The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (837 page)

 
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Gelugpa
:

see
GELUK
.

 
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(dge.lugs.pa, ‘Virtuous Way’). One of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism and that to which the
Dalai Lama
belongs. Established in 1409 with the founding of the Riwo Ganden (‘Joyous Mountain’) monastery by
Tsong
Khapa, the Geluk was the last of the great schools to be formed, and is now the largest. That Tsong Khapa was at pains to differentiate his school from the others is revealed by his prescription of
Yellow Hats
for his monks, while the other schools wore Red.
The head of the Geluk school is not (as is commonly supposed) the
Dalai Lama
, but the Khri Rinpoche (or throne-holder), an office passed on by educational attainment, not by incarnation.

 
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(Aram., ‘completion’). The discussions of the Jewish
amoraim
on the
Mishnah
. Both the Babylonian and the Palestinian
Talmud
contain gem
ra, which is traditionally printed around the relevant Mishnah passage.

 
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(Heb.,
gimatriyya
, from Gk.,
geometria
). Use or study of hidden meanings through numbers, especially the numerical equivalence of letters. Gematria was much employed by the
kabbalists
and was used to prove the
messiahship
of
Shabbetai Zevi
. Despite criticism, its use was widespread in both
Sephardi
and
Ashkenazi
circles.
In Islam, the equivalent techniques are known as ‘
ilm ul-
ur
f
, based on
abjad
(the numerical values of the letters). Thus Adam and Eve are specially related to God because their names = the Divine Name (of
All
h
).