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Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama

 

 
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Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama
 
 
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Khedrup Gyatso was born on 1 November 1838 at Gathar (Gar-tar) in Kham
Kham

Kham , is a region presently divided between the China provinces of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Sichuan where Khampas, a subgroup within the Tibetan ethnicity, live....
 Minyak to Tsetan Dhondup and Yungdrung Bhuti. He died in the Potala Palace, Lhasa
Lhasa

Lhasa, sometimes spelled Lasa, is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. Lhasa is located at the foot of Mount Gephel....
, Tibet
Tibet

Tibet is a Tibetan Plateau in Asia, north of the Himalayas, and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people and its related ethnic groups. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres , it is the highest region on Earth and has in recent decades increasingly been referred to as the "Roof of the World"....
 on January 31, 1856). He was the 11th Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and was the political leader of Lhasa-based Tibetan government between the 17th century and 1959....
 of Tibet.

He was recognised as the Eleventh Dalai Lama in 1840, having come from the same village as Kelzang Gyatso
Kelzang Gyatso, 7th Dalai Lama

Kelzang Gyatso , also spelled Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso, was the 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet....
, the seventh Dalai Lama, had in 1708. In 1841 the seventh Panchen Lama, Palden Tenpai Nyima
Palden Tenpai Nyima

Palden Tenpai Nyima was the Seventh Panchen Lama of Tibet.Lobsang Palden Yeshe, the previous Panchen Lama, died from smallpox in Beijing in 1780....
, gave him the pre-novice ordination, cut his hair and gave him the name Khedrup Gyatso.

In 1842, he was enthroned in the Potala Palace and, in 1846, at the age of eleven, he took the novice vows of monkhood from Fourth Panchen Lama.

He was enthroned on May 25, 1842 and assumed full power on the request of his government on March 1, 1855.






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Khedrup Gyatso was born on 1 November 1838 at Gathar (Gar-tar) in Kham
Kham

Kham , is a region presently divided between the China provinces of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Sichuan where Khampas, a subgroup within the Tibetan ethnicity, live....
 Minyak to Tsetan Dhondup and Yungdrung Bhuti. He died in the Potala Palace, Lhasa
Lhasa

Lhasa, sometimes spelled Lasa, is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. Lhasa is located at the foot of Mount Gephel....
, Tibet
Tibet

Tibet is a Tibetan Plateau in Asia, north of the Himalayas, and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people and its related ethnic groups. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres , it is the highest region on Earth and has in recent decades increasingly been referred to as the "Roof of the World"....
 on January 31, 1856). He was the 11th Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious leader of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and was the political leader of Lhasa-based Tibetan government between the 17th century and 1959....
 of Tibet.

He was recognised as the Eleventh Dalai Lama in 1840, having come from the same village as Kelzang Gyatso
Kelzang Gyatso, 7th Dalai Lama

Kelzang Gyatso , also spelled Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso, was the 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet....
, the seventh Dalai Lama, had in 1708. In 1841 the seventh Panchen Lama, Palden Tenpai Nyima
Palden Tenpai Nyima

Palden Tenpai Nyima was the Seventh Panchen Lama of Tibet.Lobsang Palden Yeshe, the previous Panchen Lama, died from smallpox in Beijing in 1780....
, gave him the pre-novice ordination, cut his hair and gave him the name Khedrup Gyatso.

In 1842, he was enthroned in the Potala Palace and, in 1846, at the age of eleven, he took the novice vows of monkhood from Fourth Panchen Lama.

He was enthroned on May 25, 1842 and assumed full power on the request of his government on March 1, 1855. However, he died less than one year later, thus becoming the third successive Dalai Lama who died at too young an age to consolidate his power.

"During the period of the short-lived Dalai Lamas—from the Ninth to the Twelfth incarnations—the Panchen was the lama of the hour, filling the void left by the four Dalai Lamas who died in their youth."


He wrote a book of moralistic stanzas, Story of the Monkeys and Birds (Bya sprel gyi gtam-rgyud). It is an allegory of the war at the end of the 18th century between the Tibetans and the Gurkha
Gurkha

Gurkha, also spelled as Gorkha, are people from Nepal and northern India who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath....
s ('birds' and 'monkeys' respectively).

During the life of Khedrup Gyatso, wars over Ladakh
Ladakh

Ladakh is a region in the Indian Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between the Kunlun Mountains mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryans and Tibetan people descent....
 weakened the lamas' power over the Tibetan Plateau and the Opium Wars
Opium Wars

The Opium Wars , also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, lasted from 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860, the climax of a trade dispute between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire....
 and Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt in China from 1850 to 1864, during the Qing Dynasty, by an army led by Heterodoxy Christianity convert Hong Xiuquan....
 simultaneously weakened Chinese influence on Tibet. This was to pave the way for efforts under the following Dalai Lama to seal Tibet off even more firmly from Western colonial influence which was seen as a threat to Tibetan culture and the power of the lamas.

Footnotes


Further reading

  • Mullin, Glenn H. (2001). The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation, pp. 361-367. Clear Light Publishers. Santa Fe, New Mexico. ISBN 1-57416-092-3.