Depa Norbu

Norbu (Wylie: nor bu), with the later title of Depa (sde pa) and also known as Nangso Norbu (nang so nor bu), was born in the Central Tibetan province of Ü around the end of the 16th century. His last recorded activity was in 1660. In 1659 he rose briefly to the position of Desi (Regent, Administrative Ruler or Prime Minister of Tibet) of Lobzang Gyatsho, the Fifth Dalai Lama's Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet, acting as de facto Ruler of Tibet.

From the 1620s until 1642 Norbu was a close aide to his elder brother Sonam Rapten (1595-1658) who was the top official of the Ganden Phodrang when this was the Fifth Dalai Lama's establishment at Drepung Monastery near Lhasa. In 1642, after a major civil war the Ganden Phodrang became the Government of Tibet. The Fifth Dalai Lama was its titular head and Sonam Rapten its Desi with Norbu retained as his close aide. In 1644 Rapten appointed Norbu Governor of Tibet's second city, Shigatse, from where he commanded Tibetan forces in two unsuccessful military invasions of Bhutan.

After Sonam Rapten died Norbu was promoted to succeed him as Desi by the Fifth Dalai Lama but he soon rebelled against the latter's authority. After four months Norbu fled from the capital, Lhasa, to Shigatse, seized the castle there with his accomplices and tried to raise an army to overthrow and supplant the Ganden Phodrang government. The Dalai Lama was ready, however; he foiled the plot, the rebellion failed within a few months and in 1660 Norbu fled Tibet into obscurity in Bhutan.^[1]

Place of Origin

Younger brother of Desi Sonam Rapten, Norbu was mot likely born in the same village of Gyalé somewhere in the Tolung Valley, to the west of Lhasa, Tibet, some time after the former's birth year which is known to have been 1595.^[2][3]

Early career and title

Nothing has been published in English about Nangso Norbu's early life except to confirm that he was the younger brother of Sonam Rapten.^[4][5] Some sources, including Shakabpa,^[6] say he was Rapten's nephew but the term used, sku mched means brother, sibling, not 'nephew'.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

As such he seems to have been retained by his powerful brother Rapten as a kind of close personal assistant from an early date, probably from Norbu's early to mid-twenties. He is first mentioned as young adult in 1626 by Lobzang Gyatsho the Fifth Dalai Lama, then aged 9, as accompanying the latter on a tea party invitation from the 7 year old Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen who lived next door at Drepung. This Tulku offered Norbu a ceremonial scarf with a sacred knot in it. Later that day, Norbu undid the knot and exchanged the blessed scarf for some baubles from Kongpo. As a monk attendant observed, 'Norbu has no faith in the Tulku'.^[7] Indeed, 30 years later, in 1656, Norbu is alleged by some to have suffocated the same Trulku with a similar scarf.^[5]

Until his appointment as Governor of Shigatse in 1644,^[8] Norbu's title was "Nangso" (lit.: 'internal spy' or 'border protector'), a title for an official with both military and religious power, a manager, and often applied to the younger sibling of a ruling house.^[9]

Norbu had much to do with the Fifth Dalai Lama from the latter's youth onwards. The Fifth Dalai Lama in his political autobiography recounts a series of personal anecdotes featuring Norbu's antics and failures over the years.^[10]

Soon after the 1626 tea party incident, for example, Lobzang Gyatso caught the measles and ‘many cats were brought to keep him awake’ (apparently, as some kind of antidote); Norbu would beat these cats and even stabbed one with a knife. Lobzang Gyatso commented in his diary: 'it was the first crowing of a man who would eat man [sic] if he had power'.^[7]

There is a gap of twelve years before he is mentioned again. In 1638, he acted as Drepung's Treasurer in a project for each Gelugpa monastery to construct new sets of the Eight Classical Stupas (mchod rten cha brgyad).^[11] Though the great Nyingma master Zurchen Choying Rangdrol designed the stupas, Norbu thought he knew better and insisted on changing the measurements, with the result that (according to the 5th Dalai Lama) "the shape of the set of the eight stupas of Drepung was the worst, including Sera (se ra) and Ganden (dga’ ldan)".^[12]

Shortly afterwards, for some reason Sonam Rapten was displeased with his chief assistant Jaisang Depa (ja’i sang sde pa), aka Trinle Gyatso, who would eventually become the third regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama; he ‘sent him away’ and wanted to appoint his brother, Norbu, in his place, but Lobzang Gyatsho disagreed with this proposal and for once succeeded in overruling Rapten by vetoing his appointment.^[12]

Marriage into Gekhasa family

In the summer of the Earth-tiger year of 1638, Norbu married the sister of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen (1619-1656) of the village of Gekhasa in Tolung.^[12][13] He was subsequently referred to as 'Gekhasapa Norbu', 'Gekhasapa' ('the man from Gekhasa') or shorter forms 'Gekhasa' and 'Gekha'.^[14] Gekhasa was said to be near Yangpachen and Tsurphu in Tolung,^[15] so it is probably modern-day 'Gyekhar' near the Lhorongchu river at Dorjeling Gompa, Damshung County.^[16] Gyaltsen's sister, his only surviving sibling, 'had no choice' but to marry 'the ambitious' Norbu who was 'proud of being Desi Sonam Rapten's brother'. Norbu was not well-off but he was an opportunist. The marriage increased his wealth and status, enabling him to enter politics.^[17] As the Fifth Dalai Lama put it, the young heirs to the Gekhasa family having been killed by the Hor Mongols, they needed a male groom and "it would have been better if it had taken another man rather than Nangso Norbu, but it accepted him as if it wished to be punished".^[12]

Appointment as Desi

Whilst keeping Sonam Rapten’s death in the spring of 1658 secret^[18] to hold off potential political instability,^[19] the Fifth Dalai Lama sought to neutralise the succession to Desi by Rapten’s nearest relative, the hapless Depa Norbu. The Fifth Dalai Lama's decree made 21 years later in 1679, appointing Sangye Gyatso as his sixth regent, indicates succession by next of kin was apparently the tradition: in the preamble he explains how, back in 1660, "as all members of [Sonam Rapten's] family had died I appointed [the unrelated] Trinlé Gyatso and others in succession" as regent in their place.^[20][21]

What is left unsaid in this preamble is that the Fifth Dalai Lama had, in fact, appointed Depa Norbu to succeed Rapten as regent in 1659 before Trinlé Gyatso and that he had served several months in this capacity before rebelling against the government. Norbu was also, indeed, still very much alive in 1660 but had disqualified himself through his rebellion.^[22] This requires some further explanation.

After 13 months of secrecy, in the spring of 1659 the Fifth Dalai Lama allowed Rapten's death to be announced and extensive public funeral rituals commenced. He then negotiated discretely with the two Mongol chieftains Tendzin Dayan Gyalpo and his son Tendzin Dalai Han, the successors of Güshri Khan, to ensure himself of their faithful support in case a political crisis arose and possibly making contingency plans. This done, the Mongols left and he recalled Depa Norbu to Lhasa from his position as Governor of Shigatse. When Norbu arrived from Shigatse the Dalai Lama noted that "he certainly looks like an impressive leader of men" but, in view of Norbu's serial failures as leader of men in two major Bhutanese expeditions, whether this observation was noted mockingly is not clear. On the 16th of the 6th month of the Earth-pig year (i.e. in midsummer of 1659), the Fifth Dalai Lama appointed Depa Norbu as his Desi or Regent, meanwhile scolding him for "not always doing his duty well" and placing restrictions on his powers and his residence.^[23]

Within four months, Norbu, Rapten's son Depa Sepo and other members of their family and close associates, apparently rejecting any oversight over their powers by the Dalai Lama, openly rebelled against his government, seized control of the fort at Shigatse^[24] and tried to bring a Bhutanese army into Tibet in their support, to rise up against Lhasa with the remnants of the defeated Tsangpa.^[25] Unfortunately for them, the Dalai Lama and his Mongol supporters seemed to be expecting this and the uprising was quelled with little or no bloodshed, after two months' stand-off.^[26] The rebels' hoped-for Bhutanese reinforcements having apparently been blocked at the border by a Mongol army,^[25] Depa Norbu and the other leaders negotiated their surrender before escaping to the north.^[26] It is said that Norbu found his way to Butan but nothing else was recorded about him after 1660.^[3]

The Dalai Lama continued to rule Tibet himself for another six months, i.e. for 28 months in all after Rapten's death, apart from Norbu's brief and apparently ineffective spell in power. Then, in the summer of 1660 he appointed his aide Trinlé Gyatso, a.k.a. Drongmene, a.k.a. Jaisang Depa (a title granted to him by Gushri Khan in 1637)^[27] as his third Desi or Regent.^[28]

His political career in summary

In Samten G. Karmay's introduction to his translation of the Fifth Dalai Lama's political autobiography, Depa Norbu is described as follows:

"...he was the bête-noire of Lobzang Gyatsho [Fifth Dalai Lama], an intriguer among the Gaden Photrang government officials and a character with a strong personality. He was a younger brother of Depa Sonam Rapten and thus had a certain influence like no other in the government. He served under Depa Sonam Rapten in various capacities, including as a commander in the campaigns against Bhutan, in which he was suspected of secret dealings with the Bhutanese. Despite this duplicity, Lobzang Gyatso tried to come to terms with him, hoping that he might yet turn out to be a good leader. With considerable hesitation, Lobzang Gyatsho appointed him as the Depa in 1659. However, the relationship between the two men soon turned sour."^[29]

In Khrinley Losang Dungkar's 'Tibetological Great Dictionary' which serves as an encyclopedia about Tibet, his entry is as follows:

“Nangso Norbu, brother of Desi Sönam Chöphel, was born in Tölung Gyalé. He was a very cunning and ambitious man. He worked for the Ganden Phodrang and did many things that the Fifth Dalai Lama did not agree with. He married into the Gekhasa household of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen. Using this position, when Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen was taken ill with a fever, he managed to stuff a silk scarf down his throat and killed him. Finally, he turned his back on the Fifth Dalai Lama and fled to Bhutan. His nefarious activities are described in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography” (i.e., Dukula).^[3][30]

Notes on sources

1. Shakabpa's seminal, 2-volume, 1100-page "Advanced Political History of Tibet" jumps 28 months in one sentence, from the death of Sonam Rapten in 1658 to his replacement by Trinlé Gyatso in 1660 with no reference to any of the intervening political events related in the above section on 'Appointment as Desi'.^[31] In Karmay's translation of Dukula, however, description of these events takes up 50 pages in English, the above section on "Appointment as Desi" being a brief summary of the events omitted for some reason by Shakabpa.^[32]

2. The entire 1659 rebellion and its outcome is briefly referred to in only three histories in English, and even then only in the broadest terms: Karmay (3 sentences),^[33] Richardson (4 sentences)^[34] and Stein (half a sentence),^[35] while none of these refer to Norbu's appointment as Desi. Indeed, Karmay notes in the introduction to his translation (2014) that in Tibetan sources other than Dukula "there is scarce information" about Norbu.^[36]

3. Norbu is briefly referred to in K. L. Dungkar, H. E. Richardson, Trijang Rinpoche and Karma Phuntsho (in addition to Karmay and Shakabpa) but, as indicated in Dungkar, "his iniquitous activities are described in the Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography" (i.e., Dukula).^[3]

Notes

References

Sources

• Aris, Michael (1979). Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. Warminster, UK: Aris & Philips Ltd. ISBN 0856680826. 
• Bultrini, Raimondo (Translated by Maria Simmons) (2013). The Dalai Lama and the King Demon. New York: Tibet House US. ISBN 9780967011523. 
• Dungkar Losang Khrinley (2002). Dungkar Tibetological Great Dictionary. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House. p. 1,205. ISBN 7-80057-540-3. 
• Lobsang Gyatso, ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Fifth Dalai Lama (1679). Autobiography, Good Silk Cloth, 3 vols., rang rnam du kü la'i gos bzang, TBRC W175. Volume III, fo. 128a, Handprint Proclamation on the Triple Steps of the Potala Palace, rtse pho brang po tā la’i gsum skas ‘go’i rtsi tshig phyag rjes ma.
• Karmay, Samten G. (2009). The Arrow and the Spindle, Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet. Revised edition. Kathmandu, Nepal, Mandala Book Point. ISBN 9789994655106.
• Karmay, Samten G. (Translator) (2014). Trulwai Roltsai; The Illusive Play ["Dukula"]: The Autobiography of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Serindia Publications. Chicago. ISBN 978-1-932476675. 
• Lobsang Gyatso, 5th Dalai Lama (1652). Biography of Yonten Gyatso, 4th Dalai Lama. "Jig rten dbang phyug thams cad mkhyen pa yon tan rgya mtsho dpal bzang po’i rnam par thar pa nor bu’i ‘phreng ba". Tibetan Buddhist Resource Centre. W294-1813-eBook.pdf
• Pommaret, Françoise, ed. (2003) Lhasa in the 17th Century; The Capital of the Dalai Lamas. Brill. Leiden, Netherlands. ISBN 9004128662
• Richardson, Hugh E. (1998) High Peaks, Pure Earth; Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture. Serindia Publications, London. ISBN 0906026466
• Peter Schweiger (2015). The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780231168526. 
• Shakabpa, Tsepon W.D. (1967), Tibet: A Political History. New York: Yale University Press, and (1984), Singapore: Potala Publications. ISBN 0961147415.
• Shakabpa, Tsepon W.D. (2010). One Hundred Thousand Moons. An Advanced Political History of Tibet (Translated by: Derek F. Maher) (2 volumes). Leiden (Netherlands), Boston (USA): Brill's Tibetan Studies Library. ISBN 9789004177321. 
• Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan civilization (English ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0-8047-0901-7. 
• Trijang Rinpoche. (1967). Extensive Commentary of the Propitiatory Text of Shugden, Gyalchen Todrel (Wylie: rGyal chen bstod ’grel).