Gendun Gyatso Palzangpo ("Sublimely Glorious Ocean of Spiritual Aspirants", layname: Yonten Phuntsok) (1475-1541) was the second Dalai Lama. He was proclaimed the reincarnation of Gedun Drub as a young boy.

Legend has it that soon after he learned to speak, he told his parents his name was Pema Dorje, the birth name of the first Dalai Lama. When he was four, he reportedly told his parents he wished to live in the Tashilhumpo monastery to be with his monks. He was a renowned scholar and composer of mystical poetry, who traveled widely to extend Gelugpa influence, and became abbot of the largest Gelugpa monastery, Drepung, which from this time on was closely associated with the Dalai Lamas.

When the high priests came looking for the incarnation of the previous Dalai Lama, they found him when he was 17 years old. Apparently, he told the priests that he had been waiting for them.