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The Panchen Lamas, while second in command, governed their own monastic estate in the region of Shigatse and often conducted their own foreign policy. It would be the equivalent of the American Vice President having his own “White House” in, say, Philadelphia and conducting his own foreign affairs. This diffusion of authority in Tibet made it difficult for the 13th Dalai Lama to modernize the government and army in the early 20th century. He especially encountered resistance from the monasteries of Sera, Ganden, and Drepung. To some extent, his reforms required centralization of authority and this did not sit well.

The Dalai lamas, Panchen lamas, and the heads of the Three Seats, Ganden, Sera, and Drepung, show how the overlapping nodes of influence can be both secular and religious. The Tibetan scholar, Samten Karmay, contends every Tibetan community is defined by its own monastery and mountain cult. To put that a slightly different way, Tibetan identity is organized around lineages of different types which gives it its rhizomatic flavour. In terms of monasteries, the lineages were religious and centred on specific masters and their monasteries. His Holiness, the Dalai lama is a case in point. The people of Kham and Amdo might not have recognized Lhasa’s political authority but their devotion to the Dalai lama was remarkable. During the invasion and occupation of Tibet, they saw themselves within his religious orbit or mandala and planned their actions based on him.

This dynamic of religious lineage also informs the Dalai lama’s claim of chö-yön, the historical precedent of his priest-patron relationship with Chinese leaders. The Qing rulers were subjects of his sphere of priestly activity. Go to the centre of Beijing and a white stupa (or pagoda in the Tibetan style) is a short distance away from the imperial residence of the Forbidden City. Go to the Emperor’s Summer palace on the outskirts of Beijing and you find a prominent shrine dedicated to the Dalai lama, the Panchen Lama, and the founder of the Gelugpa sect, Je Tsong Khapa. The white stupa near the Forbidden city at the heart of Beijing and the shrine at the outskirts of Beijing within the grounds of the other palace appear to form a literal mandala, defining a centre and a periphery that encompasses the city.