H.H. the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org Click on image to enlarge.

b.1683 – d.1706

Incarnations: Dalai Lama ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: U དབུས།
Historical Period: 17^th Century ༡༧ དུས་རབས། / 18^th Century ༡༨ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Sera Monastery སེ་ར།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Namgyel རྣམ་རྒྱལ་།, Tromsikhang གྲོམ་གཟིགས་ཁང།; Potala པོ་ཏ་ལ།; Jakrong ཇག་རོང།
Name Variants: Dalai Lama 06 Tsangyang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༦ ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Tsangyang Gyatso ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།

The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 06 tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho) was born in the territory of Mon Tawang in March 1683, the son of Tashi Tendzin (bkra shis bstan ‘dzin), a descendent of the terton (gter ston) Padma Lingpa (pad ma gling pa, 1450-1521), and Tsewang Lhamo (tshe dbang lha mo).

The search for the reincarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617-1682), was conducted by the Regent Sanggye Gyatso (sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653-1705) under total secrecy. Sanggye Gyatso famously concealed his teacher’s death for nearly fifteen years, allegedly under explicit orders from the Fifth Dalai Lama. However, Sanggye Gyatso, who some historians have suggested was the biological son of the Fifth Dalai Lama, appears to have been focused on securing his own power as much as on preserving and protecting the reputation of the office of Dalai Lama during turbulent times.

Desi Sanggye Gyatso (central figure). Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

In the 1680s Sanggye Gyatso dispatched search parties of lamas who were not explicitly told for whom they were searching, and he traveled himself on occasions, to find the reincarnation of his beloved teacher. His account of the discovery, couched in highly metaphorical literary terms, shows his emotional deep investment in his search and his confidence in the young boy’s identity.

Following his discovery in 1688, Tsangyang Gyatso was kept under what amounted to house arrest in Tsona (mtsho na), far from Lhasa. The treatment of his family in Tsona was such that his mother later initiated an ultimately unsuccessful case against Sanggye Gyatso. He was initially recognized as the reincarnation of the abbot of Zhalu (zhwa lu) monastery, and only formally recognized as the Dalai Lama in 1697, when it became impossible for Sanggye Gyatso to conceal the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama. That year, he was then brought to Lhasa and enthroned, receiving his novice vows from the Fifth Panchen Lama Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 05 blo bzang ye shes, 1663-1737).

The political situation in Tibet at the turn of the seventeenth century was extremely delicate, with the Mongol Qoshud, led by Lhazang Khan (1677-1717), and the Manchu Qing under Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1722), vying for overall control. The Fifth Dalai Lama had only recently unified the political power of the Geluk tradition in Lhasa, where he also started the building of the Potala as the focus of this power, and the quixotic behavior of his reincarnation – who was clearly disinterested in politics and whose spiritual affiliation was to the Nyingma as much as to the Geluk – rendered this power, and thereby his own position and that of his regent Sanggye Gyatso, somewhat fragile.

An old thangka of H.H. the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso with his hand and footprints. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

In 1705, Lhazang Khan had the regent killed, and thus exposed the Dalai Lama’s position. Although the Geluk hierarchy and the Tibetan people continued to support Tsangyang Gyatso, the Mongol Qoshud took control of Lhasa. (The situation was only resolved in 1717, when, at the behest of Tibetan authorities, Dzungar Mongols invaded Lhasa and killed Lhazang.) The Dalai Lama himself, despite his complex relationship with Sanggye Gyatso, responded in part to this new situation by refusing to accept full ordination from the Panchen Lama. Moreover, he insisted also on returning his novice vows. The religious hierarchy, however, reacted with horror to this decision, and the Panchen Lama invited him to Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po), where he led a group of the Geluk hierarchy in petitioning Tsangyang Gyatso to rethink his stance.

Tsangyang Gyatso, however, no longer now under the control of Sanggye Gyatso, stood firm and, when pressed, stated that were his decision not to be accepted, he would commit suicide in front of Tashilhunpo. At this threat, the Panchen Lama backed down and accepted the return of the Dalai Lama’s vows, and thus Tsangyang Gyatso became the first and only Dalai Lama to live as a layman. Beyond the Panchen Lama’s great distress, we have little explicit information as to how the remainder of the Geluk establishment reacted to this turn of events.

A biographical thangka of H.H. the 6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso, surrounded by scenes from his life. Image credit: embracingcompassion.com. Click to enlarge.

The popular image of the Sixth Dalai Lama is of a poet and libertine, fond of alcohol and of the brothels in the village of Shol (shol) to the south of the Potala. Poems ascribed to him were collected into two texts, of which the shorter (tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i mgu glu) has been frequently translated into English. Both this text and the longer text (tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i gsung mgur) consist of brief popular lyrics (gzhas) on the themes of love, the natural world and spiritual life. There is, however, no firm evidence for the ascription of these poems to Tsangyang Gyatso.

The Dalai Lama’s decision to renounce his monastic vows led some officials to challenge his identity as the reincarnation of Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso. On June 28 1706 Lhazang Khan seized his opportunity and presented a boy of his own, Ngawang Yeshe Gyatso (ngag dbang ye shes rgya mtsho) as the true Sixth Dalai Lama, whom he installed in the Potala while placing Tsangyang Gyatso under arrest. At the behest of Lhazang Khan, Tsangyang Gyatso was “invited” to the Imperial Palace in Beijing. Despite protests by Tibetan monastics and laypeople, he was taken from his prison in Lhasa under guard to China. However, the final definitive information which we have about his life is that his party camped at Kokonor in Amdo.

From this moment, there are two alternative histories available to us, which are both offered as an explanation of why his body was never recovered and returned to the Potala. According to the first, Tsangyang Gyatso died at Kunganor, most probably from fever, on November 15 1706. According to the second, which is related in his so-called “secret” or “hidden” biography, written by a Mongol monk named Ngawang Lhundrub Dargye (ngag dbang lhun grub dar rgyas) in 1756, Tsangyang Gyatso in fact escaped from Kokonor and only died in 1746.

Another old thangka of H.H. the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.

The Dalai Lama presented in this alternative history presents a character quite different from the more popular version. He is a dedicated and serious practitioner, who takes on the rebuilding of Jakrong (jag rong) monastery, in modern Qinghai province. This text contains a mixture of stories which appear fantastical, such as an account of Tsangyang Gyatso’s appearance at the enthronement of the Seventh Dalai Lama in Lhasa in 1720, and detailed and prosaic descriptions of events, such as his attempts to rebuild Jakrong monastery in the face of Chinese opposition.

In Alashan, according to the secret biography, one of the Sixth Dalai Lama’s principal patrons was Gushri Khan’s grandson Abo who, with his wife, also became one of his most constant lay students. From this connection, he developed good relations with representatives of the Manchu Emperor, who were keen to have him occupy a position of importance within the Buddhist hierarchy. In addition to his involvement with Jakrong, he became the abbot of thirteen monasteries.

One of the most famous verses attributed to the Sixth Dalai Lama is taken to refer to the place of his coming rebirth:

White crane, lend me your wings.
I’ll not fly far away.
Once round Litang,
and I’ll be back.

Kelsang Gyatso, who was recognized as the Seventh Dalai Lama (ta la’i bla ma 07, skal bzang rgya mtsho), was born in Litang in 1708.

Tsangyang Gyatso’s principal students were Gelek Gyatso (dge legs rgya mtsho, 1641-1713), later the abbot of Sera Utse (se ra dbu rtse); Ngawang Jampa (ngag dbang byams pa, 1682-1762); and Ngawang Lhundrub Dargye, the Mongolian monk who wrote the secret biography.

Teachers

• The Fifth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༥ བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1663 – d.1737
• ‘jam dbyangs grags pa འཇམ་དབྱངས་གྲགས་པ།
• The Forty-Eighth Ganden Tripa, Dondrub Gyatso འཇམ་དབྱངས་གྲགས་པ། b.1655 – d.1727
• The Forty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Tsultrim Dargye འཇམ་དབྱངས་གྲགས་པ། b.1632 – d.1701?

Students

• ngag dbang lhun grub dar rgyas ངག་དབང་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས། b.1715 – d.1780
• ‘jigs med ye shes grags pa འཇིགས་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་གྲགས་པ། b.1696 – d.1750
• Taktsang Lobzang Rabten སྟག་ཚང་བློ་བཟང་རབ་བརྟན། b.1676 – d.1745
• The Fifth Lelung Jedrung, Lobzang Trinle སླེ་ལུང་རྗེ་དྲུང ༠༥ བཞད་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1697 – d.1740

Previous Incarnations

• The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༡ དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ། b.1391 – d.1474
• The Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༢ དགེ་འདུན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1476 – d.1542
• The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༣ བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1543 – d.1588
• The Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༤ ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1589 – d.1617
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.1682

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༧ སྐལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1708 – d.1757
• The Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༨ འཇམ་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1758 – d.1804
• The Ninth Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༩ ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1805 – d.1815
• The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1816 – d.1837
• The Eleventh Dalai Lama, Khedrub Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༡ མཁས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1838 – d.1855
• The Twelfth Dalai Lama, Trinle Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༢ འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1856 – d.1875
• The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༣ ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1876 – d.1933
• The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tendzin Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༤ བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1935

Bibliography

• Ahmad, Zahiruddin. 1970. Sino-Tibetan Relations in the Seventeenth Century. Rome: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
• Anon. 1977. Rje thams cad mkhyen pa ngag dbang chos grags rgya mtsho’i rnam thar. In ‘Phags pa’jig rten dbang phyug gi rnam sprul rim byon gyi ‘khrungs rabs deb ther nor bu’i ‘phreng ba, vol. 2, pp. 611-758. Dharamsala: Sku sger yig tshang, 1977.TBRC W22095.
• Aris, Michael. 1989. Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1706). London: Kegan Paul International.
• Baker, Ian A. 2000. The Dalai Lama’s Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet London: Thames and Hudson.
• Cutillo, Brian and Rick Fields. 1998. The Turquoise Bee: The Lovesongs of the Sixth Dalai Lama San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
• Damdinsüren, Ts. 1981. “The Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangs-Dbyangs Rgya-mtsho,” trans Stanley Frye, The Tibet Journal, vol 6, no 4, pp. 32-36.
• Gedun Chopel. 1940. “An Ill-Starred Dalai Lama,” Mahabodhi, vol 48, pp. 370-374.
• Hürelbaatar, L. 2008. “Amiddaa suuh olboggui, ajirsan hoinoo shütegdeegui gazargui,” in Ogtorguin Tsagaan Garid. Ulaanbaatar, pp. 45-88.
• ‘Jigs med bsam grub. 2000. Rgyal ba sku phreng drug pa tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i chos srid mdzad rnam. In Gong sa tA la’i bla ma sku phreng rim byon gyi chos srid mdzad rnam, pp. 311-352. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W21672.
• Klafkowski, Piotr. 1979. The Secret Deliverance of the Sixth Dalai Lama, as Narrated by Dharmatāla. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.
• Lo Bue, Erberto. “The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso.” In The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. Martin Brauen, ed.London: Serindia, pp. 93-101.
• Ngag dbang lhun grub dar rgyas. 1981. Rig ‘dzin Tsangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i gsung mgur dang gsang ba’i rnam thar. Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang.
• Ngag dbang lhun grub dar rgyas. 1970. Tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i gsang ba’i rnam thar sogs. Delhi: Ngawang gelek demo.
• Petech, Luciano. 1965-1966. “Notes on Tibetan History of the 18th Century,” T’oung Pao, vol. 52, pp. 161-192.
• Richardson, H.E. 1980. “The Fifth Dalai Lama’s Decree Appointing Sangs rgyas rGya mtsho as Regent.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 43. pp. 329-44.
• Richardson, H.E. 1986. Tibet and its History. London: Shambhala.
• Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. Rgyal ba sku lnga pa drug par ‘phos pa’i skor gyi gtam rna ba’i gcud len. Lhasa, n.d.
• Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 1989. Bar du dge ba gzhung gi don. In Dga’ ldan chos ‘byung baiDU r+ya ser po, pp. 487-503.TBRC W8224. Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang.
• Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 1980 (n.d.). Thams cad mkhyen pa drug pa Blo bzang rin chen Tsangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i thung mong phyi’i rnam par thar pa du kū la ‘phro ‘thud rab gsal ser gyi snye ma glegs bam dang po. Lhasa blockprint; reproduced in Gangtok.
• Shakabpa, Wangchuk Deden. 1976. Bod kyi srid don rgyal rabs. Delhi.
• Sørensen, Per K. 1990. Divinity Secularised: An Inquiry into the Nature and Form of the Songs Ascribed to the Sixth Dalai Lama. Vienna: Arbeitskreis füre Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.
• Wickham-Smith, Simon. 2006. “Ban-de skya-min ser-min: Tsangs-dbyangs rGya-mtsho’s complex, confused and confusing relationship with sDe srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho as portrayed in the Tsangs dbyangs rgya mtsho’i mgu glu.” In Bryan Cuevas and Kurtis Schaeffer (Eds) Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Leiden: Brill.
• Wickham-Smith, Simon. 2011. The Hidden Life of the Sixth Dalai Lama Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• For English translations of poems by the Sixth Dalai Lama, please see K. Dhondub’s translations on Tibet Writes.

Source: Simon Wickham-Smith, “The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 28, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Sixth-Dalai-Lama-Tsangyang-Gyatso/5871.

Simon Wickham-Smith is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. He has published several translations of Mongolian and Tibetan literature, including several volumes of Mongolian poety. He has also released many recordings of experimental music.

Published March 2012

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/The-Sixth-Dalai-Lama,-Tsangyang-Gyatso/P352. Click on image to enlarge.

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