The date mentioned in the dream the other day was 1747.

Typing 1747 into Google started this thread…..

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Asie

12 mars, Tibet : mort du général Pholané ; son fils Gyurme Namgyal lui succède à la tête du gouvernement tibétain (fin en 1750). Il complote avec les Dzoungars contre l’occupant chinois.

9 juin : Momozono succède à Sakuramachi comme empereur du Japon (fin en 1762).

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From a Treasury of Lives

ཕོ་ལྷ་ནས་བསོད་ནམས་སྟོབས་རྒྱས།

Polhane Sonam Tobgye

b.1689 – d.1747

Polhane Sonam Tobgye (pho lha nas bsod nams stobs rgyas) was born on an auspicious day in the autumn of 1689. His mother Dolma Butri (sgrol ma bu khrid) was the daughter of a well-known artist, and his father Pema Gyelpo (padma rgyal po) was a government official who served variously as a soldier and civil official. While little is known of the extended history of Polhane’s family, his namesake estate—Drum Polha (‘brum pho lha), near Gyantse (rgyal rtse)—was a gift for his grandfather’s service to the Fifth Dalai Lama (ta la’i bla ma 05, 1617–1682) during a rebellion of Tsangpa officials in the late 1650s.

Before his birth, a local lama instructed the boy’s parents to call him Gonkyab Dorje (mgon skyabs rdo rje) and declared him the reincarnation of Ganden Tsewang (dga’ ldan tshe dbang), a recently deceased Mongol war hero and erstwhile monk at Tashilhunpo Monastery (bkra shis lhun po). This identification was affirmed in auspicious meetings with the Fifth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen 05 blo bzang ye shes, 1663–1737) and Desi Sanggye Gyatso (sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653–1705).

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Sonam Tobgye also left a mark on Tibet as a patron of religious institutions. Aside from the aforementioned protection of Nyingma institutions, he endowed and restored monasteries all around central and western Tibet, including Ganden (dga’ ldan), Sera (se ra), and Drepung (‘bras spungs), Tashilhunpo, Nartang (snar thang), Reting (rwa sgreng), and many smaller institutions in his home region of Upper Nyang (myang stod). From 1729 onward he increased the scale of the Great Prayer Festival (smon lam chen mo) in terms of alms, food offerings, and overall attendance.

Polhane sponsored the production of the first printed canon in central Tibet, the Nartang Kangyur, published in 1730–32, and Tengyur, in 1741–42. He also underwrote the Golden Manuscript Tengyur (gser bris ma), an ornate 225 volumes composed entirely in golden ink, which remains in Ganden Monastery to this day. These projects were far from economical and speak to the king’s desire to outdo his predecessors in the eyes of the clergy. His biography emphasizes that neither Lhazang Khan, Taktsepa, nor Kangchenne were able to complete the Kangyur, a project initiated under the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (tA la’i bla ma 06 tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho, 1683–1706). Such sponsorship of Buddhist foundational material was key to his performance as king of Buddhist Tibet; in practical terms, reproducing the scriptures was a necessary step in his obligation to his Buddhist subjects.

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Shortly after the Prayer Festival of 1747, a boil appeared on the king’s neck, and after a short bout with illness, he passed away. Several years later, his remains were laid to rest in a reliquary in Ganden Chokhor Ling Monastery (dga’ ldan chos ‘khor gling) in the Yarlung Valley. His presence remains in Lhasa as well, where an unassuming maṇi wheel (bar skor ma Ni lha khang) he sponsored as a young official has been rebuilt on the Barkhor following its destruction in the Cultural Revolution, standing directly between the former ambans’ office in the Tromsikhang (khrom gzigs khang), the Nangtseshar, or Lhasa City Court (snang rtse shar/shag), and the Jokhang; a fitting locale for this larger-than-life diplomat, administrator, and patron.

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J. Arya Moallem is a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University. His dissertation research focuses on the life and times of Miwang Polhane Sonam Tobgye, and works to situate his particular mode of lay kingship within Qing, Inner Asian, and Early Modern contexts.

Published March 2022

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The Tengyur or Tanjur or Bstan-’gyur (Tibetan: “Translation of Teachings”) is the collected commentaries by great buddhist masters on Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings. The Tengyur is included in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, which consists of all of Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings together with the commentaries on the Buddha’s teachings. The Canon also includes the Kangyur, which is repository of the Buddha’s recorded teachings, placed before the Tengyur in the Canon.

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Before today I do not recollect hearing the word Tengyur

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