Dalai Lama VI

Tsangyang Gyatso (Tibetan: ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། Wylie: tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho) was the sixth Dalai Lama, te first and only Dalai Lama to live as a layman rather than a monk. He was a Monpa by ethnicity and was born at Urgelling Monastery, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Tawang Town, India and not far from the large Tawang Monastery in the northwestern part of present-day Arunachal Pradesh (claimed by China as South Tibet).

He had grown up a youth of high intelligence, liberal to a fault, fond of pleasure, of wine and of women and later led a playboy lifestyle. He disappeared near Qinghai, probably murdered, on his way to Beijing in 1706. The 6th Dalai Lama composed poems and songs that are not only still immensely popular in modern day Tibet but have also gained significant popularity all across China.