Taktser Rinpoche (; ) was born in 1922 in "the small village of Taktser, meaning 'roaring tiger,' located in the Amdo region of eastern Tibet." He became a lama of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and was named Thubten Jigme Norbu, the oldest brother of Tenzin Gyatso—the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Soon after birth, he was recognized by the 13th Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the previous Taktser Rinpoche, who was "one of the thirty or so reincarnated lamas who were a part of Kumbum's tradition." On September 5, 2008, Norbu, 86, died at his Indiana, US, home after illness for many years. He was survived by his wife Kunyang Norbu, and 3 sons. Taktser Lama Thubten Jigme Norbu's predecessor as the Taktser Rinpoche, known as Taktser Lama, was Norbu's and his brother the 14th Dalai Lama's paternal grandmother's elder brother, in other words their great uncle. One of the 30 or so reincarnated lamas who were part of Kumbum Monastery's tradition, he had been recognised as the Taktser Lama some time in the 1860s, taken from his family and raised and educated at Kumbum. Kumbum is a monastery of the Gelugpa tradition. "During the turmoil of the Manchu decline", Taktser Lama left Kumbum to live in Mongolia for several decades at the end of the 19th century. Mongolians being fervent devotees of the Gelugpa school, he "developed quite a devoted following there." Thanks to his Mongolian disciples' generous offerings, at the start of the twentieth century he returned to Kumbum Monastery a wealthy lama; he was said to have owned 10,000 camels. Taktser Lama then utilised his newly accumulated wealth to benefit his family in Taktser village, including the parents of his eventual successor Thubten Jigme Norbu. He bought back 45 acres of land they had lost when Manchu troops, in quelling a late-nineteenth century rebellion had destroyed the entire village of Taktser and driven the family away to live in caves in poverty. They were also enabled to build a new, large home where Thubten Jigme Norbu as well as the future 14th Dalai Lama were eventually born. At this time, Taktser Lama came to know the 13th Dalai Lama, who twice stayed long periods at Kumbum, firstly to avoid the Younghusband Expedition to Lhasa in 1904 and again in 1909 when returning to Lhasa after a trip to Beijing. By his support of the