6th Dalai Lama
Tsangyang Gyatso | |||||||
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| Title | 6th Dalai Lama | ||||||
| Personal | |||||||
| Born | 1 March 1683 | ||||||
| Died | after 1706 (aged approx. 22-23) Amdo(reportedly survived Qing transport of 1706) | ||||||
| Religion | Tibetan Buddhism | ||||||
| Senior posting | |||||||
| Period in office | 1697 received full authorities | ||||||
| Predecessor | Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso | ||||||
| Successor | Kelzang Gyatso | ||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Chinese | Thương Ương Gia Thố and đãng tang uông sóng | ||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||
| Tibetan | ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ | ||||||
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| Part ofa serieson |
| Tibetan Buddhism |
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Tsangyang Gyatso(Tibetan:ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ,Wylie:tshangs-dbyangs rgya-mtsho,ZYPY:Cangyang Gyamco;born 1 March 1683, died after 1706) was the 6thDalai Lama.He was an unconventional Dalai Lama that preferred a libertine lifestyle to that of an ordained monk. His regent was killed before he was kidnapped byLha-bzang Khanof theKhoshut Khanateand disappeared.
The death of the5th Dalai Lamaremained concealed for many years. The 6th Dalai Lama was born in what the Tibetans referred to as "Monyul"[a]atUrgelling Monastery,in modern dayTawang district,Arunachal Pradesh,India. He was located at the age of either 13 or 14. As a youth, he showed high levels of intelligence with unconventional views. Later living as a lay practitioner and a yogi, he grew his hair long, dressed as a regular Tibetan, and was said to also drink alcohol and accept the company of women.[1]
During a power struggle between Tibet, Mongols and Qing China inLhasa,the Dalai Lama's regent was killed. Afterwards, the Dalai Lama was kidnapped by Mongol forces and then disappeared inAmdo,and assumed was murdered, on their way to Beijing in 1706.
The 6th Dalai Lama is also well known for his poems and songs that continue to be popular not only in modern-day Tibet but also among Tibetan speaking communities inNepal,Indiaand all acrossChina.
Early life[edit]
Tsangyang Gyatso was born on 1March 1683 inMon Tawang(presently in modernArunachal Pradesh,India). His father was Lama Tashi Tenzin ofUrgelling,a descendant of thetreasure revealerPema Lingpa,and his mother was Tsewang Lhamo, aMonpawoman from a royal family ofBekharVillage.[2]
The Dalai Lama was therefore aMonpaby ethnicity, born in "Monyul"[a]atUrgelling Monastery,nearTawang[3]andTawang Monasteryin the northwestern part of present-dayArunachal Pradesh,India.[4]
There were special occurrences surrounding the birth, life and death of Tsangyang Gyatso. His mother, Tsewang, had experienced a few miracles prior to the birth of Tsangyang Gyatso. One day, within the first month of her pregnancy, she was husking paddy in the stone mortar. To her surprise, water started accumulating in the mortar. On another occasion, when Tsewang drank water at a nearby place, milk started gushing out in place of water. Since then, this stream was known asOma-Tsikang,literally known as milky water.
In the course of time, Tsewang gave birth to a boy who was named Sanje Tenzin, with Tsangyang's grandfather and Nawang Norbu with his father.[clarification needed]Due to this fact, legend said that he would not drink his mother's milk from the day after their birth. One day, when his face began to swell from an infection, Tsangyang could hardly open his eye, two local diviners were summoned. They prescribed purifactory rite and said that his name should be changed to Ngawang Gyatso.
His recovery was credited by the regent to the intervention of the Dalai Lama's own guardian deity,Dorje Dakpa.The grandfather dreamt that the child was constantly being protected by heavenly beings. The mother dreamt, as she took a rest from her weaving, that a great company had arrived to take him off. His paternal grandmother dreamt of two suns shining in the sky.
Historical background[edit]
Although the5th Dalai Lamahad died in 1682, the RegentDesi Sangye Gyatso(Wylie:sangs rgyas rgya mtsho) kept his death a secret – partly to continue the stable administration, and partly to gain time for the completion of thePotala Palace.Themonksconcentrated their search to the region of Tibet to find the next incarnation, but later came to conclude that 6th Dalai Lama was born outside the Tibetan territory[5]in a valley whose name ended with "ling". They searched all places ending with "ling", including three in Tawang – Urgyanling, Sangeling and Tsorgeling.
The Potala authorities took the Dalai Lama from his mother in 1697 from Urgyanling. The journey to Pota Lhasa from Tawang was 7 days, and they spend first night in Tsona (near Cuona Lake, China) where he slept with girls. Responding to the strict rules of the Tibetans, he constantly opposed laws which overruled him, and eventually became a drunk. After arriving to Tibet, Sangye Gyatso sent a delegation to theKangxi EmperorofQing Chinain 1697 to announce that the 5th Dalai Lama had died and the 6th had been discovered.[2]
The regent invitedLobsang Yeshe, 5th Panchen Lamato administer the vows of aśrāmaṇera(novice monk) on the young man at Nankartse and named him Tsang Gyatso. On 8 December 1697, Tsangyang Gyatso was enthroned as the 6th Dalai Lama.[6][7]
In 1705Lha-bzang Khan,a Mongol king, had the Regent, Sangye Gyatso, killed. This greatly upset the young Dalai Lama, who left his studies and even visited the 5th Panchen Lama inShigatseto renounce his śrāmaṇera vows.[2]
Life as a Dalai Lama[edit]
As a Dalai Lama, Tsangyang had composed excellent works of songs and poems, but often went against the principles of theGelugSchool ofTibetan Buddhism.For example, he decided to givegetsul vowstoLobsang Yeshe, 5th Panchen Lamaat eighteen instead of taking the fullgelongvows normal for his age.
The Panchen Lama, who was the abbot ofTashilhunpo Monastery,and Prince Lhazang, the younger brother of thePo Gyalpo Wangyal,persuaded him not to do so.
Tsangyang Gyatso enjoyed a lifestyle that included drinking, the company of women, and writing love songs.[8][9]He visited the 5th Panchen Lama inShigatseand, requesting his forgiveness, renounced the vows of a novice monk.[2]He ordered the building of theTromzikhangpalace inBarkhor,Lhasa.
Tsangyang Gyatso had always rejected life as a monk, although this did not mean the abdication of his position as theDalai Lama.Wearing the clothes of a normal layman and preferring to walk than to ride a horse or use thestate palanquin,Tsangyang only kept the temporal prerogatives of the Dalai Lama. He also visited the parks and spent nights in the streets ofLhasa,drinking wine, singing songs and having amorous relations with girls. Tsangyang retreated to live in a tent in the park near the northern escarpment ofPotala Palace.Tsangyang finally gave up his discourses in public parks and places in 1702, which he had been required to do as part of his training.
Capture and disappearance[edit]
Using the Dalai Lama's behaviour as an excuse and with the approval of his allyChina'sKangxi Emperor,Lha-bzang Khan,khanof theKhoshut,killed the regent and kidnapped the Sixth Dalai Lama.[10]On 28 June 1706, Lha-bzang Khan deposed Tsangyang; he later installed a 21-year-old lama,Ngawang Yeshey Gyatso,as the "true" 6th Dalai Lama in 1707, claiming that he, not Tsangyang, was the true rebirth of the 5th Dalai Lama. TheGelugpadignitaries and the Tibetan people rejected Lha-bzang Khan's installation of Ngawang Yeshey Gyatso and continued to recognise Tsangyang's title.[10][11]However, Ngawang Yeshey Gyatso is considered by Tibetans to have been an incarnation ofAvalokiteśvara.[12]
While being taken out of Tibet, Tsangyang composed a poem which some say foretold of his next birth. "White crane lend me your wings. I will not fly far. From Lithang I shall return."[b][13]Tsangyang disappeared mysteriously nearQinghaion 15November 1706, which is why there is no tomb for him in thePotala Palace.[14]Rumours persisted he had escaped and lived in secrecy somewhere betweenChinaandMongolia.But, a work from 1757 alleges the Dalai Lama survived and was welcomed in Amdo by a group of mostlyKagyumonasteries.[15]
The Tibetans appealed to theDzungar people,who invaded Tibet and killed Lha-bzang Khan in late 1717.[10]
Tsangyang was succeeded by Kelsang Gyatso, who was born in Lithang, as the7th Dalai Lama.
Notes[edit]
- ^abNanda 2020,p.30:"Tawang, Dirang and parts of Western Kameng of Arunachal Pradesh, were historically and territorially (traditionally) part of the 'Monyul'."
- ^བྱ་དེ་ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་དཀར་པོ།། ང་ལ་གཤོག་རྩལ་གཡར་དང་།། ཐག་རིང་རྒྱང་ནས་མི་འགྲོ།། ལི་ཐང་བསྐོར་ནས་སླེབས་ཡོང་།།
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^Cordier, Henri; Pelliot, Paul, eds. (1922).T'oung Pao ( thông báo ) or Archives.Vol. XX1. Leiden:E.J. Brill.p. 30.
- ^abcd"The Sixth Dalai Lama TSEWANG GYALTSO".Namgyal Monastery.Archivedfrom the original on 19 September 2020.Retrieved12 October2020.
- ^"Tawang Monastery".Archived fromthe originalon 21 August 2009.Retrieved7 September2009.
- ^The Dalai Lamas of Tibet,p. 93. Thubten Samphel, Tendar. Roli & Janssen, New Delhi. (2004).ISBN81-7436-085-9.
- ^"Chinese policy and the Dalai Lama's birthplaces".International Campaign for Tibet.10 July 2014.Retrieved22 May2021.
- ^Warren Smith,Tibetan Nation: A History Of Tibetan Nationalism And Sino-Tibetan Relations(Taylor & Francis, 2019)
- ^Christoph Baumer,The History of Central Asia(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018)
- ^Alexandra David-Neel,Initiation and Initiates in Tibet,trans. by Fred Rothwell, New York: University Books, 1959
- ^Yu Dawchyuan, "Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama",Academia Sinica Monograph,Series A, No.5, 1930
- ^abcStein 1972,p. 85
- ^Chapman, F. Spencer.(1940).Lhasa: The Holy City,p. 127. Readers Union Ltd. London.
- ^Mullin 2001,pp. 274–5
- ^Bryant, B. (2003).The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala: Visual Scripture of Tibetan Buddhism.Shambhala. p. 100.ISBN978-1559391870.
- ^Buckley, Michael and Strauss, Robert. (1986).Tibet: a travel survival kit,p. 45. Lonely Planet Publications. South Yarra, Vic., Australia.ISBN0-908086-88-1.
- ^Ngawang Lhundrup Dargyé, "The Hidden Life of the Sixth Dalai Lama", 1757. Translated by Simon Wickham-Smith. Lanham, MD: Le xing ton Books, 2011
Works cited[edit]
- Mullin, Glenn H. (2001).The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation.Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers. pp. 238–275.ISBN1-57416-092-3.
- Nanda, Neeru (2020). "Tawang and the Mon in their Borderlands: A Historical Overview". In Mayilvaganan, M.; Khatoon, Nasima; Bej, Sourina (eds.).Tawang, Monpas and Tibetan Buddhism in Transition: Life and Society along the India-China Borderland.Springer Singapore. pp. 29–44.doi:10.1007/978-981-15-4346-3_3.ISBN9789811543463.S2CID226473864.
- Stein, R. A.(1972).Tibetan Civilization.Stanford University Press.ISBN0-8047-0901-7.
Further reading[edit]
- Dhondup, K. (13 June 2005)."Erotic Verse Sheds Light on 'Playboy Lama'".The Seoul Times.
- Hummel, Arthur W. Sr.,ed. (1943)..Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period.United States Government Printing Office.
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