Ganden Phodrang

Ganden Phodrang
དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང
甘丹頗章
1642–1959
StatusProtectorate of the Khoshut Khanate
(1642–1717)
Protectorate of the Dzungar Khanate
(1717–1720)
Protectorate of the Qing dynasty
(1720–1912)
Protectorate of the People's Republic of China
(1951-1959)
CapitalLhasa
Common languagesTibetan
Religion
Tibetan Buddhism
GovernmentLugs gnyis (dual order) Spiritual and Secular
Dalai Lama 
• 1642–1682
5th Dalai Lama (first)
• 1950–1959
14th Dalai Lama (last)
History 
• Established
1642
• Disestablished
1959
CurrencyTibetan currency

The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang (Tibetan: དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང, Wylie: dGa' ldan pho brang, Lhasa dialect: [ˈkɑ̃̀tɛ̃̀ ˈpʰóʈɑ̀ŋ]; Chinese: 甘丹頗章; pinyin: Gāndān Pōzhāng) was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642, when the Oirat lord Güshi Khan who founded the Khoshut Khanate conferred all spiritual and political power in Tibet to him in a ceremony in Shigatse. During the ceremony, the Dalai Lama "made a proclamation declaring that Lhasa would be the capital of Tibet and the government of would be known as Gaden Phodrang"[1] which eventually became the seat of the Gelug school's leadership authority.[2] The Dalai Lama chose the name of his monastic residence at Drepung Monastery for the new Tibetan government's name: Ganden (དགའ་ལྡན), the Tibetan name for Tushita heaven, which, according to Buddhist cosmology, is where the future Buddha Maitreya resides; and Phodrang (ཕོ་བྲང), a palace, hall, or dwelling. Lhasa's Red Fort again became the capital building of Tibet, and the Ganden Phodrang operated there and adjacent to the Potala Palace until 1959.

During the 17th century, the Dalai Lama established the priest and patron relationship with China's Qing emperors, a few decades before the Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720).[3][4][5] Meanwhile, the Qing became increasingly active in governing Tibet with the establishment of imperial resident (Amban) and Chinese garrison stationed in Lhasa since the early 18th century and took advantage of crisis situations in Tibet to intervene in Tibetan affairs each time,[6] although this also caused some dissatisfaction and uprisings within Tibet,[7] such as the Batang uprising in 1905. A governing council known as the Kashag also operated in the Ganden Phodrang administration. During the British expedition to Tibet (1904) and the Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910) before the 1911 Revolution which led to the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the Ganden Phodrang continued to govern Tibet under the Qing protectorate.[8] After the Chinese Civil War which led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the subsequent signing of the Sino-Tibetan Seventeen Point Agreement in 1951, the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China began, although Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet and declared the revocation of the agreement following the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

  1. ^ Tsepon W.D. Shakabpa, A Thousand Moons, Brill, 2009
  2. ^ Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S., Jr. (2013). The Princeton dictionary of Buddhism. Archived 12 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400848058. Entries on "Dalai Lama" and "Dga' ldan pho brang".
  3. ^ "Tibetans mark 360 years of Gaden Phodrang", Central Tibetan Administration, February 6, 2002: Tibet under the leadership of the Fifth Dalai Lama pursued a vigorous foreign policy and welcomed foreign travellers. The cho-yon or teacher-disciple relationship that governed Tibet’s most important external relations received new life during his reign. In return for the spiritual guidance of the Dalai Lama, the disciple offered his military service. The cho-yon system regulated Tibet’s relations with China till 1911 when the Manchu dynasty was overthrown by nationalist Chinese forces.
  4. ^ AHRC-funded project, Legal Ideology in Tibet: Politics, Practice, and Religion, University of Oxford, Tibetan Law
  5. ^ Laird, Thomas (2007) [2006]. The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama. New York: Grove Press. p. 226. ISBN 9781555846725. Retrieved 13 November 2022. The Manchu, or Qing, Empire became Tibet's overlord in 1720 when it installed the Seventh Dalai Lama, but this relationship was not rigorously defined and the Manchu made no move to absorb Tibet as a province.
  6. ^ Dawa Norbu (2001). China's Tibet Policy. Curzon Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780700704743.
  7. ^ Alice Travers, Solomon George Fitzherbert. "Introduction: The Ganden Phodrang’s Military Institutions and Culture between the 17th and the 20th Centuries, at a Crossroads of Influences". Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 2020; "Asian Influences on Tibetan Military History between the 17th and 20th Centuries", 53, pp.7-28.
  8. ^ Dawa Norbu (2001). China's Tibet Policy. Curzon Press. pp. 83–144. ISBN 9780700704743.

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