Dalai Lama’s administration persuades the Mongols to conquer Tibet (1639-1642)

De facto there was civil war. Karma Tenkyong Wangpo who ruled in parts of Tsang was Kagyü. Although the 10th Karmapa strongly advised him not to prepare for war, he attacked Gelugpas in Central Tibet. He even wanted to ask the Mongolian Chogtu-tribe for support but they eventually joined the troops of Gushri Khan, military leader of the Koshot Mongols. When Gushri's troops started to attack Bönpos, Nyingmas and Kagyüs, there actualy happened attemps of mediation. The young Dalai didn't want that something happened to the 10th Karmapa. Sönam Chöpel, Dalai Lama's main advisor, urged the Mongols that they finally attacked Tsurphu and created a bloodshed. Karmapa escaped and only returned to Tsurphu as an old man. Gushri Khan abolished the old Tibetan political system and passed on the worldly power over Tibet to the 5th Dalai Lama. Many Kagyü and Nyingma monasteries were converted into Gelug monasteries. Later the Gelug administration requested the Mongols that the 10th Karmapa should be killed; together with his secretary Küntu Zangpo they escaped to Yünnan/China where he stayed in exile for ~ 28 years (he was also in Northern Burma).

During the lifetime of the 10th Karmapa the political situation in Tibet became completely unstable. First local rulers formed various alliances and followed different ideas and people (such as warlords, Buddhist leaders etc.), then manipulation, treason, assassinations and local wars kept on destabilizing Tibet even more. Dalai Lama’s administration called in the Mongolian emperor Gushri Khan and his army for support – first the Dalai Lama was not amused by this solo action of his leading administrator but he didn’t stop him – who conquered Tibet between 1639 and 1642, and as a result established the 5th Dalai Lama as the supreme authority in Tibet. All former stable political structures were demolished, including the separation of worldly and religious life, and the Dalai Lama himself and his administration even wanted to rule and influence the Sakyapas, Nyingmapas and Kagyüpas. A lot of Kagyü monastaries were transformed into Gelug places. Many times, Mongolian warlords were called in by Gelug-representatives to enforce the claim to rule both over worldly and spiritual matters.

Several wrong accusations referring the 6th Shamar Rinpoche Chökyi Wangchug and the 10th Karmapa led to the fact, that in 1644 Karmapa had to escape in a miraculous manner only with his secretary Küntu Zangpo. They went into exile to Yünnan/China, mainly Lijiang, where he lived and worked until almost 1672. This south-western Chinese region had a lot of Kagyü supporters since the time of the 8th Karmapa. In the same year Karmapa, upon Gyaltsab Rinpoche’s persuasiveness and his familial connections, was able to return to Tibet where he was invited by the Dalai Lama in Lhasa to pacify the tensions between the Buddhist schools in Tibet.