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Lobsang Palden Yeshe
(1738–1780) ( ) was the Sixth Panchen
Lama of Tashilhunpo
Monastery
in Tibet. Lobsang
Palden Yeshe was the elder stepbrother of the 10th
Shamarpa,
Mipam Chödrup Gyamtso
(1742-1793).
He was distinguished by his writings and interest in the world.
In 1762 he
gave the Eighth Dalai Lama his
pre-novice ordination at the Potala
Palace and
named him Jamphel
Gyatso.
He
befriended George Bogle, a
Scottish
adventurer
and diplomat who had made an expedition to Tibet and stayed at
Tashilhunpo
Monastery
in Shigatse
from
1774-1775. He negotiated with
Warren Hastings, the Governor of India,
through Bogle.
The Rājā of Bhutan
invaded
Cooch
Behar
(in the plains of Bengal - neighboring British
India), in 1772 and Palden Yelde, tutor to the young Dalai Lama at
the time, helped arbitrate the negotiations.
He also had dealings with Lama
Changkya Hutukhtu, Counsellor of the
Emperor of China and chief advisor on Tibetan affairs, about
speculations that the Chinese god of war and patron of the Chinese
dynasty,
Guandi (Kuan-ti), was identical with
Gesar, the hero of Tibet's main epic story,
who was prophesied to return from
Shambhala to Tibet to help it when the country and
Buddhism were in difficulties. Others believed Guandi/Gesar was an
incarnation of the Panchen Lama. Palden Yeshe wrote a half-mystical
book about the road to Shambhala, the
Prayer of Shambhala,
incorporating real geographical features.
In 1778
Qianlong Emperor invited
Palden Yeshe to
Beijing to celebrate his
70th birthday. He left with a huge retinue and was greeted along
the way by Chinese representatives. When he reached Beijing he was
showered with riches and shown the honour normally given to the
Dalai Lama. However, he contracted
smallpox
and died at November 2,1780 when he was in
Beijing.
Palden Yeshe's stepbrother, the 10th
Shamarpa Mipam Chödrup Gyamtso, had hoped to
inherit some of the riches given to his brother in Beijing after
his death.
When this didn't happen, he conspired with
the Nepalese who sent a Gurkha army in 1788
which took control of Shigatse
. The
Shamarpa, however, did not keep his side of the bargain and the
Gurkha army returned three years later to claim their spoils, but
the Chinese sent an army to support the Tibetans and drove them
back to Nepal in 1792.
Unfortunately, all the tombs from the Fifth
to the Ninth Panchen Lamas were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and have been
rebuilded by the 10th Panchen Lama with a huge tomb at Tashilhunpo
Monastery
in Shigatse
, known as
the Tashi Langyar.
Footnotes