The Life of Zanabazar: The First Bogd Gegen of Mongolia

The "Great Fifth", as the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, was eventually called, was born in 1617. When Zanabazar arrived in Lhasa in 1650 the 5th Dalai Lama had been both the spiritual and temporal leader of the newly-unified country of Tibet for nine years. Although previous Dalai Lamas had exerted great spiritual influence over the people of Tibet they did not aspire to political power. This changed in 1642 when the 5th Dalai Lama became was placed on the throne of Tibet by the Mongol chieftain Gushri Khan, a member of the loose confederations of tribes known as the Oirat, or Western Mongols.

As mentioned earlier, in the early 1550s the Oirat had been driven out of what is now the country of Mongolia by Altan Khan and his grand-nephew Sechen Khongtaiji. They regrouped south of the Mongol-Altai Mountains in Zungaria, what is now the Chinese province of Xinjiang, and began to expand westward. In 1616 one branch of the Oirat, the Torguts, began a long migration westward which would eventually, by the 1630s, bring them to the lower Volga River in what is now Russia. (Although some later returned to Zungaria in the 1770s, others have remained to this day as a Buddhist-Mongol enclave in the Autonomous Republic of Kalmykia, part of the current Russian Federation.) Another branch of the Oirat, the Khoshot (or Qoshut), occupied the Lake Zaisan area in what is now Kazakhstan and the upper Irtysh River Basin in Xinjiang. In 1620, the leader of the Khoshot, Boibeghus, converted to Buddhism, and in his zeal he managed to convert several other of the Oirat chieftains and their followers. Soon the sons of the Oirat nobility were sent to study in the great Gelugpa monasteries of Tibet.

By the 1630s the brother of Boibeghus, Gushri Khan, had carved out his own khanate around Qinghai Lake (Khökh Nuur) and the Tsaidam region to the west. Like Boibeghus, he was a devout Buddhist, and in particular a follower of the Gelugpa sect of the Dalai Lama. Thus he could only look on with consternation at the conflict which had been brewing in Tibet between the Gelugpas and the older, so-called "Red Hat" sect for the last two decades. in 1618 the King of Tsang, the main secular ruler of what is now central Tibet and a supporter of the Karma Kargyupa sect, at that time opposed to the Gelugpas, had plundered several monasteries in the Lhasa area, including Drepung, where many Mongolians studied, and had forcibly converted many of the monks to his own sect. According to one account, the hills behind Drepung were red with the blood of Gelugpa monks who had tried to flee but were cut down by the King of Tsang's soldiers. Infuriated by these persecutions the Mongol descendants of Altan Khan sent an army to Tibet to smite the Tsang King and his Karma Kargyupa followers. The future Great Fifth was of course just a small boy at this time and unable to play a role in these events, but the First Panchen Lama-the one who Zanabazar later met-and the Gandan Tripa, the official head of the Gelugpa sect, stepped in as mediators and managed to avert a full scale war. The monastic property looted by the King of Tsang was returned to the Gelugpas and the forcibly converted monks were allowed to return to their own sect. For the moment there was peace, but the real trouble was just beginning.

The same year, 1621, the King of Tsang Karma Puntsok Namgyal died and was replaced son his son Karma Tenkyong Wangpo. The new king soon reinstituted his father's policy of persecuting the Gelugpa and eventually the peace brokered by the Panchen Lama and the Gandan Tripa broke down. In 1635 the King Karma Tenkyong Wangpo hired on army of mercenaries from among the so-called Chogthu Mongols, ruled by a khan the Rosary of White Lotuses calls "Chogthu the Dark Lord". This army of 10,000 mercenaries, led by his son Arsalang, was dispatched to Tibet "with a general mission to persecute the lamas [of the Gelugpa sect] and break up colleges and meditation centers," according to the Rosary

Faced with the advance of this horde, lamas from the important monasteries held a meeting and requested advice from the Oracle of Tibet (the medium who channeled the deity Dorje Dragten, and who was probably ensconced at this time at Samye Monastery, although later he lived at Nechung Monastery, not far from Drepung). The Oracle replied, "The chief of the North, who wears the snake belt around his waist will conquer the enemy." This, the lamas realized, was a reference to Gushri Khan.

By then not only many Khalkh, or Eastern Mongols, but also, as noted earlier, many Oirat Mongols were studying in the Gelugpa monasteries of TibetThus the advance of Chogthu the Dark Lord's mercenary army was seen by the Oirat rulers as a threat to themselves, their families, their followers, and their religious tenets. Gushri Khan was particularly incensed. He formed what the historian René Grousset calls a "Holy League" among the various Oirat princes and rode out to attack the army led by Arsalang.

Gushri Khan finally confronted Arsalang near Qinghai Lake. This meeting had a strange denouement. Instead of fighting, Arsalan agreed to accompanied Gushri Khan to Lhasa with only a small personal bodyguard. Granted an audience with the 5th Dalai, Arsalan prostrated before him and announced his intention to become a monk. His father, Chogthu the Dark Lord, was of course furious. "Kill my son Arsalang by any means," he bellowed, according to the Rosary of White Lotuses, and then set about organizing another army to send to Tibet. Alerted to this scheme, in 1637 Gushri Khan attacked and defeated the chieftain Chogthu and his army near Qinghai Lake. According to the Rosary, Chogthu himself was captured after being found hiding in a marmot hole.

Although Chogthu's mercenary army was eliminated its sponsor the King of Tsang remained. In 1638 Gushri Khan and his followers came to Lhasa ostensibly on a pilgrimage. Gushri Khan soon met with the Dalai Lama and offered led a military campaign again the King of Tsang, promising to deal with the problem once and for all. In the interests of preventing bloodshed, however, the Dalai Lama talked him out of this course of action. The king of Tsang used this brief reprieve to strike up an alliance with the King of Beri, a warlord from eastern Tibet. Together they would wage war on the Gelugpas. Gushri Khan wanted to attack the alliance but again the Dalai Lama strenuously objected on the grounds of preventing bloodshed. This time however, he was overruled by his powerful regent, or changdzo, Sonam Chopel, who had considerable say over secular affairs. In 1639 Gushri Khan attacked and defeated the King of Beri's army and in 1640 captured the king himself. ) He then turned his attentions on the King of Tsang. By 1642 army of Tsang had been defeated and the king himself imprisoned on charges of treason. He might have been allowed to live, but he had committed one unpardonable faux pas, as least in the eyes of Gushri Khan. Earlier he had built on a hill overlooking the Gelugpa monastery of Tashilhunpo, home of the Panchen Lama in Shigatse, a Karma Kargyu monastery which local people soon gave the irreverent name "Tashi's Defeat." This apparent slight against Tashilhunpo Monastery infuriated the ever-volatile Gushri Khan. According to the Rosary of White Lotuses he had the King of Tsang sewn into a bag leather and then either had him trampling to death with horses, the usual Mongol means of executing nobility, or thrown into a river and drowned, a more traditionally Tibetan technique.

Having eliminated all rivals, on the 15th day of the 3rd Month of 1642 the Gushri became the de facto ruler of the newly unified country of Tibet. "The white umbrella of his orderly reign reached up to Heaven," according to the Rosary of White Lotuses. It went on to add, "He then invited both the Royal Father and Son to Samdrubtse. Following the earlier pattern set up by king Hupali Sechen [Khubilai Khan] and Phagspa Lama, the king presented the Tsang province to Panchen Rimpoche, and the Thirteen Myriachies of Tibet to Gyalwa Rimpoche [the Dalai Lama]. That was also the beginning of Ganden Phodrang [name for the Tibetan government] or the heaven-appointed system of religious and state rule." From this point on the Great Fifth and subsequent Dalai Lamas became the both the spiritual and temporal leaders of Tibet. Not until 1959, when the current Dalai Lama went into exile, was the theocratic system established with the help of Gushri Khan interrupted.

Visitors to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa today can see on the wall of the inner courtyard a colorful mural of a avuncular-looking Gushri Khan conversing with Desi Sanngye Gyatso, who ruled as a regent after the 5th Dalai Lama's death. Visitors to Gandan Monastery about 25 miles east of Lhasa can see in entranceway to the temple housing Tsongkhapa's tomb a wall painting of a man in a Mongolian robe holding a tiger on a leash. The tiger, monks explain, is wild and unruly Tibet, finally brought under control by the Mongol khans.