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Biography on the 13th Dalai Lama launched

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Parmanand Sharma inaugurates the brief biography of the 13th Dalai Lama, authored by NgawangThondup Narkyid (left). Ven Lhakdor, the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, which published the book, is also seen in the picture.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

A biography on the Great 13th Dalai Lama , Thubten Gyatso, was released today, published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives . The book, in Tibetan, titled A Brief Biography on the 13th Dalai Lama, was launched by Pramanand Sharma, a former Principal of the Government College in Dharamshala, and a long-time supporter of Tibet.

Ngawangthondup Narkyid, the official biographer of the 14th Dalai Lama, authored the book.

“The launching is timed to get started on the centenary of the coming of the Great 13th Dalai Lama to India in February 1910,” Narkyid said.

Narkyid, 81, was born in Lhasa, and had served the Government of Tibet in Lhasa.

Sharma, an educationist and an academic, narrated a brief outline and read the will and the testatament of the 13th Dalai Lama, which was announced a few months before he died. His will was for Tibetans to pay heed to his testament, and to act.

Narkyid said that the Great 13th Dalai Lama asserted independence of Tibet on 13 February 1913 (8th day, first month, water ox Tibetan year), after returning to Lhasa following three years of exile in India. The year of declaration of Tibetan independence was mistakenly believed to be 1912 by many.

“After the declaration of Tibetan independence the Dalai Lama focussed on building a strong military and economy,” Narkyid said.

The book details the Dalai Lama’s modernisation of Tibet which includes among many things – standardisation of the Tibetan national flag, land reforms, establishment of foreign relations and a new foreign office. He also started modern facilities for education, post and telegraph, electricity, and roads, and built factories to print currency bills.

However, Narkyid said that his intiatives for modernisation were resisted by clergy and some officials.

“He also started a gun factory at Drapchi. The guns were modelled on the British shotgun,” Narkyid said.

“The Tibetan Medical Centre (Men-Tsee-Khang) in Lhasa was also started by him.”

The Dalai Lama’s warming relations with the Russian Tsar earned him British animosity, which led to the British invasion of Tibet in 1904. This forced the Dalai Lama into exile in Mongolia. He was exiled for the second time when the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1910. He then fled to India, and lived in Darjeeling until the end of 1912, after which he returned to Tibet.

The Great 13th Dalai Lama prophesied the invasion of Tibet a few months before he died in 1933.

Unlike other Dalai Lamas, the 5th and the 13th are accorded with the titles “The Great 5th” and “The Great 13th” Dalai Lamas.

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