Playboy Lama?

For those of you that can't be bothered reading long posts on serious subjects, here's some light reading from BBC. Apparently the sixth Dalai Lama was a bit of a wild thing...

Tsangyang Gyatso, who became the sixth Dalai Lama in 1697, often went against the principles of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, of which he was the spiritual leader.

He dressed as a layman and often took the name Norsang Wangpo at night, getting drunk and visiting brothels.

However he was also a poet and wrote moving pieces about the pains and pleasures of the human heart, and a new English version of his works has been completed by British linguist Paul Williams.

and somehow there is a link between that and modern Tibetan politics...

Tsangyang's lifestyle meant there were many who believed they could not govern effectively in his name, creating a power vacuum in Tibet.

This led to two successive invasions from different parts of Mongolia - after which the Chinese army entered the area to sort out the situation.

"It is really from this time that China had been able to enforce their claim - which they still have - that Tibet is an integral part of China," Mr Williams added.

"So the impact of the Sixth Dalai Lama could be said to still being felt by the modern Tibetans, in terms of the Chinese claim," he said.