Before I get started on this month�s highly relevant subject (ahem) may I please wish Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II very happy, if belated, 82^nd birthday wishes on 21 April. The group I belong to had a lovely afternoon with our 3^rd annual Queen�s Birthday Tea celebration at a local pub/restaurant. Hope her celebrations at Windsor were equally as pleasant.

Now, with Tibet so much in the headlines lately the Jester started doing some research on its royal history. It�s pretty murky up until the AD 600�s, but for several centuries after Tibet was a Kingdom. Its story is complicated, so I�ll have to be content with a brief overview.

For those of you whose view of Tibet comes from James Hilton�s 1933 novel �Lost Horizons�, or the movie, as a the land of Shangri-La, where all is well and peace reigns in this tiny mystical idyllic country high in the Himalayas, then you�re just in as much of a fantasy world as the Third Panchen Lama wanted the outside world to be in 1772.

Just like its history prior to the seventh century AD, the origin of the Tibetan monarchy is lost in the mists of time. But it progressed just like all the others. Independent princes with their own armies jockeyed for power with their neighbouring princes� armies, as well as with their nobles internally. The prince who managed to grab the most power installed his relatives and friends at his court. These offices became hereditary. They had the power, the money and the land. The winners also installed their favourite form of religion. Is any of this starting to sound a little familiar?

Some ancient accounts say that the first king was named Ide spu rgyal, with all Tibetans descended from 4-6 different tribes. During his reign metals were discovered, irrigation and agriculture were introduced, building of the great castle of Yarlung began and Bon po Buddhism rose to prominence.

But Buddhist Central Asian genealogy accounts begin with King Gaya khri btsan po, the son of an Indian king. Kings were divided into five groups or ranks: 7 heavenly Khri (thrones), 2 upper Steng (high ones), 6 middle Legs (good ones), 8 earthly Ide, and 4 lower Btsan (mighty ones). Three kings in particular are credited with making some major changes to Tibet�s cultural evolution. Namri Spmgzem made the first attempts to unify Tibet, according to Chinese history. His son Sangtsan Gampo, ruled a kingdom of Tibet from 604-649, unifying parts of the Yarlung River valley. In 640 he married Chinese Tang Emperor Taizong�s niece, Princess Wencheng.

Also known as Srong btsan sgam, he is said to have invented Tibetan writing and introducing Buddhism. His most effective envoy, Thon mi sambhota made major inroads into India. The first historically identified ruler of Khri srong, Gham ri srong btsan, led his petty kingdom to become a major Central Asian power. He had established contacts with China, Nepal, Turkey, other kingdoms and later with Arabs. At the height of his power he declared Buddhism to be the official state religion. The monastery of Bsam yas was built during 762-766. He continued to lead his army in victory after victory over their century-old enemy-the T�ang Empire of China, while the first seven monks were ordained.

As long as they were at war things went well. But with the rule of Khri gtseg Ide btsan ral pa can from 815-838, everything fell apart. The most fervent of Buddhists, the king stopped all the fighting. He slowly replaced all the aristocracy with monks. Bon po practitioners were soon under direct persecution. Rebellion was inevitable and in 838 the king was assassinated by representatives of two noble families. They placed Prince Khri dhu dum btsan, called �Glang dar ma, on the throne. Monasteries were razed and monks forced to either renounce their vows or run for it. Finally in 842 a monk did Glang in, but a lot of damage had been done to Buddhism.

Without one clear leader the kingdom separated into a whole bunch of petty chieftainates- again. Glang dar ma�s descendents founded a strong western state called Guge, but had no power in the center. Bon po worked itself into obscurity by stealing old Buddhist writings they claimed had been hidden by their own ancient masters. They borrowed so freely from Buddhism that eventually they were absorbed.

The chieftains� rule ended in 1239 when Mongol forces attacked Tibet. All eyes flew to the abbot of the Sa skya monastery, Pandita. The boss of the most powerful monastery had the most clout in Tibet at the time to deal with the Mongol leader Godan. Pandita�s brilliant nephew �Phags pa had so impressed Kublai Khan with his intelligence, multi-religious knowledge and debating skills that Khan pronounced that Lamaism was the empire�s official doctrine. He also ordered the young man to invent a Mongol writing system. (Although he did so it only remained in use for about 85 years).

Pandita must have been pretty persuasive himself because after his meeting with Godan in 1247, the Sa Skya Lamas became Tibet�s rulers for 21 successive Lamas. Mongols still administered the Lamas from outside though, but gradually their power diminished as well, and with it their ability to protect Tibet. Internally powerful families fought each other for land and allies. Buddhism split into Yellow and Red Sects, each supporting a separate Lama. Now pay attention because there�ll be a quiz later.

After the Mongols faded a great religious storm brewed and exploded. Some princes decided to declare themselves kings without the emperor�s support. Others rebelled against the Dpon chen, the local administrator of the monastery. Under him were all the spiritual and temporal chiefs of Tibet. During the anarchy and false claims that followed the Phag mo gru pa family rose to the top. In 1409, Tsong kha pa, a graduate of the Sa skya pa school, founded the Yellow Sect and instituted a strict moral code of ethics and built the Dga Idan monastery. In 1447 one of his brightest disciples Dge �dun grub pa, founded a monastery at Shigatse. He died in 1474 and two years later his spirit was believed to have entered the body of a newborn baby. This child became his successor and thus began the reincarnation system of priests that continued onto the present Dalai Lama.

The Phag mo gru pa family�s fortunes were superseded by a subordinate, which in turn was succeeded by their subordinates. Eventually the monastery at Shigatse monastery began its conquest of the region of Gtsang in 1556. Its abbot became the ancestor of the Gtsang pa kings, who remained in power until 1642, and were supporters of the Red Sect, Karma pa, led by the Panchen Lama.

Sects and wars and jealousy had reigned. The monasteries started taking advantage. If a wealthy landowner died without an heir, the monastery appropriated his property. From 1501 the rival families began to wear out, and the main fight came down to the rivalry between the Red Sect, supported by the Gtsang rulers and the Yellow Sect noblemen in Dbus, who saw the Red�s formalism as a corruption.

In 1566 Mongols again attacked Tibet. Their commander Jung Thajii took some Lamas back to his camp, and they so influenced him that he convinced Altan Khan to receive Lamaism. 1573 Altan Khan sent a mission to �Bras spungs monastery (Yellow). In 1577 the abbot himself went to visit Khan, who bestowed on him the title of Dalai blama vajradhara, the third Dalai Lama. He spent the rest of his life on a giant road trip around Tibet gathering converts, gathering gifts and receiving envoys from the local chiefs. He died in 1587, and Altan Khan�s great-grandson was selected as his reincarnation. The Mongols and the Yellows were now joined in an increasingly powerful alliance. This fourth Dalai Lama began his journey to Tibet by traveling along the road outside the Great Wall of China and after taking months to get there, all around Tibet, popular with all.

Meanwhile the Reds started moving in on Yellow territory and occupied the capital at Lhasa, and the Dalai Lama had to seek a safe place. The Yellows insisted that a Mongol army enter Tibet and persuade them to back off. The Mongols defeated the Red king, and the Yellows acted as peacemakers, giving the Yellow king back the monasteries the Reds had dominated. In 1641 the fifth Dalai Lama and his regent, with the help of the Mongol chief Gushi Khan, defeated the Red king. The Khan had two sons, one of which was Dayan Khan. He was succeeded by his son who was crowned in Lhasa in 1671. The fifth Dalai Lama died in 1680, but his aforementioned regent wasn�t willing to give up his job just yet. He kept the death a secret and continued ruling in his name, eventually consolidating Tibetan unification.

In 1705, Gushi�s successor was so fed up with the unorthodox methods of the Sixth Dalai Lama that he replaced him with his own choice. Soon after the deposed one met with a mysterious death. The Yellows were so incensed at this interference that they applied for help from the nearby Mongol state of Dzungaria, which had been set up in the Illi valley recently. In 1717 its commander ordered his brother to march on Lhasa.

Enter China.

The Manchu kingdom was a vassal of the Ming Empire. In 1639 the Manchu emperor sent envoys to Tibet. In 1642 a large Tibetan delegation arrived in the Manchu capital of Mukden, bearing letters from the fifth Dalai Lama, who later sent his congratulations to the new Ming emperor via a Mongol envoy. In 1651 the Manchu court sent an official invitation to the fifth Dalai Lama and to the Panchen Lama. The latter turned down the invitation, citing old age. But in 1713, (the mail moved pretty slow in those days) while the fifth Dalai Lama made his way to China, the emperor, K�ang Hsi, extended his patronage to the Panchen Lama, Blo bzang ye shes, declaring him superior to the Dalai Lama. The Emperor did not appreciate his Manchus invading Tibet so in 1717 he sent an army. But the Manchus trapped and butchered them to a man. Against advice of his counselors K�ang sent a bigger army. Once it had wiped out the Manchus in Tibet in 1720, he installed the seventh Dalai Lama on the throne at Lhasa. In 1726, the emperor dispatched a civil officer called an Ambans to Tibet to arbitrate a dispute between two Manchu generals. In 1750 the Ambans murdered the Tibetan regent. In turn the Tibetans murdered all the Chinese in Lhasa. The Emperor sent an army to restore Chinese authority and strengthened the Ambans� power base.

Enter the Gurkhas.

 

These Nepalese had been quietly occupying Tibetan districts near their border since 1788. Three years later they captured Shigatse and the Manchus sent an army, mainly Chinese, partly Tibetan, through Tibet during the winter and dispatched the Nepalese roundedly in 1792. China, wary that the British, then established in India, had helped the Ghurkhas, proceeded to close Tibet to all foreign influences. From then on all foreign questions were to be dealt with by the ambans, not the Tibetan government. In 1855 the Gurkhas invaded again and this time succeeded. The treaty gave them the power to establish agencies in Lhasa and other centres, and also gave them extraterritoriality. In turn the Gurkha government would protect Tibet if attacked by another nation. The weakened Manchus could only sit by and watch.

Enter the British.

In August of 1780, the third Panchen Lama, recognized by China as the spiritual head of the Tibetan Buddhists, sat high on a golden throne in the imperial palace at Chengde, just north of the Great Wall. He was there to celebrate and bless the Emperor on his 70^th birthday. It had taken him a year to reach the palace. The two sat together and to all who were there these two were gods-the most exalted personages on earth. During one of the quiet moments during the five-week long celebrations the Panchen mentioned that he thought it would benefit the Emperor to meet his friend the Hindustan Governor. Sure, said the Emperor. Good, you�ll like Mr. Hastings.

By the end of the 1700s China had cut itself off from European access and all Britain�s attempts at opening trade talks with them had met with imprisonment and worse. Britain, in the form of the East India Company, was salivating to get in there first. Trading was a pretty low-class profession in China, so what was the Great Panchen lama doing extolling its virtues to the Qianlong Emperor? Into the mix throw a Hindu trader in the service of both sides, a monk named Purangir. On the winning side of the Seven Years War, Britain cleaned up in the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It got Canada, Florida, and most of the West Indies. In 1765 the Mughal Emperor granted the East India Company the right to collect Bengali revenues. This made them official rulers of the richest province in India. The wars had depleted Britain�s war chest, and the expense of defending all their newly acquired and rapidly growing Empire was an expensive enterprise. The East India Company fell on hard times, and having no product to sell to China, it threw all its resources into the tea business in Canton. By 1772 the Company was nearly bankrupt. This threatened the entire British economy.

Meanwhile the Qing Dynasty in China had expanded its territory and incorporated all these small, diverse cultures into their own large one, whether they liked it or not. Moving into Tibet, the Chinese abolished the secular government and declared all temporal and spiritual authority was now vested in the Dalai Lama. To make sure this went over well they also funded lavish monasteries, built temples and honoured the lamas. Apart from the Jesuit missionaries who were kept at court and held in high esteem, Europeans were not allowed access to any of the Chinese population. Tibet was going to be the means of saving the British economy.

Enter George Bogle.

End Part One

This story is far from over, and will continue next column. Until then, anon. Be good to your Mom�s on Mother�s Day.