The Ganden Tripa ("Holder of the Ganden Throne") is the title of the spiritual leader of the Gelug (Dge-lugs) school of Tibetan Buddhism, the school which controlled central Tibet from the mid-1600s until 1950. The Dalai Lama is the temporal head of the school, a position of greater political authority but lower spiritual rank.

The Ganden Tripa is an appointed office, not a reincarnation lineage. It is awarded by the Dalai Lama on the basis of competitive examination. Since the position is not a life-long one, there have been many more Ganden Tripas than Dalai Lamas to date (101 as against 14).

Either Tsongkapa (Tsong-ka-pa) (1357-1419), who founded the Gelug sect, or his successor, Gyaltsab Je (Rgyal-tshab-rje), may be considered to have been the first Ganden Tripa.

In January 2003, the Government of Tibet in Exile announced the nomination of the 101st Ganden Tripa. An excerpt from that press release gives his background: The 100th Ganden Tripa, Venerable Lobsang Nyingma Rinpoche, has since retired and now resides at Dharamsala together with HH 14th Dalai Lama.