Who Murdered the Sixth Dalai Lama? Part 2

Part 2 of 6

---

II. The Young Life of Tsangyang Gyatso

Right: Thangka painting of Desi Sangye Gyatso. 18th Century.

With the death of the Great Fifth, Tibet’s Regent, Sangye Gyatso (1653-1705) found himself in the government in a tenuous position. They feared a counterattack by the Bhutanese, or a collapse in confidence, and the inability to complete the Potala Palace. So the Tibetans kept the Dalai Lama’s death a secret, using a look-alike whenever the Mongols came by to consult with him. The look-alike was Depa Deyab (dates unknown) an old monk from Namgyal Monastery who bore a passing resemblance to the deceased Lama, was physically abused and bribed to stay in line. This was the Regent's first mistake.

When the Dalai Lama was required to appear on major public occasions, the Desi [i.e. Regent] placed his ceremonial robes upon the throne, forcing the Tibetans to accept this merely symbolic presence instead. It was a different matter when the Mongols came to town: they were rather more insistent on seeing the Dalai Lama in person. Sangye Gyatso was well aware that the Mongols were the military backbone of his Tibetan government, so he found an old monk with a passing resemblance to the Dalai Lama. The monk was dressed up and seated on the Dalai Lama’s throne for the audience, and, fortunately for Sangye Gyatso, conducted himself plausibly enough during the polite ceremony to convince the Mongols.

After this narrow escape, Sangye Gyatso kept the old monk within the Dalai Lama’s quarters, to be brought out whenever it was necessary. The monk did not readily accept imprisonment in another person’s role and tried to escape, for which Sangye Gyatso had him beaten; later the Desi resorted to bribing the old monk to stay.1

The Fifth Dalai Lama's Bhutanese geopolitical rival, the Zhabdrung, died decades earlier, and his death was also kept secret for similar reasons. So for roughly twenty years, the two highest countries in the world were both Necrocracies. The behind-the-scenes game of succession the Bhutanese dealt with was actually messier than what the Tibetans were about to experience.

Tsangyang Gyatso was born on 28 March 1683.2 His father was Lama Tashi Tenzin, a descendant of Pema Lingpa, the famous Bhutanese treasure revealer (gter ton), and a village Lama and tantric practitioner in his own right.3 His mother was Tsewang Lhamo, who had reported many prophetic dreams when she was pregnant with her son.4 For just one example,

On the night of the conception she dreamed that she went to collect water from the local spring. As she leaned over to scoop up the water, she beheld a five-pointed vajra. It fell upright into the palm of her hand. She had the sense that it was very precious, and that she should guard it with great care, so she gently placed it inside her blouse.5

For the first three days of his life, the baby would not eat. It was explained that he was fasting. Shortly after that, his face began to swell with an infection, and after the illness had passed, he the protector deity, who happened to be closely associated with the Dalai Lama, Dorje Drakden, was credited. They boy’s grandfather even had a dream that the baby was being constantly protected by heavenly beings. His first words were reported to be, “I’m not someone insignificant, but rather Gyalwa Lobsang Gyatso, the Refuge of the Three Worlds. I’m from Lhasa and the Potala and must go up there soon.”6

The family of Lama Tashi Tenzin and Tsewang Lhamo were neither intuitive nor safe choices for the new Dalai Lama. First of all, he was neither Tibetan like the Fifth, nor Mongol like the Fourth, but Monpa. The name Monpa is derived from the Tibetan word mun, meaning “darkness.” With the added nominative particle, pa, it becomes “people of the darkness.” The darkness in this case, being life without the buddhadharma. Or, in the words of Karma Phuntsho,

Unlike central Tibet, where Buddhist civilization had reached its peak by the middle of the eighth century, the people in the borderlands, in the eyes of a central Tibetan, were groping in darkness without the light of the Buddha’s wisdom.7

This term became applied to a large amount of disparate groups, especially in the southern Himalaya. Bhutan, for example, was known by multiple versions of this name, including Lhomon (“southern Mon”), Monyul (“Mon country”), and Lhomonkazi (“southern Mon of four approaches”).8 Of course, by the time Tsangyang Gyatso was born, the Tibetan-speaking peoples living in Arunachal Pradesh had long been converted to Buddhism, and so while the name no longer literally applied, it was still very much in use. As it is today among the people living along the Arunachal Pradesh-Bhutan border.9

In 1685 a search committee was dispatched in secret to scout out these borderlands of Bhutan and Tibet.10 The boy they found was also born not to Gelukpas, but to a Nyingma family. They had no influence in Lhasa, absolutely none among Mongol tribes, and were not well connected to political power outside of the eastern Himalayan hinterlands, more or less out of the Dalai Lama's sphere of influence.

Not only that, he was a dangerous choice. Glenn H. Mullin claims there were rumors of a large Bhutanese force moving into the area.11 While I have little primary source evidence of that, it's pretty well known that Mingyur Tenpa (1631-81), the Bhutanese Regent, was the architect of his country’s eastward expansion, and had plans to continue expanding east, as well as west into Sikkim, Nepal, and westward all the way to Ladakh.12 So it would make some sense at the very least that there were scouts (or spies) in the area. And a search party of Tibetan Lamas claiming to be looking for reincarnate candidates would be worth noting… especially if the rumors that the Fifth Dalai Lama killed the Bhutanese leader, the Zhabdrung, with black magic were true.

If they were looking for a safe candidate, they could have found one among Gushri Khan’s descendants, or in a family of Lhasa nobility. If they were really intent on bringing the Nyingma over to their side, they could have found him among the Nyingma families and in Lhasa.

As mentioned previously, the Fifth Dalai Lama, as the ruler of Tibet, seemed to be uncomfortably friendly with the Nyingma. The Gelukpa generally found his relationship with them to be inappropriate. Of course, he was effectively the ruler of Tibet.

In fact, Lobsang Gyatso is important to the Nyingma tradition as one of “The Great Confirmers,” who used a proto-scientific method to analyze Tibetan Treasure Teachings (gter ma) and declare them real or fake. Terma aren't really a Geluk thing, so it seemed like a waste of time to them, but he was the Dalai Lama and thus hard to argue with.

Also, while the Great Fifth was a celibate monk, it was rumored towards the end of his life he began to practice secret sexual yogas. Though if there were any records of this, they were either destroyed, or have yet to come to light. But if one, like many Tibetans, believes in reincarnation as a continuation of consciousness, that brings us back to Tsangyang Gyatso.

Searching for a high-level reincarnate often brings about fame, fortune, and good auspices to the family of the recognized tulku. The monks of the search committee were told to claim they were looking for the reincarnate of Zhalu Khenpo, a significantly lower and less prestigious lama than their true charge. Two monks were given a list assembled by the search committee and sent south to investigate the boys on it. After initial difficulties, the two searchers ended up following two crows which led them to the house of Lama Tashi Tenzin.13

Above: Urgelling Gonpa, the birthplace of Tsangyang Gyatso in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh (what would have been known in 1683 as Monyul). Photo shows the location c. 2006. Had he not been found and declared Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso probably would have spent his life as a Nyingma gomchen (a married lama, passing down his property patrilineally) here. He might also have lived to a ripe, old age.

The house and the boy inside were on their list. The boy was only two, and so not likely to give them many results. Still, the monks asked to take a look. His mother, Tsewang Lhamo, said that he was sick, so not likely to provide much of use, and that they should come back in a few days. The monks insisted, and his mother and father brought him out.

The baby was sluggish and lethargic. He was presented with two rosaries, one of which belonged to the late Fifth, but he just took both and seemed to take no interest in either. They then left, both monks feeling disappointed. As they left, one of the monks fell to the ground with a sharp pain in his side. One of the crows landed near him and began taunting him, as if mocking him for leaving. That night, one of the monks had a dream where the Nechung Oracle berated him for not being discriminating in their search. The monks redoubled their efforts and over the next few months, began going around the region examining the boys.

Still coming to no conclusion, they returned to the house of Tashi Tenzin and Tsewang Lhamo. As they approached, the little boy was playing outside. They approached him and he waved and called out to each of them by name. He asked to see the bag full of ritual objects belonging to the Fifth Dalai Lama mixed with others, saying, “Come here immediately. Show me my things!”

When the monks asked him, “Are you the reincarnation of Zhalu Khenpo?” He said, “No, I am not Zhalu Khenpo. I am Lobsang Gyatso. I do not want to live here. I want to go to the Potala. I am the greatest of all.” They removed two statues from the bag, one of Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and one of the Fifth. The boy picked up the latter and began shouting, “This is me! This is me!”14

Further tests, having the boy identify a ritual dagger, statues, and texts, hats, knives, and other items belonging to his predecessor. The boy correctly identified every one. This led the monks to write to the Regent in Lhasa that they had found the boy.15 Since Monyul was too close to the Bhutanese border, the Regent sent them a message saying they should take the boy and his family and move them to Sha’uk, a shrine and caravanserai, two day’s journey north on the way to Lhasa.16 They continued to present the boy as the reincarnate of Zhalu Khenpo.17

From Sha’uk, the family was moved to Tsona Dzong, a fortress 15 miles (24 km) from the modern Arunachal Pradesh border, about 26 miles (42 km) from the family’s home near Tawang. This stay in Tsona was supposed to be temporary, but it turned into a 12 year confinement, where the former petty nobles of Monyul were now treated like prisoners. They were not particularly easy or happy years.18 Unhappy though they may have been, the Regent took the time to begin sending teachers to Tsona to educate him in secret.

In 1697, just after his father’s death, as the Nechung Oracle finally indicated that the time was right to reveal the secret and return the Dalai Lama to his throne. The Panchen Lama had given the name “The Omniscient Lobsang Rinchen Tsangyang Gyatso” to the boy, and in a very typically ornate Tibetan fashion, he and his mother were brought from Tsona to Lhasa in a huge procession filled with monks, soldiers, officials, dancers, astrologers, cooks, tea servers, common folk, and hangers-on.19 Tsangyang’s arrival in Lhasa was considered a joyous celebration. The Regent and many more are claimed to have wept at the sight of him returning to his throne.

But things soon turned sour.

Tsangyang Gyatso was enthroned in the Potala Palace as the Sixth Dalai Lama on 7 December 1697.20 Less than four years later, however, Regent Sangye Gyatso gave a speech to the monks of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden (i.e. the governing monasteries of the Ganden Phodrang) that the Dalai Lama would “listen to no one, not even his mother or him, in matters concerning his studies.”21 It seems that Tsangyang had lost interest in formal monastic education.

The Dalai Lama was approaching the age of twenty,22 the minimum age one would be allowed to graduate from getshul (i.e. novice) vows to full monastic ordination with their gelong vows. Mid-late 1701, Sangye Gyatso wrote to the Panchen Lama that things seemed to be escalating to a disaster:

[I]t was essential that he should now take the vows of a fully ordained monk. Though the “karmic traces” left over from his previous existence were still with him, he accepted no advice whatsoever on how he should behave. At best he gave evasive and temporizing replies to the regent’s repeated requests that he should take his final vows. In some desperation the regent begged the Panchen to intervene.23

The Panchen and Dalai Lamas then exchanged letters, resulting in Tsangyang Gyatso journeying to Shigatse, where the Panchen Lama was enthroned, to try to convince him to resume his predecessor’s place as a fully ordained monk. Tsangyang arrived on 25 July24 and was begged by the Panchen Lama to devote his life to religious study and to ordain fully as a gelong. The Panchen Lama made three prostrations on the ground before him, and when he was done, the Dalai Lama got up and made three prostrations towards his teacher, saying, “I confess my breaking the lama’s commands.” But he would not accede to their demands.

Worse, he was going to return even his getshul vows. While getshul don’t need to maintain celibacy and gelong do, getshul are also supposed to abstain from alcohol. He was so adamant to do this, that if the Panchen Lama, who had inducted him into taking his getshul vows in 1697 did not accept the return of his vows, Tsangyang said he would commit suicide facing the direction of the Panchen Lama’s throne at Tashilhunpo. Not being able to bear this threat, the Panchen Lama relented.25

Above: Novices (i.e. getshul) in a Lithang temple. Called "young monks" by the photographer, Matt Ming, c. 2007. Found on Wikimedia Commons. It's not hard to imagine a version of Tsangyang's young life where he was able to make friends and goof around like a kid, despite his destiny crashing onto his head like a ton of bricks. Had he not had such a lonely and miserable childhood, things might have gone very differently.

Further meetings were had, in both Shigatse and Lhasa, some with the Dalai Lama, and some without. The Dalai Lama’s resolve never weakened, but his patience with the officials did, and his replies became “weaker and weaker.”26 He was just a young man, so the officials began to rationalize the situation.

When the Sixth returned his precepts, the elders hoped that he was just going through an early life crisis, and would soon change his mind and once again become a monk.

This was not to be. Although he remained in the Potala, he began to let his hair grow into long locks that flowed down over his shoulders almost to his waist, and to wear the jewelry of a young man about town. Like other Tibetan youths, he tied his hair into long braids decorated with coral and turquoise beads, which he either wound around the top of his head or allowed to fall down his back.27 (ibid. 255)

All the joy that accompanied the enthronement of the Great Fifth’s successor was well and truly dead. It was meant to be a declaration of authority, stability, and hidden strength. Not to take monastic vows in a government run by monks, was a constitutional crisis.

And it was going to get worse.

Next: Part 3 of 6. Dangzang Wangpo

Discuss this Article on the r/JackAdrian subreddit.

---

Footnotes

1. van Schaik 2011. p. 129.

2. You will often see Tsangyang Gyatso’s birthday listed as “March 1,” this likely arises from a rather typical mistranslation of an Asian Lunar date to a Western Gregorian date. Tsangyang Gyatso’s birthday is listed as “the first day of the third month in the year of the Water Pig (1683).” (Aris 1988. p. 129.) This is usually translated as March 1, the first day of the third month, but Tibetan Lunar dates do not align neatly with dates in the Gregorian calendar. Losar (Tibetan Lunar New Year) was 27 January 1683, i.e. the first day of the first month of the Water Pig year. The first day of the third month would translate to 28 March 1683. (Henning 2013.)

3. Mullin 2001. p. 248.

4. Mullin writes “Pema Lingpa’s wife, Tsewang Lhamo, experienced many auspicious dreams throughout her pregnancy.” and then goes on to describe them. This seems to be a typo, as Pema Lingpa died in 1521. The Treasury of Lives article on Tsangyang Gyatso confirms that his parents were Tashi Tenzin and Tsewang Lhamo, though it is also awkwardly worded. As Aris (1988) documents extensively, Pema Lingpa was indeed an ancestor of Tsangyang Gyatso. To be more specific, a direct descendants of Pema Lingpa’s younger brother. (p. 116.)

5. Mullin 2001. p. 244.

6. Aris 1988. p. 127.

7. Phuntsho 2013. p. 2.

8. It’s worth noting that the “dominant” ethnic group of Bhutan are mostly known as Drukpa today, though are technically referred to as Ngalongpa. The term ngalong here referring to “early risers.” Again from Phuntsho, “that is, the early ones to be woken up by the teachings of the Buddha. This would imply that the people of western Bhutan were the earliest to convert to Buddhism.” Slight caveat though, “The etymology is, however, a farfetched one and most likely a modern reconstruction,” (33). Still, we can see the distinction in this folk etymology showing the perception of the divide between those “in the darkness” and the “early risers.”

9. Known in both English and Tibetan as the “Monpa,” the pa in Tibetan being a nominative particle referring to “people.” Ex. Mon pa = Mon people. This may lead to some confusion as there are multiple groups throughout Asia still known as “Mon” for example the unrelated Mon people of Thailand, Burma, and Laos.

10. Territory disputed by the People’s Republic of China, which they refer to as “South Tibet,” a part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).

11. Mullin 2001. p. 249. Aris also writes how “it was possible the Bhutanese would dispatch a secret force to capture the boy,” if their true intentions became known. (p. 131.)

12. Phuntsho 2013. p. 264-7.

13. This account is found in various parts of Aris 1988 and Mullin 2001.

14. Mullin 2001. p. 247.

15. Ibid.

16. Aris 1988. p. 132.

17. It is not clear exactly how long this ruse was kept up. To break the illusion and tell them that they were bringing the reincarnate of the Dalai Lama to Lhasa would have called into question the ruse that Sangye Gyatso had carefully maintained. In a letter delivered to the men at Sha’uk, commanding that the boy and his family be moved to Tsona Dzong, the Regent refers to the boy as the reincarnate of Zhalu Khenpo. (Aris 1988. p. 133.) The earliest possible date that Aris includes for the revelation to have been privately revealed to the boy’s parents is 1696, and to the Tsona officials (i.e. his captors) the year after that. Though, Aris also says it’s likely that the possibility had already begun to dawn on them, as the boy kept referring to himself as Dalai Lama, not as Zhalu Khenpo.

18. This history deserves more treatment than we give here. Aris writes about this, though, describing how the family was not allowed to light fires in the dead of winter. That they were ordered to be well-fed by the Regent, but how their rations were poorly distributed, not with care, and not of the quality that the government in Lhasa had ordered. Not only that, but they seem to have been poorly regarded by their captors, most of which were probably not aware that the boy was being prepared to be raised to the Potala Palace. Aris writes how one thought the boy was a bastard, and that they were suspected to defect to Bhutan if given the opportunity to leave. They were also unable to have contact with people from their former life, as the village where they once lived thought that the family had been exterminated. (p. 133-135.)

19. Ibid. p. 148

20. “the twenty-fifth of the tenth month of 1697.” Aris 1988. p. 149. See note 25 above.

21. Ibid. p. 153.

22. Tibetans, like other Asian cultures, traditionally consider a child 1 “year old” upon birth, referring to their previous time in their mother’s womb as the child’s “first year.” Tsangyang Gyatso would have been 19 years old at this time if counting birthdays like a Westerner.

23. Aris 1988. p. 154.

24. “the Panchen arriving on the fifteenth of the sixth month [19 July 1701] and the Dalai five days later.” Aris 1988. p. 155.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Mullin 2001. p. 255.