Simon Wickham-Smith has translated one of the more curious but significant works coming out of Tibet's turbulent eighteenth century, the era that saw Tibet ultimately subsumed within the Qing Empire. His English translation of the purported secret biography of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho, joins the existing Chinese translation, published in 1981 in a single volume along with a translation of the Dalai Lama's well-known poems (Cangyang jiacuo qingge ji mizhuan 仓央嘉措情歌及秘传; Zhuang Jing 庄晶, tr.). The work in question is problematic. The Dalai Lama by all traditional accounts passed away in 1706 under suspicious circumstances, en route to a forced exile in China after being denounced and removed from his position by the then ruler of Tibet, Lajang Qan. The secret biography repudiates the generally accepted story and recounts how the Dalai Lama did not die but simply went off to live a supposedly unknown...

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