Ganden Phodrang in the context of "Tibet under Qing rule"

The Khoshut Khanate was a Mongol Oirat khanate based in the Tibetan Plateau from 1642 to 1717. Based in modern Qinghai, it was founded by Güshi Khan in 1642 after defeating the opponents of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. The 5th Dalai Lama established a civil administration known as Ganden Phodrang with the aid of Güshi Khan. The role of the khanate in the affairs of Tibet has been subject to various interpretations. Some sources claim that the Khoshut did not interfere in Tibetan affairs and had a priest and patron relationship between the khan and Dalai Lama while others claim that Güshi appointed a minister, Sonam Rapten, as de facto administrator of civil affairs while the Dalai Lama was only responsible for religious matters. Güshi Khan accepted the nominal suzerainty of the Qing dynasty in 1654, when seal of authority and golden sheets were granted by the Shunzhi Emperor. In the last years of the khanate, Lha-bzang Khan murdered the Tibetan regent and deposed the 6th Dalai Lama in favor of a pretender Dalai Lama.

The Khoshut Khanate was ended in 1717 when the Dzungar prince Tseren Dondup invaded Tibet, killed Lha-bzang Khan, and installed the 7th Dalai Lama.

There were three main feudal social groups in Tibet prior to 1959, namely ordinary laypeople (mi ser in Tibetan), lay nobility (sger pa), and monks. The ordinary layperson could be further classified as a peasant farmer (shing-pa) or nomadic pastoralist (trokpa). To influence politics and religion, entering into monkhood and the military was required.

The Tsangpa Dynasty (1565-1642) and Ganden Phodrang (1642-1950) law codes distinguished three social divisions: high, medium and low. Each in turn was divided into three classes, to give nine classes in all. Social status was a formal classification, mostly hereditary and had legal consequences: for example the compensation to be paid for the killing of a member of these classes varied from 5 (for the lowest) to 200 'sung' for the second highest, the members of the noble families.

The Demchok sector is a disputed area named after the villages of Demchok in Ladakh and Demchok in Tibet, situated near the confluence of the Charding Nullah and Indus River. It is a part of the greater Sino-Indian border dispute between China and India. Both China and India claim the disputed region, with a Line of Actual Control between the two nations situated along the Charding Nullah.

The Charding Nullah was mentioned by the name "Lhari stream" in a treaty between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Ganden Phodrang government of Tibet in 1684 and stated as the boundary between the two regions. British surveys placed the border in 1847 between the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and Qing Tibet on the stream, while British maps from 1868 onwards placed the border downstream and west of Demchok. After independence in 1947, India claimed the southern watershed of the river (roughly 3 miles southeast of Demchok) as its boundary, which has been contested by the People's Republic of China whose claims coincide with the British maps. The two countries fought a brief war in 1962, after which the Demchok region has remained divided between the two nations across a Line of Actual Control.

Zhol Village, or Shol Village (Chinese: 雪城; often transcribed as Zhöl or Shöl Village), is a village at the base of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It contained the residences and administrative buildings of Ganden Phodrang's government officials and other Tibetans. It was a favorite haunt of the 6th Dalai Lama. Two stone pillars are found around or in the village: the outer pillar, which is located outside the southern entrance and bears the oldest inscriptions in Tibetan, and the inner pillar, which stands beneath stairs leading to the Potala and has no inscription.

The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Tibetan: ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: Ngag-dbang blo-bzang rgya-mtsho; Tibetan pronunciation: [ŋɑ̀wɑ̀ŋ lɔ́psɑ̀ŋ cɑ̀t͡só]; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles.

He is often referred to simply as the Great Fifth, being the key religious and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet. He is credited with unifying all of Tibet under the Ganden Phodrang, after Gushri Khan's successful military interventions.

Sönam Rapten (bsod nams rab brtan; 1595–1658), initially known as Gyalé Chödze and later on as Sönam Chöpel, was born in the Tholung valley in the Central Tibetan province of Ü. He started off as a monk-administrator (las sne, lené) of the Ganden Phodrang, the early Dalai Lamas' residence at Drepung Monastery, outside Lhasa, Tibet. From around or before the age of 20 he became the Treasurer and the "Chagdzo" (phyag mdzod - the personal manager and principal attendant) of the Fourth (1589-1617) and, subsequently, the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682). He presided as the most senior official of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism for over 40 years (circa 1615–1658).

The Gelugpa school was twice threatened with extinction in the first half of his tenure, in 1618 and again in 1634. Despite this, under Sonam Rapten's leadership, and thanks to both Mongol military assistance and the pre-eminence of his Ruler the Fifth Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader, the Gelugpa rose to govern most of Greater Tibet by the time he reached 47 years old (1642). Subject to intermittent interference from neighbouring countries, the government he helped to found continued to rule at least the main area of Central Tibet for over 300 years.

Kalon Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705) was the sixth regent of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682), in the Ganden Phodrang government. He founded the Chagpori College of Medicine in 1694, a Traditional Tibetan medicine school for monks which grew in 1916 under the 13th Dalai Lama to include Astrology and Astronomy departments collectively called the Men-Tsee-Khang. He wrote the Blue Beryl (Blue Sapphire) medical treatise, and illustrated medical thankas. His name is sometimes written as Sangye Gyamtso and Sans-rGyas rGya-mTsho

In some accounts, Sangye Gyatso is believed to be the son of the "Great Fifth", but he was born near Lhasa in September 1653, when the Dalai Lama had been absent on his trip to China for the preceding sixteen months. He ruled as the Kalon (regent) of the Dalai Lama and under his instructions hid the death of the Dalai Lama for 15 to 16 years while the infant 6th Dalai Lama was growing up. During this period, he oversaw the completion of the Potala Palace, and warded off Chinese politicking.

The Phagmodrupa dynasty (Tibetan: ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་, Wylie: phag mo gru pa) was a dynastic regime that held sway over Tibet or parts thereof from 1354 to the early 17th century. It was established by Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen of the Lang (Wylie: rlangs) family at the end of the Mongol led Yuan dynasty. The dynasty had a lasting importance on the history of Tibet; it created an autonomous kingdom after Yuan rule, revitalized the national culture, and brought about a new legislation that survived until the 1950s. Nevertheless, the Phagmodrupa had a turbulent history due to internal family feuding and the strong localism among noble lineages and fiefs. Its power receded after 1435 and was reduced to Ü (East Central Tibet) in the 16th century due to the rise of the ministerial family of the Rinpungpa. It was defeated by the rival Tsangpa dynasty in 1613 and 1620, and was formally superseded by the Ganden Phodrang regime founded by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642. In that year, Güshi Khan of the Khoshut formally transferred the old possessions of Sakya, Rinpung and Phagmodrupa to the "Great Fifth".