Editing Dalai Lama (section)

=== 7th Dalai Lama ===
{{Main|7th Dalai Lama}}
In 1708, in accordance with an indication given by the [[6th Dalai Lama]] when quitting Lhasa, a child called Kelzang Gyatso had been born at [[Litang County|Lithang]] in eastern Tibet who was soon claimed by local Tibetans to be his incarnation. After going into hiding out of fear of Lhazang Khan, he was installed in Lithang monastery. Along with some of the Kokonor Mongol princes, rivals of Lhazang, in defiance of the situation in Lhasa the Tibetans of [[Kham]] duly recognised him as the [[Seventh Dalai Lama]] in 1712, retaining his birth-name of [[Kelzang Gyatso]]. For security reasons he was moved to [[Derge]] monastery and eventually, in 1716, now also backed and sponsored by the Kangxi Emperor of China.<ref name="Mullin 2001, p.276-281">Mullin 2001, p. 276–281.</ref>

The Tibetans asked Dzungars to bring a true Dalai Lama to Lhasa, but the Manchu Chinese did not want to release Kelsan Gyatso to the Mongol Dzungars. The Regent Taktse Shabdrung and Tibetan officials then wrote a letter to the Manchu Chinese Emperor that they recognized Kelsang Gyatso as the Dalai Lama. The Emperor then granted Kelsang Gyatso a golden seal of authority.<ref name="Society">{{cite book|author=Western Shugden Society|title=A Great Deception: The Ruling Lamas' Policies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uySE2XJVq4C&pg=PP161|publisher=Tharpa Publications US|isbn=978-0-9563918-8-9|pages=161–}}</ref> The Sixth Dalai Lama was taken to Amdo at the age of 8 to be installed in [[Kumbum Monastery]] with great pomp and ceremony.<ref name="Mullin 2001, p.276-281" />

According to Smith, the Kangxi Emperor now arranged to protect the child and keep him at Kumbum monastery in Amdo in reserve just in case his ally Lhasang Khan and his 'real' Sixth Dalai Lama, were overthrown.<ref>Smith 1997, p. 123.</ref> According to Mullin, however, the emperor's support came from genuine spiritual recognition and respect rather than being politically motivated.<ref>Mullin 2001, p. 281.</ref>

==== Dzungar invasion ====
In any case, the Kangxi Emperor took full advantage of having Kelzang Gyatso under Qing control at [[Kumbum]] after other Mongols from the [[Dzungars|Dzungar tribes]] led by [[Tsewang Rabtan]] who was related to his supposed ally [[Lhazang Khan]], deceived and betrayed the latter by invading Tibet and capturing Lhasa in 1717.<ref>Mullin 2001, p. 285–9.</ref><ref>Smith 1997, pp. 123–5.</ref>

These Dzungars, who were Buddhist, had supported the Fifth Dalai Lama and his regent. They were secretly petitioned by the Lhasa [[Gelugpa]] lamas to invade with their help in order to rid them of their foreign ruler Lhazang Khan and to replace the unpopular [[Yeshe Gyatso|Sixth Dalai Lama pretender]] with the young Kelzang Gyatso. This plot suited the devious Dzungar leaders' ambitions and they were only too happy to oblige.<ref>Mullin 2001, p. 285.</ref><ref>Smith 1997, pp. 122–3.</ref> Early in 1717, after conspiring to undermine Lhazang Khan through treachery they entered Tibet from the northwest with a large army, sending a smaller force to [[Kumbum]] to collect Kelzang Gyatso and escort him to Lhasa.<ref name="Smith 1997, pp. 123–4">Smith 1997, pp. 123–4.</ref><ref name="Mullin 2001, pp. 286–7">Mullin 2001, pp. 286–7.</ref>

By the end of the year, with Tibetan connivance they had captured Lhasa, killed Lhazang and all his family and deposed [[Yeshe Gyatso]]. Their force sent to fetch Kelzang Gyatso, however, was intercepted and destroyed by Qing armies alerted by Lhazang. In Lhasa, the unruly Dzungar not only failed to produce the boy but also went on the rampage, looting and destroying the holy places, abusing the populace, killing hundreds of Nyingma monks, causing chaos and bloodshed and turning their Tibetan allies against them. The Tibetans were soon appealing to the Kangxi Emperor to rid them of the Dzungars.<ref name="Smith 1997, pp. 123–4"/><ref name="Mullin 2001, pp. 286–7"/>

When the Dzungars had first attacked, the weakened Lhazang sent word to the Qing for support and they quickly dispatched two armies to assist, the first Chinese armies ever to enter Tibet, but they arrived too late. In 1718 they were halted not far from Lhasa to be defeated and then ruthlessly annihilated by the triumphant Dzungars in the [[Battle of the Salween River]].<ref>Richardson 1984, pp. 48–9.</ref><ref name="Stein 1972, p. 85">Stein 1972, p. 85.</ref>

==== Enthronement in Lhasa ====
This humiliation only determined the Kangxi Emperor to expel the [[Dzungars]] from Tibet once and for all and he set about assembling and dispatching a much larger force to march on Lhasa, bringing the emperor's [[Trump (card games)#Metaphorical uses|trump card]] the young Kelzang Gyatso with it. On the imperial army's stately passage from [[Kumbum]] to Lhasa with the boy being welcomed adoringly at every stage, [[Khoshut]] Mongols and Tibetans were happy (and well paid) to join and swell its ranks.<ref>Mullin 2001, pp. 287–9.</ref>

By the autumn of 1720, the marauding [[Dzungar people|Dzungar Mongols]] had been vanquished from Tibet. Qing imperial forces had entered Lhasa triumphantly with the 12-year-old, acting as patrons of the Dalai Lama, liberators of Tibet, allies of the Tibetan anti-Dzungar forces led by [[Khangchenné|Kangchenas]] and [[Polhané Sönam Topgyé|Polhanas]], and allies of the [[Khoshut]] Mongol princes. The delighted Tibetans enthroned him as the [[Seventh Dalai Lama]] at the [[Potala Palace]].<ref>Smith 1997, pp. 124–5.</ref><ref>Mullin 2001, p. 289.</ref>

A new Tibetan government was established consisting of a [[Kashag]] or cabinet of Tibetan ministers headed by [[Khangchenné|Kangchenas]]. Kelzang Gyatso, too young to participate in politics, studied Buddhism. He played a symbolic role in government, and, being profoundly revered by the Mongols, he exercised much influence with the Qing who now had now taken over Tibet's [[Priest-patron|patronage and protection]] from them.<ref>Smith 1997, pp. 124–6.</ref>

==== Exile to Kham ====
Having vanquished the Dzungars, the Qing army withdrew leaving the [[Seventh Dalai Lama]] as a political figurehead and only a [[Khalkha Mongol]] as the Qing ''[[amban]]'' or representative and a garrison in Lhasa.<ref name="Mullin 2001, p.291">Mullin 2001, p. 291.</ref><ref name=TN7>Smith 1997, p. 127.</ref> After the Kangxi Emperor died in 1722 and was succeeded by his son, the [[Yongzheng Emperor]], these were also withdrawn, leaving the Tibetans [[Autonomous|to rule autonomously]] and showing the Qing were interested in an alliance, not conquest.<ref name="Mullin 2001, p.291" /><ref name=TN7 /> In 1723, after brutally quelling a major rebellion by zealous Tibetan patriots and disgruntled [[Khoshut]] Mongols from Amdo who attacked [[Xining]], the Qing intervened again, splitting Tibet by putting [[Amdo]] and [[Kham]] under their own more direct control.<ref>Smith 1997, pp. 125–6.</ref>

Continuing Qing interference in [[Central Tibet]]an politics and religion incited an anti-Qing faction to quarrel with the Qing-sympathising Tibetan nobles in power in Lhasa, led by [[Khangchenné|Kanchenas]] who was supported by [[Pholhane|Polhanas]]. This led eventually to the murder of [[Khangchenné|Kanchenas]] in 1727 and a civil war that was resolved in 1728 with the canny [[Pholhane|Polhanas]], who had sent for Qing assistance, the victor. When the Qing forces did arrive they punished the losers and exiled the [[Seventh Dalai Lama]] to Kham, under the pretence of sending him to Beijing, because his father had assisted the defeated, anti-Qing faction. He studied and taught Buddhism there for the next seven years.<ref>Smith 1997, pp. 129–30.</ref>

==== Return to Lhasa ====
In 1735 he was allowed back to Lhasa to study and teach, but still under strict control, being mistrusted by the Qing, while [[Polhané Sönam Topgyé|Polhanas]] ruled [[Central Tibet]] under nominal Qing supervision. Meanwhile, the Qing had promoted the [[Fifth Panchen Lama]] to be a rival leader and reinstated the ''ambans'' and the Lhasa garrison. Polhanas died in 1747. He was succeeded by his son [[Gyurme Namgyal]], the last dynastic ruler of Tibet, who was far less cooperative with the Qing. He built a Tibetan army and started conspiring with the Dzungars to rid Tibet of Qing influence.<ref>Shakabpa 1967, pp. 147–8.</ref> In 1750, when the ''ambans'' realised this, they invited him and personally assassinated him. Despite the Dalai Lama's attempts to calm the angered populace, a vengeful Tibetan mob assassinated the ''ambans'', along with most of their escort.<ref>Smith 1997, p. 130–132.</ref>

==== Restoration as Tibet's political leader ====
The Qing sent yet another force 'to restore order' but when it arrived the situation had already been stabilised under the leadership of the [[7th Dalai Lama]] who was now seen to have demonstrated loyalty to the Qing. Just as Güshi Khan had done with the Fifth Dalai Lama, they therefore helped reconstitute the government with the Dalai Lama presiding over a [[Kashag]] of four Tibetans, reinvesting him with temporal power in addition to his already established spiritual leadership. This arrangement, with a Kashag under the Dalai Lama or his regent, outlasted the Qing dynasty which collapsed in 1912.<ref>Van Schaik 2011, p. 144; Shakabpa 1967, p. 150.</ref>

The ''ambans'' and their garrison were reinstated to observe and to some extent supervise affairs. Their influence generally waned with the power of their empire, which gradually declined after 1792 along with its influence over Tibet, a decline aided by a succession of corrupt or incompetent ''ambans''.<ref>Smith 1997, p. 137.</ref> Moreover, there was soon no reason for the Qing to fear the [[Dzungar people|Dzungar]]; by the time the [[Seventh Dalai Lama]] died in 1757 at the age of 49, the entire [[Dzungar people]] had been practically exterminated through years of genocidal campaigns by Qing armies, and deadly smallpox epidemics, with the survivors being forcibly transported into China. Their emptied lands were then awarded to other peoples.<ref>Smith 1997, p. 132–3.</ref>

According to Mullin, despite living through such violent times Kelzang Gyatso was perhaps 'the most spiritually learned and accomplished of any Dalai Lama', his written works comprising several hundred titles including 'some of Tibet's finest spiritual literary achievements'.<ref>Mullin 2001, p. 302, p. 308.</ref> Despite his apparent lack of zeal in politics, Kelzang Gyatso is credited with establishing in 1751 the reformed government of Tibet headed by the Dalai Lama, which continued over 200 years until the 1950s, and then in exile.<ref>Mullin 2001, p. 303.</ref> Construction of the [[Norbulingka]], the 'Summer Palace' of the Dalai Lamas in Lhasa was started during Kelzang Gyatso's reign.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Suhasini Haidar|title=At Lhasa, Tibetans still pray for Dalai Lama's return|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/at-lhasa-tibetans-still-pray-for-dalai-lamas-return/article6367393.ece|access-date=19 July 2015|newspaper=The Hindu|date=1 September 2014|archive-date=3 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903220607/http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/at-lhasa-tibetans-still-pray-for-dalai-lamas-return/article6367393.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction to The Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka, Tibet|url=http://worldheritage.routes.travel/world-heritage-site/the-potala-palace-jokhang-temple-and-norbulingka-tibet/|publisher=World Heritage|access-date=19 July 2015|quote=Norbulingka was built in the 1700s by the seventh Dalai Lama and served as the regular dwelling of future Dalai Lamas. It is also referred to as the Summer Palace.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721213614/http://worldheritage.routes.travel/world-heritage-site/the-potala-palace-jokhang-temple-and-norbulingka-tibet/|archive-date=21 July 2015}}</ref>