The 8th Dalai Lama, Jamphel Gyatso (1758–1804) was recognized as the 8th Dalai Lama of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. Born in 1758 at Lhari Gang (Tob-rgyal Lha-ri Gang) in the Upper

Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...

region of southwestern

his father, Sonam Dhargye and mother, Phuntsok Wangmo, were originally from

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

.Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." ''The Tibet Journal''. Vol. VII Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, p. 47. They were distant descendants of Dhrala Tsegyal, who was one of the major heroes of the Gesar epic."The Eighth Dalai Lama JAMPHEL GYATSO"

Traditional history

He was escorted to Lhasa and enthroned as the leader of the Tibetan people in the

Potala Palace Potala Palace ( Tibetan: པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཕོ་བྲང Chinese: 布达拉宫) is the name of a museum in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China, built in the ''dzong''-style. It was previously a palace of t ...

in 7th month of the Water Horse Year (1762) when he was five years old (four by Western reckoning). The enthronement ceremony was presided over by Demo Tulku Jamphel Yeshi, the first of a series of Regents to represent the Dalai Lamas when they were minors. The ceremony was held in the 'Beyond Mind Temple of the Second Potala'. He was the disciple of Yongtsin Yeshe Gyaltsen, the Kushok Bakula Rinpoche. The country continued to be ruled by regents until the Wood Dragon Year (1784) when the Regent was sent as an ambassador to China and the Dalai Lama ruled alone until 1790, when the Regent returned to help Jamphel Gyatso. In 1788 there was a conflict with Nepali wool traders leading to a skirmish with the

Gurkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali: गोर्खाली ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India. The Gurkha units consist of Nepali and ...

s. In 1790 the Gurkhas invaded southern Tibet and conquered several provinces including Nya-nang and Kyi-drong. The city of Shigatse and the Tashilhunpo Monastery were captured and looted but the Gurkhas were driven back to Nepal in 1791 after the Qing dynasty sent troops to Tibet. A peace treaty between the Qing dynasty and Gurkhas was agreed on in 1796.

Norbulingka Park and Summer Palace and other activities

He built the

Norbulingka Norbulingka (; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''Nor bu gling ga''; zh, s=罗布林卡, t=羅布林卡; literally "Jeweled Park") is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet built from 1755.Tibet (1986), p.71 It ser ...

Park and Summer Palace in 1783 on the outskirts of Lhasa. He also commissioned an exquisite copper statue of the Buddha for the people of Southern Tibet which was brought into India in the 1960s and is now housed at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, ''Dharamsala'', India.

Later life

:"He was a mild and contemplative person with no great interest in temporal affairs and although he lived to be 45 4 by Western reckoning for most of his life he was content to let a Regent conduct the administration." He died in 1804 at the age of 47 (46 by Western reckoning).Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." ''The Tibet Journal''. Vol. VII Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, pp. 47–48.

Footnotes

*Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." ''The Tibet Journal''. Vol. VII Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, pp. 47–48.
https://web.archive.org/web/20051213024822/http://www.dalailama.com/page.51.htm

Traditional history

Norbulingka Park and Summer Palace and other activities

Later life

Footnotes

References

Further reading