The palace itself made an evocative setting for a murder mystery. Every contemporary account is self-serving, and everybody gathered in the Potala’s precincts had his own motive for wanting the Dalai Lama dead. Indeed, the chief difficulty in interpreting the murderous politics of the period is that the story reads too much like an Agatha Christie novel.
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For Tibet’s nobility, a Dalai Lama who listened to the ambans was most likely an imposter who fully deserved a violent end.Īdd to that toxic stew a series of infant Dalai Lamas placed in the care of ambitious regents drawn from a group of fractious rival monasteries, and it’s easy to see that plenty of people might prefer it if no self-willed, adult and widely revered lama emerged from the Potala to take a firm grip on the country. For the Chinese, the power vacuum that existed during a Dalai Lama’s minority made governing their distant dependency easier conversely, any Buddhist leader with a mind of his own was a threat.
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The decline of the Qing had two consequences: the governors -ambans-sent from Beijing in pairs to rule in Lhasa discovered that they had a free hand to meddle as they wished and the Tibetan nobility, which had alternately collaborated with the Qing and resented them, sensed an opportunity to recover the influence and power they had lost since 1750. Qianlong, the last great ruler of China’s Qing dynasty, had abdicated in 1796, leaving his empire to successors who took less interest in a region that China had dominated for half a century. But, by the time of his death, the augeries for Tibet’s future were not propitious. Jamphel Gyatso had been enthroned in 1762 and, like three out of four of his immediate predecessors, lived a long life by the standards of the time, bringing a measure of stability to his country. What can be said is that these dark days began with the death of the eighth Dalai Lama in 1804. The early 1800s are a poorly documented period in Tibet’s history. Most historians of the country, and many Tibetans, believe that the most prominent victims of this struggle were four successive Dalai Lamas, the ninth through the twelfth, all of whom died in unusual circumstances, and not one of whom lived past the age of 21. Yet during the first half of the 19th century, the palace was the scene of a grim battle for political supremacy fought among monks, Tibetan nobles and Chinese governors. Until the Chinese occupation of 1951, it was also the winter home of the 14th Dalai Lama, believed to be the reincarnation of a long line of religious leaders dating back to the late fourteenth century.įor Buddhists, the Potala is a holy spot, but even for visitors to the Tibetan capital it is hardly the sort of place one would expect to find steeped in intrigue and corruption. The palace is at once architecturally striking and historically significant. Set high on the great Tibetan plateau, against the looming backdrop of the Himalayas, the vast structure rises 400 feet from a mountain in the middle of Lhasa, taking the uppermost apartments on its thirteenth floor to 12,500 feet above sea level. Sun.Few buildings inspire awe in quite the way that the Potala Palace does. The object was to set in motion serious negotiations on the future status of Tibet, but this was rejected by the Chinese government.
In the plan he recommended that the country be turned into an ecologically stable and demilitarized zone that might serve as a buffer between major Asian powers. The award of the Peace Prize gave the Dalai Lama the opportunity to present a plan for the restoration of peace and human rights in Tibet. It weighed heavily in the Tibetan leader's favor that he had showed willingness to compromise and seek reconciliation despite brutal violations. When the Nobel Committee chose the Dalai Lama, it emphasized that he based his Buddhist peace philosophy on reverence for all living things and the idea of a universal responsibility that embraces both man and nature. A Buddhist Advocate for Peace and Freedomįrom his exile in India, the religious and political leader the Dalai Lama has since 1959 stood at the head of the nonviolent opposition to China's occupation of Tibet.
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