Yeshe Gyatso'' () (1686–1725) was a pretender for the position of the 6th

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. Declared by

Lha-bzang Khan Lha-bzang Khan (; Mongolian: ''Lazang Haan''; alternatively, Lhazang or Lapsangn or Lajang; d.1717) was the ruler of the Khoshut (also spelled Qoshot, Qośot, or Qosot) tribe of the Oirats. He was the son of Tenzin Dalai Khan (1668–1701) and g ...

of the Khoshut Khanate on June 28, 1707, he was the only unofficial

. While praised for his personal moral qualities, he was not recognized by the bulk of the Tibetans and Mongols and is not counted in the official list of the Dalai Lamas.

Appointment as Dalai Lama

Pekar Dzinpa, later known as Yeshe Gyatso, was born in 1686 near the banks of Dzun Khulkhawa Karpo in

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...

. He may have been the natural son of the

Khoshut The Khoshut ( Mongolian: Хошууд,, qoşūd, ; literally "bannermen," from Middle Mongolian ''qosighu'' "flag, banner") are one of the four major tribes of the Oirat people. Originally, Khoshuuds were one of the Khorchin tribes in southeast ...

prince

. He entered the

Drepung Monastery Drepung Monastery (, "Rice Heap Monastery"), located at the foot of Mount Gephel, is one of the "great three" Gelug university gompas (monasteries) of Tibet. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Sera Monastery. Drepung is the largest of all ...

at a young age in 1699 and later moved to the Chakpori Hill in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhasa ...

, where he stayed at the medical college. The Khoshut rulers were protector-kings of Tibet from 1642 to 1717, but had a limited political role since the Dalai Lama or his ''desi'' (regent) held most of the authority. The ambitious Lha-bzang Khan succeeded to the royal dignity in 1703 and set out to change this. In 1705, he eliminated the powerful ''desi''

Sangye Gyatso Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705) was the sixth regent (''desi'') of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) in the Ganden Phodrang government. He founded the School of Medicine and Astrology called Men-Tsee-Khang on Chagpori (Iron Mountain) in 1694 and ...

and then moved against the young 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, whose libertine conduct he purported to resent. Tsangyang Gyatso was arrested and declared deposed. The king, collaborating with the imperial Chinese authorities, dispatched the prisoner towards the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

court in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. However, Tsangyang Gyatso died on the way in November 1706, either murdered or succumbing to illness. At this time Pekar Dzinpa was still a

lama Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term ''guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hig ...

at the Chakpori medical college. Now Lha-bzang Khan pointed out the young man as the ''real'' 6th Dalai Lama. He officially proclaimed his supposed son in 1707 under the pretext that Tsangyang Gyatso had been erroneously initiated as the

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrectio ...

of the

5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was the 5th Dalai Lama and the first Dalai Lama to wield effective temporal and spiritual power over all Tibet. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being a key religious and temporal leader ...

(d. 1682). The

Panchen Lama The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, ...

gave him both novice vows and the vows of full ordination at a grand ceremony before the Jowo image in Lhasa. As Dalai Lama he received the name Ngawang Yeshe Gyatso, or Yeshe Gyatso for short. In Beijing the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

initially supported the claim and issued an official recognition on 10 April 1710, thus dunning the Tibetans to recognize him and obey Lha-bzang Khan.

Contested claims

The new Dalai Lama was praised for his moral behaviour and considered a great holder of religious authority. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the Tibetans and Mongols regarded the young man as an

usurper A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...

and imposter, and he was never recognized by the Buddhist clergy. People irreverently referred to him as Kuzhap Pekar Dzinpa (Mr. Pekar Dzinpa). Shortly afterwards, Tibetans in Eastern Tibet announced that they had found the reincarnation of the recently deceased Tsangyang Gyatso, thus the

7th Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso (; 1708–1757), also spelled Kalzang Gyatso, Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso, was the 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet, recognized as the true incarnation of the 6th Dalai Lama, and enthroned after a pretender was deposed. The Seventh ...

, near

Lithang Litang (; ) is in southwest of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China. Litang is part of Kham in the Tibetan cultural zone, and several famous Buddhist figures were born here, including the 7th Dalai Lama, the 10th Dalai Lama, t ...

in the province of

. The boy had been born in September 1708, and would later be known by the name

Kelzang Gyatso Kelzang Gyatso (; 1708–1757), also spelled Kalzang Gyatso, Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso, was the 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet, recognized as the true incarnation of the 6th Dalai Lama, and enthroned after a pretender was deposed. The Seventh D ...

. He was recognized by two Khoshut princes in

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari (including former Guge kingdom) in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the bi ...

and caught the interest of the Kangxi Emperor. Seeing the boy as a possible means of increasing Qing influence in Tibet, he brought him to the Kumbum Monastery, out of reach of Lha-bzang Khan. Tibet was suddenly overrun by an invasion by the

Dzungar people The Dzungar people (also written as Zunghar; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') were the many Mongol Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th centuries. Historically they were one of major t ...

in 1717. Lha-bzang Khan was killed in battle in

in November in the same year, and the country was occupied by the newcomers, who led a hard rule. The Dzungar leaders considered Yeshe Gyatso an imposter and deposed him. The Panchen Lama

Lobsang Yeshe Lobsang Yeshe (; also written Lobsang Yeshi) (1663–1737) was the fifth Panchen Lama of Tibet. He was born of a well-known and noble family in the province of Tsang. His father's name was De-chhen-gyalpo and his mother's Serab-Drolma. He w ...

pleaded with the Dzungar not to kill the young man or his siblings, but did not receive a clear reply. However, Yeshe Gyatso was not ill-treated but merely confined to the Chakpori medical college. The Dzungar occupation of Tibet lasted until 1720 when a Qing expedition expelled the occupants. Kelzang Gyatso was brought from Kumbum to Lhasa in the same year and enthroned in the

Potala The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythic ...

on 15 October 1720. Yeshe Gyatso was taken out from Chakpori. His fate is not entirely clear from the sources, but it seems that he was deported to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

where he died in 1725. During the

Losar Losar (; "new year"William D. Crump, "Losar" in ''Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide'' (McFarland & Co.: 2008), pp. 237-38.) also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various d ...

festival in early 1726 the 7th Dalai Lama blessed the merits of the deceased Yeshe Gyatso, indicating that any hostility between the rival Dalai Lamas had ceased by this time due to Yeshe Gyatso's loss of political significance. The latter must nevertheless have had some followers, since his supposed reincarnation was discovered in

. However, the child soon died from

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

and no more incarnations were reported.

Appointment as Dalai Lama

Contested claims

See also

References

Further reading