Biography
Family Background and Early Life Tsangyang Gyatso was born in 1683, the twenty-second year of the Kangxi era, at Urgelling in the Yusong area below Nala Mountain in Monyul in southern Tibet. His father is given as Tashi Tenzin and his mother as Tsewang Lhamo. His family had for generations followed the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsangyang Gyatso was of Monpa origin. The source also records a secular name in Chinese transcription. It describes him as the only Dalai Lama not of Tibetan or Mongol origin and states that his family descended from the treasure revealer Pema Lingpa and belonged to a Monpa branch associated with Tibetan cultural traditions. Numerous popular legends concern his birth. One story says that in the month his mother Tsewang Lhamo gave birth, droplets of water gathered on a stone mill while she was grinding grain. Another says that while she drank from a nearby stream, milk suddenly appeared in the water; the stream was subsequently called "Oma-Tsikang," explained in the source as "water of milk." Tsangyang Gyatso worked with his mother from childhood and spent fourteen years living in the countryside. The source attributes to these experiences his familiarity with secular life and love of nature, which it says later had a profound influence on his poetry. ### Selection as the Reincarnate Child On the twenty-fifth day of the second month in 1682, the twenty-first year of the Kangxi era, the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso died in the newly rebuilt Potala Palace. His close disciple Sangye Gyatso, wishing to continue governing Gelug affairs through the Fifth Dalai Lama's authority, decided to conceal the death. The outside world was told that the Dalai Lama had entered prolonged meditation and would receive no visitors, while all affairs were handled by the Desi. In Tibetan usage, the source explains, the Desi was an official appointed by the Dalai Lama to administer the government of Ü-Tsang, colloquially described as a "king of Tibet"; the Desi at the time was Sangye Gyatso. While concealing the Fifth Dalai Lama's death from monastics, the public, and the Kangxi Emperor, Sangye Gyatso quickly sent agents to search for a reincarnate child. The search focused on the remote and stable Monyul area below Nala Mountain in southern Tibet, where secrecy was easier and many inhabitants followed the Nyingma school. The source states that a Gelug leader born there could help extend Gelug influence. According to the procedure described in the source, the infant who selected belongings associated with the previous Dalai Lama would be taken as his reincarnation. A serf family's son, Tsangyang Gyatso, was selected, although Sangye Gyatso's envoys did not initially tell his parents their purpose. In 1685 Sangye Gyatso formally located him, brought him to a place recorded in the Chinese source as Nanggezija, and appointed teachers to educate him. In 1696 the Kangxi Emperor, while suppressing the Dzungar challenge, learned from captives that the Fifth Dalai Lama had been dead for many years. Galdan, the Dzungar leader, had earlier traveled to Tibet to study Buddhism and had been closely associated with Sangye Gyatso. After both men rose to political power in their respective regions, Sangye Gyatso hoped to use Galdan's forces to strengthen Gelug power, which, according to the source, explains why Dzungar captives knew the situation in Lhasa. The Kangxi Emperor was furious and sent a stern letter questioning Sangye Gyatso. Sangye Gyatso admitted wrongdoing while also sending people to Monyul to bring the reincarnate child to Lhasa. ### Enthronement and Life as a Political Figurehead In 1697, when he was fourteen, Tsangyang Gyatso was formally recognized as the reincarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama. In the ninth month he was brought from southern Tibet to Lhasa. While passing through Nangkarze, he took novice vows under the Fifth Panchen Lama Lobsang Yeshe and received the monastic name recorded in the source as Lobsang Rinchen Tsangyang Gyatso. On the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month he was enthroned at the Potala Palace as the 6th Dalai Lama. Although Tsangyang Gyatso bore the title of Dalai Lama, the source states that he had little real political power. Sangye Gyatso had long exercised authority independently, leaving the Dalai Lama largely as a figurehead. In the Potala, Tsangyang Gyatso was closely supervised in scriptural study and religious training. The source lists works he was required to study under Chinese titles such as *Genben Zhou*, *Mijue*, *Pusa Suixu Fa*, and *Shengman Jie*. He often left the courtyard to relax, while elderly tutors followed him and pleaded with him to continue studying for fear of Sangye Gyatso's reproach. Tsangyang Gyatso had grown up in a Nyingma household, and the source contrasts Nyingma customs that did not universally require clerical celibacy with the stricter celibate discipline expected of Gelug monks. He found the elaborate rules and restrictions difficult to accept. Constrained in daily life and politically controlled, he became depressed and, according to the source, turned deliberately toward secular pleasures both from a longing for freedom and love and as an act of rebellion against imposed discipline and political manipulation. Later stories say that at night he adopted the name Dangsang Wangpo and went out disguised as a noble youth to taverns and private houses in Lhasa. Some accounts portray him wearing silk lay clothing and rings, growing his hair long, enjoying singing and banquets, and spending nights outside the palace with women. In June 1702, the forty-first year of the Kangxi era, Tsangyang Gyatso left Lhasa with a large monastic escort for Tashilhunpo Monastery. The plan was for him to preach to the monastic community and then receive full bhikshu ordination from the Fifth Panchen Lama Lobsang Yeshe. Contrary to expectations, he first refused to preach and then refused ordination itself. He removed his robes and returned them to the Panchen Lama, symbolizing his intention to relinquish his vows and return to lay life. He later returned to the Potala and resumed the secular life described in the source. ### Deposition and Death Tibet was then experiencing intense political conflict. In the late Ming and early Qing, the Gelug school had allied with the Khoshut, one of the Mongol groups, to defeat the Tsangpa ruler and the Karma Kagyu forces then dominant in Tibet. After the Khoshut military victory, however, Khoshut troops remained in Tibet. The source describes an enduring imbalance between Gelug and Khoshut power and a continuing struggle over political authority. After the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Sangye Gyatso increasingly came into conflict with the Khoshut khans. In 1701, Lhazang Khan, great-grandson of Güshi Khan and leader of the Khoshut, inherited the khanship, and his conflict with Desi Sangye Gyatso intensified. In 1705 Sangye Gyatso bribed an attendant in the khan's household to poison Lhazang Khan's food, but the attempt was discovered and war followed. Lhazang Khan mobilized Mongol forces, defeated the Tibetan troops, and killed Sangye Gyatso. He then wrote to the Qing government reporting Sangye Gyatso's "rebellion" and alleging that Tsangyang Gyatso, whom Sangye Gyatso had installed as the Sixth Dalai Lama, indulged in drinking and sexual relations, neglected religious affairs, and was not a genuine Dalai Lama. He requested that Tsangyang Gyatso be deposed. The Kangxi Emperor then ordered that the Dalai Lama installed by Sangye Gyatso be removed and sent to the capital. In 1706 Lhazang Khan arrested Tsangyang Gyatso under the pretext of an imperial summons and assigned Mongol guards to escort him toward Beijing. The action angered Lhasa's monastic community. When the party passed Drepung Monastery, monks came out and seized Tsangyang Gyatso back. When Lhazang Khan's forces bombarded the monastery, Tsangyang Gyatso voluntarily surrendered to prevent heavy monastic casualties. According to the Qing official account, he fell ill and died on 15 November near the Qinghai region. The source states that, as a rebel, his corpse was left in the open; Tibetan official accounts likewise placed his death near Qinghai Lake at Gongga Nao'er. Many people, however, suspected that he had been murdered. He was twenty-three.
After the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso, passed away, his close disciple Sangye Gyatso, following his wishes and the situation in Tibet at the time, concealed the death for as long as fifteen years while beginning a secret search for the reincarnation. Later, in the course of putting down a rebellion, the Kangxi emperor learned by chance that the Fifth Dalai Lama had been dead for years and wrote in anger to reproach Sangye Gyatso, who admitted the fault while producing the boy found and hidden years before; in 1697 Tsangyang Gyatso was chosen as the reincarnation at the age of fourteen. In the ninth month he was brought from southern Tibet to Lhasa, took the Fifth Panchen Lama, Lozang Yeshe, as his teacher, and was shaved and ordained.
This peculiar accession left his religious and political position complicated from the outset: he was nominally the head of the Gelug school while real power lay with the regent Sangye Gyatso. Politics in Tibet then swung between the Khoshut Mongols and the regent; Sangye Gyatso was killed in 1705, and the next year Tsangyang Gyatso died beside Lake Qinghai on the way to the capital, though some accounts say he afterward traveled in disguise. He held his position only about ten years, his short life and his poems alike becoming objects of later attention.