ABSTRACT
The character of Tsong-kha-pa seems to have been a mixture of prudence and cool severity, and he lacked that special religious charisma which was particularly marked with Mi-la. In 1904 the Dalai Lama had to flee into Mongolia before the British military expedition under Sir Francis Younghusband and in 1910 he had to flee to India to escape the hands of the Chinese. The Dalai Lama Thub-ldan rgya-mtsho managed to avoid a premature end, and it was under him that the Priest-State first slid into the whirlpool of world politics and became a bone of contention between the British, Russian and Chinese powers. The Regent Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho was killed in flight, but the Dalai Lama was captured alive. In China, which had maintained close connections with the Grand Lamas of Tibet since the days of the Mongol dynasty, the Ming dynasty had been replaced by the Manchus, and the first Manchu Emperor Shun-chih was particularly devoted to Buddhism.
