Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/182

10 raised him to be their leader, and for the same reason, it is said that he submitted to become a vassal of the Chinese empire in 1125.

In the thirteenth century, the Tatar confederacy of the Moghuls under Mangu Khan overran Tibet, and soon after Kublai Khan, who was Emperor of China as well as chief of the Moghuls, divided it into provinces, and gave the title of King to the Lama of Lhasa. The Moghul princes being expelled from China, the Emperor Yonglo, of the dynasty of Ming, which succeeded them, gave the title of King, in 1373, to eight more lamas in Tibet. In 1426, these took the title of Grand Lamas; and then, or some time afterwards, the Lama of Lhasa took the distinguishing title of Dalai Lama. At least, we find the Chinese Emperor Kang-hi appointing, in 1705, a Dalai Lama, who is said to be the sixth in succession who had borne that title.

It was in the middle of the fifteenth century that the Dalai Lama of Bhutan, or Greater Tibet, first named a Typa Lama for the administration of civil afiairs. The late intercourse opened between the Presidency of Bengal and Bhutan shows that the office of Typa remains and actually engrosses the authority of the state. It is not likely that the Dalai Lama retains the power of nominating to this office.

Although the Chinese historians ascribe to their emperors the power of nominating the Dalai Lama, it does not follow that this nomination is more than a bare acknowledgment or confirmation of his appointment by the lamas or Tibetan tribes. It may likewise not be improbable that the Typa Lama is chosen by the priests. It is, at least, generally said that the chiefs of the Tibetan tribes that acknowledge a sort of supremacy in the Dalai Lama are all elected by the priests, or lamas, the nobility at the same time having some influence in the transaction. A curious enough precaution against hereditary succession in the chiefehip is ascribed to these tribes. No sooner, it is said, is a new chief chosen, than his wife and children are for ever separated from him. I have never heard what is done with them, nor whether