A biography of the Secret biography of the Sixth Dalai Lama

Although according to standard Tibetan and Chinese biographical and historical sources, Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama, is said to have died on his way to Beijing to meet Kangxi Emperor in 1706, a Tibetan-language hagiographic text written in Alashan in 1757 by a Mongolian monk Ngawang Lhundrup Dargye provides an alternative account saying that he actually lived an extra forty-year. According to the narrative of Ngawang Lhundrup Dargye’s Secret Biography, in 1706, Tsangyang Gyatso in deed escaped his escorts on his way to Beijing, and then he spent ten years on pilgrimage roaming around central China, Tibet, Nepal, and India and finally settled down in Alashan in today Inner Mongolia to teach dharma until he died in 1746. The questions that I will study in the thesis are why Ngawang Lhundrup Dargye chose to portray this image of Tsangyang Gyatso as it is in the Secret Biography, how did he achieve his purpose, and what future influences it had within Alashan and outside of Alashan on the relationship among Mongols, Tibet, and Qing court.M.A.Includes bibliographical reference