Editing Dalai Lama (section)

==== 12th Dalai Lama ====
{{Main|12th Dalai Lama}}

In 1856, a child was born in south [[central Tibet]] with all the usual extraordinary signs. He came to the notice of the search team, was investigated, passed the traditional tests and was recognised as the [[12th Dalai Lama]] in 1858. The use of the Chinese [[Golden Urn]] at the insistence of the regent, who was later accused of being a Chinese lackey, confirmed this choice to everyone's satisfaction. He was renamed [[Trinley Gyatso]] and enthroned on July 3, 1860, after the emperor's edict from [[Amban]] was announced.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.tibetology.ac.cn/2022-08/29/content_42086423.htm | title=【活佛转世】陈庆英等：认定十一世、十二世达赖喇嘛的经过 }}</ref> He underwent 13 years of intensive tutelage and training before becoming Tibet's ruler at age 17.<ref name="M367">Mullin 2001, pp. 367–373.</ref>

His minority seems to have been a time of even deeper Lhasan political intrigue and power struggles than his predecessor's. In 1862 Wangchuk Shetra, a minister the regent had banished for conspiring against him, led a coup. Shetra contrived to return, deposed the regent, who fled to China, and seized power, appointing himself "Desi", or Prime Minister.<ref name="M367" /> He then ruled with "absolute power" for three years,<ref name="S188">Shakabpa 1984, pp. 188–9.</ref> quelling a major rebellion in northern Kham in 1863 and reestablishing Tibetan control over significant [[Qing]]-held territory there.<ref name=Sm140>Smith 1997, p. 140.</ref> Shetra died in 1864 and the [[Kashag]] reassumed power. The retired 76th [[Ganden Tripa]], Khyenrab Wangchuk, was appointed regent but his role was limited to supervising and mentoring Trinley Gyatso.<ref name="M367" /><ref name="S188" />

In 1868 Shetra's coup organiser, a semi-literate [[Ganden]] monk named Palden Dondrup, seized power in another coup and ruled as a cruel despot for three years, putting opponents to death by having them "sewn into fresh animal skins and thrown in the river".<ref name="S188" /> In 1871, at the request of officials outraged after Dondrup had done that to one minister and imprisoned several others, he was ousted and committed suicide after a counter-coup coordinated by the supposedly powerless regent Khyenrab Wangchuk.<ref name="S188" /> As a result, Tibetans fondly remember Khyenrab Wangchuk, who died the next year, as saviour of the Dalai Lama and the nation. The Kashag and the Tsongdu or National Assembly were reinstated, and, presided over by a Dalai Lama or his regent, ruled without further interruption until 1959.<ref name="M367" />

But according to Smith, during Trinley Gyatso's minority, an alliance of monks and officials called ''Gandre Drungche'' (Ganden and Drepung Monks Assembly) deposed the regent in 1862 for abuse of authority and closeness with China; this body then ruled Tibet for ten years until it dissolved when a National Assembly of monks and officials called the ''Tsongdu'' was created and took over. Smith makes no mention of Shetra or Dondrup acting as usurpers and despots in this period.<ref name="Sm140" />

In any case, Trinley Gyatso died within three years of assuming power. In 1873, at age 20, "he suddenly became ill and passed away".<ref name="M367" /> Accounts of his cause of death diverge. Mullin relates an interesting theory, based on Tibetan sources: out of concern for the monastic tradition, Trinley Gyatso chose to die and reincarnate as the [[13th Dalai Lama]] rather than marry a woman called Rigma Tsomo from Kokonor and leaving an heir to "oversee Tibet's future".<ref>Mullin 2001, pp. 373–375.</ref> On the other hand, without citing sources, Shakabpa notes that Trinley Gyatso was influenced and manipulated by two close acquaintances who were subsequently accused of having a hand in his fatal illness and imprisoned, tortured, and exiled as a result.<ref>Shakabpa 1984, p. 191.</ref>