Tsongkhapa’s reforms gave rise to a distinct style of Tibetan Buddhism by re-centering the tradition on strict monastic discipline and a highly structured path of study and practice. He placed renewed emphasis on the Vinaya, insisting on full celibate ordination and careful observance of vows, especially for serious practitioners and leaders. This stood in contrast to currents in earlier Tibetan schools where tantric practice sometimes coexisted with more relaxed discipline. Large monastic universities such as Ganden, Drepung, and Sera embodied this vision, operating under detailed communal codes and rigorous educational expectations. In this way, ethical restraint and institutional order became the bedrock for all higher practices.

Equally distinctive was the scholastic and philosophical rigor that came to characterize the Gelug tradition. Tsongkhapa developed a graded curriculum that wove together logic, epistemology, Madhyamaka philosophy, Abhidharma, and ethical training, with formal debate as a central pedagogical tool. This curriculum was supported by standardized textbooks and commentarial traditions, which fostered a high degree of uniformity and precision across monasteries. Within this framework, the lamrim, or stages of the path, served as a comprehensive map, guiding practitioners from basic moral foundations through to the most advanced contemplative practices. The result was a tradition in which careful reasoning and textual mastery were seen as indispensable supports for meditation and realization.

Doctrinally, Tsongkhapa’s reading of Madhyamaka set the Gelug school apart. He championed the Prāsaṅgika interpretation as the most definitive account of emptiness, carefully rejecting both subtle forms of essentialism and any slide into nihilism. This understanding preserved the full force of dependent origination and ethical causality while denying inherent existence to all phenomena. His extensive writings systematized Indian sources and offered detailed critiques of earlier Tibetan interpretations, thereby sharpening the philosophical profile of the school. For Gelug practitioners, this precise view of emptiness became the lens through which all other teachings, including tantra, were to be understood.

Finally, Tsongkhapa’s approach to tantra was marked by integration and restraint rather than antinomianism. Tantric practice was firmly subordinated to the sutra path, with renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view treated as non-negotiable prerequisites. Completion-stage practices, particularly in systems such as Guhyasamāja, were organized into detailed, coherent manuals, and their interpretation was carefully aligned with Madhyamaka reasoning. Clear distinctions between literal and symbolic aspects of tantric texts were emphasized, and behaviors that violated basic vows were rejected. In this synthesis of strict ethics, structured study, and carefully regulated tantra, the Gelug tradition emerged as a reform movement that sought to harmonize profound mystical methods with uncompromising moral and intellectual discipline.