BY BARBARA O'BRIEN

The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706) didn’t want the job. He was enthroned as the Dalai Lama at age 16, but he wanted only to be a teenager. He renounced monastic vows and preferred to spend evenings in taverns with his friends to studying Buddhist philosophy. Today he is sometimes called the Playboy Dalai Lama. But the Sixth Dalai Lama’s life story is more of a tragedy than a joke.

The existence of the Sixth Dalai Lama was a fiercely guarded secret for years. The Fifth Dalai Lama was the first Dalai Lama to rule Tibet. And a big setback to having a reborn lama as a head of state is that there will be a gap of several years between the death of one Dalai Lama and the enthronement of the next. The Great Fifth’s death in 1682 was kept secret for many years to avoid political instability. During this time the acting head of the government was a high official called the Desi who told people His Holiness was observing a religious retreat. On occasions when the Dalai Lama’s presence was required, an elderly monk who resembled the Great Fifth would stand in.

Meanwhile, the child identified as the Sixth Dalai Lama had to be kept secret also. He and his family were kept in seclusion in Nankartse, a scenic area about a hundred miles from Lhasa. The Desi saw to it the child was well educated, but he may not have had much opportunity to be a child.

The Sixth Dalai Lama Goes to Lhasa

In 1696 the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama was, at long last, announced. The 16-year-old Sixth Dalai Lama left his mother and his seclusion behind and was taken to Lhasa in grand style. He was met by thousands of excited Tibetans. The Desi rode out to meet him with Lajang Khan (also spelled Lha-bzang), the titular King of Tibet. Lajang was the grandson of Gushi Khan, the Mongolian who conquered Tibet and called himself King of Tibet but gave Tibet to the Fifth Dalai Lama to rule.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thereligioushistorynerd/2023/01/the-sad-story