[c#] MVC 4 - how do I pass model data to a partial view?

I'm building a profile page that will have a number of sections that relate to a particular model (Tenant) - AboutMe, MyPreferences - those kind of things. Each one of those sections is going to be a partial view, to allow for partial page updates using AJAX.

When I click on an ActionResult in the TenantController I'm able to create a strongly typed view and the model data is passed to the view fine. I can't achieve this with partial views.

I've created a partial view _TenantDetailsPartial:

@model LetLord.Models.Tenant
<div class="row-fluid">
    @Html.LabelFor(x => x.UserName) // this displays UserName when not in IF
    @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.UserName) // this displays nothing
</div>

I then have a view MyProfile that will render mentioned partial views:

@model LetLord.Models.Tenant
<div class="row-fluid">
    <div class="span4 well-border">
         @Html.Partial("~/Views/Tenants/_TenantDetailsPartial.cshtml", 
         new ViewDataDictionary<LetLord.Models.Tenant>())
    </div>
</div>

If I wrap the code inside the DIV in _TenantDetailsPartial inside @if(model != null){} nothing gets displayed on the page, so I'm guessing there is an empty model being passed to the view.

How come when I create a strongly typed view from an ActionResult the user in the 'session' gets passed to the view? How can pass the user in the 'session' to a partial view that is not created from an ActionResult? If I'm missing something about the concept, please explain.

Also, this could make it works:

@{
Html.RenderPartial("your view", your_model, ViewData);
}

or

@{
Html.RenderPartial("your view", your_model);
}

For more information on RenderPartial and similar HTML helpers in MVC see this popular StackOverflow thread

I know question is specific to MVC4. But since we are way past MVC4 and if anyone looking for ASP.NET Core, you can use:

<partial name="_My_Partial" model="Model.MyInfo" />

Three ways to pass model data to partial view (there may be more)

This is view page

Method One Populate at view

@{    
    PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel ctry1 = new PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel();
    ctry1.CountryName="India";
    ctry1.ID=1;    

    PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel ctry2 = new PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel();
    ctry2.CountryName="Africa";
    ctry2.ID=2;

    List<PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel> CountryList = new List<PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel>();
    CountryList.Add(ctry1);
    CountryList.Add(ctry2);    

}

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/PartialViewTest.cshtml",CountryList );
}

Method Two Pass Through ViewBag

@{
    var country = (List<PartialViewTestSOl.Models.CountryModel>)ViewBag.CountryList;
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/PartialViewTest.cshtml",country );
}

Method Three pass through model

@{
    Html.RenderPartial("~/Views/PartialViewTest.cshtml",Model.country );
}