnation of both Adam and Noah; and this was one of the reasons for the careful setting forth of His pedigree in the New Testament.

   • 1947 April, Ethel N. Brown, “Lamaism”, in The Green Caldron, volume 16, number 4, Urbana, I.L.: University of Illinois, →OCLC, page 25:

     The Tibetans believe that when a Grand Lama dies, his soul is reincarnated in a child born at about the time of his death.

   • 1991, Jagmohan [Malhotra], My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir, New Delhi […]: Allied Publishers Limited, page 68:

     At that time, Ladakh was an independent kingdom under the suzerainty of the Grand Lamas of Tibet.

References

• “Grand Lama”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “Grand Lama”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Grand (also Great) Lama, n.” under “lama, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.