Khedrup Gyatso was born on 1st November 1838 at Gathar (Gar-tar) in Kham Minyak to Tsetan Dhondup and Yungdrung Bhuti. He died in the Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet on January 31, 1856). He was the 11th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
He was recognised as the Eleventh Dalai Lama in 1840, having come from the same village as Kelzang Gyatso, the seventh Dalai Lama, had in 1708. In 1841 the seventh Panchen Lama, Palden Tenpai Nyima, gave him the pre-novice ordination, cut his hair and gave him the name Khedrup Gyatso.
In 1842, he was enthroned in the Potala Palace and, in 1846, at the age of eleven, he took the novice vows of monkhood from Fourth Panchen Lama.
He was enthroned on May 25, 1842 and assumed full power on the request of his government on March 1, 1855. However, he died less than one year later, thus becoming the third successive Dalai Lama who died at too young an age to consolidate his power.
He wrote a book of moralistic stanzas, Story of the Monkeys and Birds (Bya sprel gyi gtam-rgyud). It is an allegory of the war at the end of the 18th century between the Tibetans and the Gurkhas ('birds' and 'monkeys' respectively).
During the life of Khedrup Gyatso, wars over Ladakh weakened the lamas' power over the Tibetan Plateau and the Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion simultaneously weakened Chinese influence on Tibet. This was to pave the way for efforts under the following Dalai Lama to seal Tibet off even more firmly from Western colonial influence which was seen as a threat to Tibetan culture and the power of the lamas.
Footnotes
Further reading
- Mullin, Glenn H. (2001). The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation, pp. 361-367. Clear Light Publishers. Santa Fe, New Mexico. ISBN 1-57416-092-3.
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