| Bhutan
Administrative Integration and Conflict with Tibet,
1651- 1728 |
To
keep Bhutan from disintegrating, Ngawang Namgyal's death
in 1651 apparently was kept a carefully guarded secret
for fifty-four years. Initially, Ngawang Namgyal was
said to have entered into a religious retreat, a situation
not unprecedented in Bhutan, Sikkim, or Tibet during
that time. During the period of Ngawang Namgyal's supposed
retreat, appointments of officials were issued in his
name, and food was left in front of his locked door.
Ngawang Namgyal's son and stepbrother, in 1651 and 1680,
respectively, succeeded him. They started their reigns
as minors under the control of religious and civil regents
and rarely exercised authority in their own names. For
further continuity, the concept of multiple reincarnation
of the first shabdrung--in the form of either his body,
his speech, or his mindwas invoked by the Je Khenpo
and the druk desi, both of whom wanted to retain the
power they had accrued through the dual system of government.
The
last person recognized as the bodily reincarnation of
Ngawang Namgyal died in the mid-eighteenth century,
but speech and mind reincarnations, embodied by individuals
who acceded to the position of shabdrung, were recognized
into the early twentieth century. The power of the state
religion also increased with a new monastic code that
remained in effect in the early 1990s. The compulsory
admission to monastic life of at least one son from
any family having three or more sons was instituted
in the late seventeenth century. In time, however, the
State Council became increasingly secular as did the
successive druk desi, ponlop, and dzongpon, and intense
rivalries developed among the ponlop of Tongsa and Paro
and the dzongpon of Punakha, Thimphu, and Wangdiphodrang.
During the first period of succession and further internal
consolidation under the druk desi government, there
was conflict with Tibet and Sikkim.
Internal opposition to the central government resulted
in overtures by the opponents of the druk desi to Tibet
and Sikkim. In the 1680s, Bhutan invaded Sikkim in pursuit
of a rebellious local lord. In 1700 Bhutan again invaded
Sikkim, and in 1714 Tibetan forces, aided by Mongolia,
invaded Bhutan but were unable to gain control.
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