The Seventh Dalai Lama

Kelzang Gyatso, the Seventh Dalai Lama, (1708-1757), was prophesied in a poem by his predecessor, Tsangyang Gyatso.

White crane!
Lend me your wings
I will not fly far
I will return near Litang

Soon after Tsangyang Gyatso's disappearance, Kelsang Gyatso, the child believed to be the true reincarnation of the Sixth Dalai Lama was discovered in Lithang, as foreshadowed in Tsangyang Gyatso's poem. The Mongol chieftain Lhazang Khan sent scouts to find and capture the child, however, Dzungar Mongol sympathizers sheltered him from harm and took him to the kingdom of Derge, where he was given asylum by the royal family. While a bloody battle raged on in Lhasa, the Kelsang Gyatso was later given safe haven at Kubum monastery, under the protection of Emperor K'ang Hsi's Manchu empire. When Emperor K'ang Hsi invaded Tibet, he gave his blessings for Kelsang Gyatso, the Seventh Dalai Lama, to ascended the throne at the Potala Palace.

In 1729 however, due to a series of rebellious uprisings in Tibet, Yung Cheng, the third Manchu emperor accused the Dalai Lama of bowing to the influence of his father and several advisors. The Dalai Lama and his father were exiled to their hometown of Garthar and power over Lhasa was seized by Sonam Tobgye Pholha, with the support of the Manchu army. A series of subsequent uprisings toppled the Manchu government in Tibet. When Ch'ien Lung, the fourth Manchu emperor sent a military force from Szechwan to Lhasa to restore Manchu authority, the Dalai Lama was restored to the throne, where he ruled until his death in 1757, at age 49.

While in exile, Kelsang Gyatso founded the Teling Monastery near his native village of Gethar. He also visited Chhokhorgyal several times, as well as the Yarlung Valley, the cradle of Tibetan civilization. The Seventh Dalai Lama was both a scholar and a poet, who left the affairs of Tibet to his ministers. He was in close contact with the common folk, and it is said that he would even leave the Potala at times to travel incognito as a wandering monk.