64 Facts About Sonam Rapten

Sonam Rapten, initially known as Gyale Chodze and later on as Sonam Chopel, was born in the Tholung valley in the Central Tibetan province of U He started off as a monk-administrator of the Ganden Phodrang, the early Dalai Lamas' residence at Drepung Monastery, outside Lhasa, Tibet.

Sonam Rapten presided as the most senior official of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism for over 40 years.

Sonam Rapten was an uncompromising proponent of the Gelugpa tradition.

Sonam Rapten was born in 1595 at Gyale in Tibet's Tolung valley, to the west of Lhasa.

Sonam Rapten is first mentioned in the Fifth Dalai Lama's biography of the Fourth Dalai Lama as a Ganden Phodrang Chodze, at the age of eight, being listed amongst others welcoming the Fourth Dalai Lama when he first arrived in Lhasa from Mongolia in 1603.

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Sonam Rapten first rose to prominence as Principal Attendant of the Fourth Dalai Lama and Treasurer, i e the senior official, of the Ganden Phodrang, the Dalai Lamas' residence, 'a monastery within a monastery' which had been constructed at Drepung in 1518 for the Second Dalai Lama by the Phagmodrupa King Drakpa Jungne.

Sonam Rapten is next mentioned as 'Chagdzo Sonam Rapten' in a context where he is charged with overseeing the funeral service of an important lama.

Just after the Fourth Dalai Lama's death, early in 1617, the same biography refers to a significant discussion that Sonam Chopel had at the age of 21 with the Panchen Lama who had been invited to go to Ngari; he had to pass through Shigatse and Rapten, concerned about the opposing power of the King of Tsang being a threat to his safety on the way, tried to dissuade him.

Sonam Rapten still hoped for peace and before leaving he exhorted Sonam Rapten to work for peace.

Sonam Rapten's forces proceeded to plunder and wreck Lhasa's great Gelugpa monasteries, especially Drepung, killing hundreds of monks and forcing the rest to flee for their lives to the north.

Sonam Rapten had to deliver, under escort, 300 gold coins to Tsang, to the west of Lhasa.

In Dukula, the 5th Dalai Lama's autobiography volume I, Sonam Rapten is first mentioned as taking up residence in the Ganden Phodrang in 1621.

The Gelugpa did not renounce the search, however; in defiance of the ban, Sonam Rapten and his team after covertly consulting two oracles for pointers secretly identified the probable reincarnation, a boy who had been born late in 1617 at Chonggye in the Yarlung Valley.

The accounts differ about the place where the test took place, whether his eventual tutor Kachuwa or Sonam Rapten carried it out and whether the candidate passed the test.

Those sources which assert that Sonam Rapten personally subjected the boy to the test early, before he left Chonggye and before lots were drawn at Radeng say that he passed the test without hesitation.

In case of the lama's death, the Chagdzo is often placed in charge of the search for his reincarnation, as Sonam Rapten had done earlier as the Fourth Dalai Lama's former chagdzo when the latter died.

Sonam Rapten takes care of public relations, controlling who can and who cannot have an audience with the lama.

For example, in 1626 the Dalai Lama's father, Dudul Rapten died, possibly murdered, in the prison of the Tsangpa King, without having seen his son since he was an infant.

Sonam Rapten's corpse was thrown out behind Zamkhar Castle and "a sage from Chonggye took the body away".

Sonam Rapten, being a monk sometimes gave spiritual advice to the boy, although he was not one of his formal religious tutors.

In 1626 Sonam Rapten saw the 8 year old Dalai Lama was becoming interested in a text on Hayagriva so he referred him to Lingme Zhapdrung Konchog Chophel, the 35th Ganden Tripa, who began to mentor him on this subject.

Sonam Rapten was a dynamic character and in practice, on a day-to-day basis more powerful than his master, dealing with nobles, royalty and political leaders including foreign ones and routinely making critical decisions in all matters without reference to the Dalai Lama.

Sonam Rapten allowed Sonam Rapten to do as he liked, choosing to defer to him as a matter of course.

Sonam Rapten's denying his long-time wish to make a new crown for a favourite statue, as it was costly and would earn no recognition; only after Sonam Rapten's funeral in 1659 could he start making the crown.

Sonam Rapten agreed and Depa Norbu began to make a list of fees of wang that would be imposed in accordance with the high and low status of the close attendants and other officials.

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The 23-year-old Sonam Rapten contacted them and kept in clandestine touch hoping to engineer a counter-attack by the Mongols against the Tsangpa camps at some point.

In 1622, the old Tsangpa King was succeeded by his young son, allowing Sonam Rapten to reveal the four year old Fifth Dalai Lama who was brought out of hiding and installed at Drepung.

Sonam Rapten returned to Lhasa with the good news and Gushri Khan travelled to Tibet disguised as a pilgrim to reconnoitre the situation.

Sonam Rapten was now determined to launch the victorious ally Gushri and his Mongol army against the burgeoning Lhasa Gelugpa's two main deadly political and religious rivals and enemies: Donyo Dorje, Bonpo King of Beri in Do Kham in the east, and then the Tsangpa regime to the west.

Sonam Rapten ruled that there had been enough bloodshed already and it was not necessary to compete with and attack other Tibetan leaders or parties.

Politically ambitious Sonam Rapten insisted on taking advantage of the availability of Gushri and his victorious army to establish a greater Gelugpa supremacy.

Sonam Rapten rejected the Dalai Lama's wish for peaceful co-existence; saying the Gelugpa had been unduly persecuted, his vision for peace was to forcibly unite the country under the titular leadership of the Fifth Dalai Lama instead of letting it remain fragmented under different warlords and religious leaders.

Sonam Rapten had already deceived the Dalai Lama by covertly sending to Gushri Khan additional verbal instructions with Kachu Genyen Dondrub to go and destroy the Tsangpa and Kagyu establishment after dealing with the Beri King.

Two argued at length inconclusively and finally the Dalai Lama instructed Sonam Rapten to carry out a dice divination, which he did before the deity Pelden.

Sonam Rapten declared "If the strategy is successful, that is enough because in the long run everyone dies".

Sonam Rapten had been busy travelling around U province to take over or harass areas ruled by the Tsangpa and he heard from his informers about Gushri's failure to capture the fort.

Sonam Rapten sent a spy inside the fort in disguise and he reported that the defences were so strong that it would be impossible to break the siege.

At this point the Dalai Lama was invited to come for the inauguration of his rule over Tibet in the great assembly hall of Samdruptse castle and the victorious Gushri and Sonam Rapten rode out to meet him, two days journey from Shigatse.

Sonam Rapten's rapidly growing army captured the town of Gyantse and inspired a major rebellion in the region of Kongpo.

Some accounts say Gushri Khan was "King of Tibet" and that Sonam Rapten was 'proclaimed by Gushri Khan as regent, responsible for political administration'.

In Dukula, which is normally quite detailed and specific in such matters, there is no indication that Sonam Rapten underwent any change of status, duty or responsibility, during or after the Dalai Lama's assumption of full political and religious power over Tibet; Rapten is consistently framed as the ruler taking the pre-eminent role in political affairs.

In 1643, Sonam Rapten began organising a census to be carried out, starting with the provinces of Tod to the north and Tsang to the east, and formulating taxation laws.

Sonam Rapten commissioned a detailed survey of the land and the population and gradually appointed officials to assess taxes.

In 1645 Sonam Rapten met with the Dalai Lama and Gushri Khan and they decided to construct the Potala Palace.

In 1644 Sonam Rapten therefore despatched an expeditionary force of 700 Mongolians plus Tibetan forces into Bhutan, on the excuse of assisting the Monpas, but they found the southern passes were heavily fortified by Bhutanese forces.

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In 1646 Sonam Rapten negotiated a peace treaty with Bhutan to release the hostages.

Hostages were sent back "with gifts" in 1647, as agreed, but early in 1648 Sonam Rapten broke the 1646 treaty by ordering a new, three-pronged invasion of Bhutan with his brother Depa Norbu in command of the main army.

Gushri and Sonam Rapten returned to Lhasa after monitoring the Bhutan campaign from the border.

Again, in 1650 or 1651, Sonam Rapten requested Zur to arrange just such an occult rite against Bhutan at Phagri, a ritual which was said to have soon caused the death of his arch-enemy, the master of magic, Drukpa Kagyu chieftain Ngawang Namgyal.

Sonam Rapten had persecuted, killed and imprisoned many lamas, monks, officers and laymen of the Gelugpa, Karmapa, Drugpa, Drikhungka and Taglungpa schools.

Against Sonam Rapten and his Lhasa Gelugpa, Dorje was a military ally of the Tsangpa King, who had encouraged Dorje to attack Gelugpa monasteries in Kham, such as Lithang, and to persecute the monks there.

The Dalai Lama had not agreed to this attack and at first he refused to help, making various excuses and pointing out that Sonam Rapten did not approve of magic rituals, having earlier curtailed his studies of them under Zur.

Sonam Rapten was supposed to have instructed Gushri Khan to return to Amdo with his army after defeating Donyo Dorje, but now that war was won his deception was revealed.

Soon, when things were again not going as well as Sonam Rapten hoped, the Dalai Lama, with Zur, was having to carry out more magic Nyingma rituals to support the rash aggression and avoid defeat.

Sonam Rapten had various teachers belonging to the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya traditions, much to the distaste of many Gelugpa purists especially Sonam Rapten.

Sonam Rapten even gave a tract of land to Muslim traders so they could practise their religion when in Tibet and eventually he legally banned sectarianism in Tibet by issuing a decree to proscribe it, passing laws to ensure freedom of religion.

Sonam Rapten kept a Bonpo lama in his entourage to ensure the interests of the Bonpo were properly upheld.

Sonam Rapten finally accepted and set off in 1652, accompanied as far as Nyukle Lating by Sonam Rapten.

Sonam Rapten fell out with his brave Mongolian generals at the end and was said to have murdered one of them by poison.

Sonam Rapten, being Norbu's elder brother, pretended not to hear about his probable heir's many failings but eventually he was compelled to react and censure him due to "the proliferation of negative reports about deceptive behaviour".

Winter, people started expressing concerns about Sonam Rapten growing old, so the Dalai Lama ordered extensive prayers and rituals to be done for his health and long life.

When Sonam Rapten died in the spring of 1658, the Dalai Lama's immediate reaction was to hush up the death for over a year for political reasons of succession.

Sonam Rapten then puts him in proper perspective, saying "many Treasurers of great lamas were like the ordinary people cared little about meritorious work"; after the death of such people "not much accompanied their departure".

Sonam Rapten was succeeded by his younger brother, Depa Norbu, who was appointed as the Fifth Dalai Lama's second Desi or Regent in the summer of 1659.