Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa

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Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa (bKa' brgyud rnam par rgyal ba) (died 1623) was a prince in Central Tibet. He belonged to the Phagmodrupa dynasty which reigned in Tibet or parts of it from 1354 to the early 17th century. He is sometimes represented as the penultimate ruler of the line, although the circumstances about his political position are ill-recorded.

Phagmodrupa dynasty dynastic regime that held sway over Tibet or parts thereof from 1354 to the early 17th century.

The Phagmodrupa Dynasty or Pagmodru was a dynastic regime that held sway over Tibet or parts thereof from 1354 to the early 17th century. It was established by Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen of the Lang family at the end of the Yuan dynasty. The dynasty had a lasting importance on the history of Tibet; it created an autonomous kingdom after Mongol rule, revitalized the national culture, and brought about a new legislation that survived until the 1950s. Nevertheless, the Phagmodrupa had a turbulent history due to internal family feuding and the strong localism among noble lineages and fiefs. Its power receded after 1435 and was reduced to Ü in the 16th century due to the rise of the ministerial family of the Rinpungpa. It was defeated by the rival Tsangpa dynasty in 1613 and 1620, and was formally superseded by the Ganden Phodrang regime founded by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642. In that year, Güshi Khan of the Khoshut formally transferred the old possessions of Sakya, Rinpung and Phagmodrupa to the "Great Fifth".

Tibet plateau region in Asia

Tibet is a historical region covering much of the Tibetan Plateau in Inner Asia. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level.

Contents

Position in the Phagmodrupa dynasty

Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa was a son of the preceding ruler of the dynasty, Ngawang Drakpa Gyaltsen. According to some lists he took over the throne after his father who is known to have died in 1603 or 1604. [1] Building on an indigenous history, Sarat Chandra Das says of him: "From the time of Namber-Gyal-van's reign, the chiefs and nobles of U' and Tsaṅ constantly waged war with each other, in consequence of which the power of the king waned, to a great extent. At this time the king of Tsaṅ became very powerful and by taking advantage of the reigning king's weakness gradually became the de facto sovereign of Tibet". [2]

Ngawang Drakpa (Gyaltsen) was a king in Central Tibet who ruled from 1554 to 1556/57, and again from 1576 to 1603/04. He belonged to the Phagmodrupa Dynasty which held power in Tibet or parts of it from 1354 to the early 17th century. Due to the internal family feuds that preceded his reign most of the powers of his predecessor slipped from his hands.

Sarat Chandra Das Indian scholar of Tibetan language and culture

Sarat Chandra Das (1849–1917) was an Indian scholar of Tibetan language and culture most noted for his two journeys to Tibet in 1879 and in 1881–1882.

Ü is a geographic division and a historical region in Tibet. Together with Tsang, it forms Central Tibet Ü-Tsang, which is one of the three Tibetan regions or cholka (cholka-sum). The other two cholka are Kham (Dotod) and Amdo (Domed). According to a Tibetan saying, "the best religion comes from Ü-Tsang, the best men from Kham, and the best horses from Amdo".

His person is however the most obscure of all in the history of the Phagmodrupa, and there is very little information about his actions in the chronicles. By this time the dynasty had almost ceased to wield any executive power in Tibet. Chinese sources are at variance with the Tibetan ones, since they say that a ruler called Zhashi Cangbu (Tashi Zangpo) flourished after 1579. This ruler is stated to have died around 1600 and been succeeded by his unnamed son. [3] One option is that the son was Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa, but the indigenous Tibetan sources suggest that another scion called Mipham Wanggyur Gyalpo ascended the throne in Nêdong, southeast of Lhasa, in 1604. [4] It appears that Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa had to be content with governing as zhabdrung (lama-official) in Gongkar, another stronghold of the Phagmodrupa further to the west. [5] According to the chronicles of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa "opened wide the doors of both religious and secular knowledge but paid special attention to the doctrines of Absolute Truth, such as Mahamudra". [6]

Mipham Wanggyur Gyalpo was a king in Central Tibet who ruled in 1604–1613 and belonged to the Phagmodrupa Dynasty. His largely nominal reign saw increasing political tumult in Tibet which was related to the political ambitions of the rival Tsangpa Dynasty.

Lhasa District in Tibet, China

Lhasa or Chengguan is a district and administrative capital of Lhasa City in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The inner urban area of Lhasa City is equivalent to the administrative borders of Chengguan District, which is part of the wider prefectural Lhasa City.

Gonggar Dzong building in Gonggar Dzong, China

The Gonggar Dzong, also known as Gongkar Dzong, is located in Gonggar County, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet, China. It is close to the Gongkar town, the Gonggar Choide Monastery and the Gonggar Airport, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the town. The Dzong is also known by names such as Kung-k’o, Chi-hsiung, K'ung-ka-tsung, Konka Dzong, K’ung-ka-tsung, Gongkar, Kung-k'o, Kung-ka, Gongkar Dzong, Kong-ka-dsong, Kongka Dzong and Gonggar.

Yearning for the Dalai Lama

During his time the Third Dalai Lama, a friend of the Phagmodrupa, strengthened his ties with the Tümed Mongols. After his death in 1588 a Mongol prince was identified as the new Dalai Lama. The boy, Yonten Gyatso, stayed in Mongolia for several years, although many Tibetans appealed to his family to let him travel to Tibet. Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa wrote a poem in 33 verses where he appealed to the young boy:

3rd Dalai Lama 3rd Dalai Lama

Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) was the first to be named Dalai Lama, although the title was retrospectively given to his two predecessors.

The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and to China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia. Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia.

Dalai Lama Buddhist spiritual teacher

Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people for the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the classical schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

"Please become a monk and come here,
To this temple where apparitions are displayed,
To Ü Tsang, the purified land that has been cleansed hundreds of times,
By the river current of words of Indian and Tibetan scholars.
Take the place of your previous incarnation
On the fearless Snow Lion Throne,
And ceaselessly turn the wheel of dharma through a hundred eons." [7]

Actually the fourth Dalai Lama only came to Tibet in 1601. Arriving at Kökö-hota, Yonten Gyatso was met by representatives of the main Gelugpa monasteries and supporting noble families who officially ratified his identity as a true incarnation. [8] These included an envoy from Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa's kinsman Mipham Wanggyur Gyalpo who took over the largely illusory throne a few years later, in 1604, and kept it until his death in 1613. It is unclear if Kagyud Nampar Gyalwa ever ruled in Nêdong in his own name. His death is recorded in 1623. [9] At any rate his son Mipham Sonam Wangchuk Drakpa Namgyal Palzang was the last Phagmodrupa ruler before the creation of the dharma state of the Dalai Lamas in 1642. [10]

Mipham Sonam Wangchuk Drakpa Namgyal Palzang was a king in Central Tibet. He belonged to the Phagmodrupa Dynasty which reigned in Tibet, or parts of it, from 1354 to the early 17th century, and was the last prince of the dynasty.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Sarat Chandra Das, 'Contributions on the religion, history &c, of Tibet', Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1881, p. 242.
  2. ↑ Sarat Chandra Das, 1881, p. 245.
  3. ↑ Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls. Rome 1949, Vol. II, p. 693.
  4. ↑ Olaf Czaja, Medieval rule in Tibet, Vol. I-II. Wien 2013, p. 304.
  5. ↑ Olaf Czaja, 2013, 314.
  6. ↑ Ngag-dBang Blo-bZang rGya-TSHo, A History of Tibet. Bloomington 1995, p. 159.
  7. ↑ Tsepon W.D. Shakabpa, One Hundred Thousand Moons. Leiden 2009, p. 307.
  8. ↑ Gray Tuttle & Kurtis R. Schaeffer (eds), The Tibetan history reader. New York 2013, p. 285.
  9. ↑ Olaf Czaja, 2013, p. 314.
  10. ↑ Giuseppe Tucci, 1949, Vol. I, p. 51, Vol. II, p. 643; Olaf Czaja, 2013, p. 562.
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