Jamphel Gyatso

8th Dalai Lama

Reign 17621804
Predecessor Kelzang Gyatso
Successor Lungtok Gyatso
Tibetan --,---
Wylie byams spel rgya mtsho
Chinese
Born 1758
Thobgyal, -Tsang, Tibet
Died 1804 (age 46)
Tibet
8th Dalai Lama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jamphel Gyatso (17581804) was the 8th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Born in 1758 at Lhari Gang (Tob-rgyal Lha-ri Gang) in the Upper
-Tsang region of southwestern Tibet his father, Sonam Dhargye, and
mother, Phuntsok Wangmo, were originally from Kham.
[1]
They were
distant descendants of Dhrala Tsegyal, who was one of the major
heroes of the Gesar epic.
[2]
Traditional history
When Jamphel Gyatso was conceived, the village was given a major
harvest with each stalk of barley bearing three, four and five ears,
which has never been seen before throughout Tibet. When Jamphel's
mother, Phuntosk Wangmo and a relative were having their supper in
the garden, a giant rainbow appeared, one end of which touched the
mother's shoulder. This is a key sign associated with the birth of a holy
being.
Soon after birth, in the 6th month of the Fire Bull Year (1758), the
holy baby often attempted to sit in a meditative posture looking up to
the heavens. When Lobsang Palden Yeshi, the Sixth Panchen Lama,
heard about this boy, he pronounced that he was indeed the authentic
reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
At the age two and a half years old, Jamphel was taken under a large
contingent of lamas and officials to Tashilhunpo Monastery in
Shigatse, and was given a ceremony as the reborn Dalai Lama.
[2]
He was escorted to Lhasa and enthroned as the leader of the Tibetan
people in the Potala Palace in 7th month of the Water Horse Year
(1762) when he was five years old (four by Western reckoning). The
enthronement ceremony was presided over by Demo Tulku Jamphel
Yeshi, the first of a series of Regents to represent the Dalai Lamas when they were minors.
[3]
The ceremony was held in
the 'Beyond Mind Temple of the Second Potala'.
[1]
Shortly after, he was given the novice vows of monk-hood the name, Jamphel Gyatso, by Lobsang Palden Yeshe, and
was fully ordained in 1777.
[2]
He was the disciple of Yongtsin Yeshe Gyaltsen, the Kushok Bakula Rinpoche.
[4]
The country continued to be ruled by regents until the Wood Dragon Year (1784) when the Regent was sent as an
ambassador to China and the Dalai Lama ruled alone until 1790, when the Regent returned to help Jamphel Gyatso.
In 1788 there was a conflict with Nepali wool traders leading to a skirmish with the Gurkhas. In 1790 the Gurkhas
invaded southern Tibet and conquered several provinces including Nya-nang and Kyi-drong. The city of Shigatse and the
Tashilhunpo Monastery were captured and looted but the Gurkhas were driven back to Nepal in 1791 after the Qing
Dynasty sent troops to Tibet. A peace treaty between the Qing dynasty and Gurkhas was agreed on in 1796.
Norbulingka Park and Summer Palace and other activities
It was the Eighth Dalai Lama who built the Norbulingka Park and Summer Palace in 1783 on the outskirts of Lhasa.
[5]
He also commissioned an exquisite copper statue of the Buddha for the people of Southern Tibet which was brought into
India in the 1960s and is now housed at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, Dharamsala, India.
[6]
Later life
"He was a mild and contemplative person with no great interest in temporal affairs and although he lived to be 45
[44 by Western reckoning], for most of his life he was content to let a Regent conduct the administration."
[7]
He died in 1804 at the age of 47 (46 by Western reckoning).
[8]
Footnontes
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." The Tibet Journal. Vol.
VII Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, pp. 4748.
http://www.dalailama.com/page.51.htm
References
^
a b
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." The Tibet Journal. Vol. VII
Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, p. 47.
1.
^
a b c
"The Eighth Dalai Lama J AMPHEL GYATSO" (http://namgyalmonastery.org/hhdl/hhdl8) 2.
^ "The Eighth Dalai Lama J AMPHEL GYATSO." (http://namgyalmonastery.org/hhdl/hhdl8) 3.
^ Namang Tsering Shakspo: "The role of incarnate Lamas in Buddhist tradition: A Brief Surveyof bakula Rinpoche's
Previous Incarnations"in "Recent Research on Ladakh", Proceedings of the 7th Colloquium of the International Association
for Ladakh Studies held in Bonn/Sankt Augustin, 1215 J une 1995
4.
^ The Dalai Lamas of Tibet, p. 102. Thubten Samphel and Tendar. Roli & J anssen, New Delhi. (2004). ISBN
81-7436-085-9.
5.
^ Sheel, R. N. Rahul. "The Institution of the Dalai Lama", p. 30. The Tibet Journal. Vol. XIV, No. 3. Autumn, 1989. 6.
^ Richardson, Hugh E. (1984). Tibet and its History. Second Edition, Revised and Updated, p. 59. Shambhala. Boston &
London. ISBN 0-87773-376-7 (pbk)
7.
^ Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche. (1982). "Life and times of the Eighth to Twelfth Dalai Lamas." The Tibet Journal. Vol. VII Nos.
1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, pp. 47-48.
8.
Further reading
Mullin, Glenn H. (2001). The Fourteen Dalai Lamas: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation, pp. 322341. Clear
Light Publishers. Santa Fe, New Mexico. ISBN 1-57416-092-3.
Buddhist titles
Preceded by
Kelzang Gyatso
Dalai Lama
17621804
Recognized in 1760
Succeeded by
Lungtok
Gyatso
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=8th_Dalai_Lama&oldid=500453384"
Categories: 1758 births 1804 deaths Dalai Lamas 18th-century Tibetan people 19th-century Tibetan people
This page was last modified on 3 July 2012 at 07:59.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See
Terms of use for details.
Wikipediais a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.