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The Sixth Dalai Lama (Tsangyang Gyatso)

The Sixth Dalai Lama (Tsangyang Gyatso)

1683 CE–1706 CE · Modern · Urgyeling (near Tawang), Mon

1683–1706 CE (death disputed; see note)

Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706 CE), the sixth Dalai Lama, was born a Monpa at Urgyeling near Tawang, in the Mon borderland that today lies in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Recognized in secrecy after the long-concealed death of the 'Great Fifth,' he was enthroned only in 1697 and proved a singular figure: he declined to take final monastic vows and is celebrated above all as a poet of brief, much-loved lyrics on love and the world (though the attribution of the surviving poems is not certain). Caught in the violent politics of the Khoshut Mongol Lhazang Khan and the Tibetan regent, he was deposed and is recorded as dying near Lake Kokonor in 1706, while a rival tradition claims he escaped and died far later in Alashan. His birthplace and dates are well attested; the manner of his death is genuinely disputed.

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Did you know?

  • The Dalai Lama who gave up his monk's vows for verse

    Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706), broke sharply from his predecessors: he received novice monk's vows but publicly renounced even those before the Fifth Panchen Lama, never advancing to full ordination, and is remembered as a poet of the streets and taverns of Lhasa. The short love lyrics traditionally attributed to him are still sung in Tibet today, and his brief, turbulent life ended under disputed circumstances at age 23.

    How we know

    Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, b. 1 March 1683, d. c. 15 November 1706 (age 23); received novice (getsul) vows then renounced them before the Fifth Panchen Lama; declined full gelong ordination; associated with popular love-poetry (traditional ascription, debated by scholars). Sources: Wikipedia '6th Dalai Lama'; Buddhism Guide 'Tsangyang Gyatso'; Treasury of Lives (403 on direct fetch, cited in candidate). Graph Author bud-sixth-dalai-lama (b. 1683, d. 1706).

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Urgyeling (near Tawang), Mon

What they did here

DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born into a Monpa family at Urgyeling near Tawang, in the Mon borderland that is today part of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India; his recognition was kept secret for years amid the politics following the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

About Urgyeling (near Tawang), Mon

Urgyeling, near Tawang in the Mon region (now in Arunachal Pradesh, India), was the birthplace, in 1683, of Tsangyang Gyatso, the unconventional poet recognised as the Sixth Dalai Lama, remembered for his lyric verse and his refusal of full monastic vows.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with The Sixth Dalai Lama (Tsangyang Gyatso)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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