This Sunday is Ganden Ngamchoe, the anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana, a day celebrated by many Buddhists. Ganden Ngacho (dga' ldan lnga mchod), which translates as "The Ganden Offering of the Twenty-Fifth," is a day well known for its magnificent display of butter lamps, which are placed in windows, on rooftops, and in monasteries throughout the city of Lhasa and other places in Tibet. People in Lhasa prepare a special memorial noodle soup to mark this event, and the Jokhang Temple alleyways are filled with people circumambulating while singing Migtsema, a supplication poem to Lama Tsongkhapa. Lama Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (1357–1419) left his hometown of Tsongkha Kingdom in Amdo for Lhasa at a very young age. He studied under 55 different teachers from all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and authored over 18 volumes of works. These works ranged from Lamrim Chenmo, an esoteric guide for gradual practices of Mahayana teaching, to a profound exoteric tantra, including in...