THE RULE OF THE DALAI LAMAS The fifth was Lob-sang Gya-tso, who in his contest with the older Church, received help from the Eleut Mongols to such good effect that he was established in 1641 as the Ruler over the whole of Tibet.
The Potala Palace, emblem of sovereignty, had been built by the great king, Song-tsen Gam-po, but destroyed during subse quent wars. The fifth Dalai Lama's chief Minister built the great stone palace on a larger scale, which with but few additions, stands to this day. It is nine hundred feet in length, and higher than St. Paul's Cathedral in London, but harmonious in line and colour.
The fifth Dalai Lama visited the Emperor of China at Peking.
He was received as an independent sovereign, for the Lama's position, backed by Mongol support, and his religious authority among both Mongols and Manchus ensured for him the highest treatment at the hands of the Manchu Emperor and Court.
It was during the early life of this Priest King that the first European entered Tibet. His name was Antonio de Andrada, a native of Portugal. He did not reach Lhasa or Shigatse. The first Europeans to enter Lhasa were two Jesuit fathers, Grueber, an Austrian and D'Orville, a Belgian, who left Peking in 1661, travelled by the Koko Nor to Lhasa, stayed there a month, and then came to Nepal. In Lhasa they witnessed the rule of the fifth Dalai Lama, whom Grueber styles "the devilish God-the-Father who puts to death such as refuse to adore him." But among Tibetans the fifth is accounted as the greatest of all their Dalai Lamas. The present day administration of Tibet dates in large measure from his reign, and stories are told not only of his ability but also of his benevolence.
The Great Fifth, as he is generally known, died in 168o, but Sang-gye Gya-tso was unwilling to desist from his task. He concealed the death and ruled in his master's name. In due course, however, a successor, who had received the name of Tsang-yang Gya-tso, succeeded to the headship of Tibet.
The new Dalai was entirely unorthodox. He wrote light verse too which remains popular to this day among Tibetans.
But his own contemporaries did not view Tsang-yang Gya-tso in that light. Many Tibetans, Mongols and Chinese doubted whether he could be a real incarnation of the divine spirit of Chen-re-si which dwelt in all true Dalai Lamas. The Chinese and Mongols removed him from Lhasa on the understanding that he was to visit Peking and put him to death at Nag-chu-ka, ten days' journey north of Lhasa. Dissensions among the people followed, and the Chinese were able to increase their hold over Tibet, always to China a matter of prime importance by reason of the religious authority exercised by the Dalai Lama in Tibet, Mongolia and Manchuria.
During the early years of the eighteenth century the Chinese established a representative known as Amban, and later on two such representatives, in Lhasa. These intervened in Tibetan administration. In 175o, the Ambans killed the Tibetan Regent. The people in their turn massacred the Chinese in Lhasa. The Emperor Chien-lung dispatched an army, restored Chinese author ity, and strengthened the power of the Ambans. But Lhasa is so far from the Chinese frontier that it was an uphill fight.
Gurkha Invasion.—In 1788 the Gurkhas, who had recently gained the ascendancy throughout Nepal, occupied some Tibetan districts near the Nepal frontier. Three years later they captured Shi-ga-tse. The Chinese Government, now thoroughly aroused, dispatched an army, composed partly of Chinese and partly of Tibetans, under Chinese leadership. This army marched through Tibet in the arctic cold of winter, defeated the Gurkhas decisively during the spring of 1792, and dictated terms of peace within a short distance of Katmandu, the Gurkha capital. Suspecting also that the British, who were by then established in India, had helped the Gurkhas, the Chinese closed Tibet as far as possible to foreign influence. It was decreed that all foreign questions should be dealt with by the Ambans, not by the Tibetan Government.