Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: This biography of the Eighth Dalai Lama was written by Demo Ngawang Losang Tubten Jikmay Gyatso, (1778-1819, de mo ngag dbang blo bzang thub bstan 'jigs med rgya mtsho), the subsequent incarnation of the Seventh Demo Trulku Ngawang Jampel Deleg Gyatso (d. 1777, de mo sprul sku ngag dbang ’jam dpal de legs rgya mtsho) who had served as the Dalai Lama’s Regent for twenty-one years. The text itself, An Ornament for the Entire World, Biography of the Powerful Conqueror, the Omniscient Losang Tenpay Wangchug Jampel Gyatso, provides extensive detail on the life of the Dalai Lama, his education, his spiritual experiences, other prominent lamas of his time, and the like. However, there is not much information on the larger flow of history. The Gurkha wars, for example, received scant attention. The reforms in Sino-Tibetan relations instituted by the Qing Emperor in 1792 are not even mentioned. In a sense, this is fitting, as the Eighth Dalai Lama was himself quite uninvolved in political affairs. By the time he died at the age of forty-eight, he had ruled for less than four years.