Guide to Asian History Kallie Szczepanski wrote a post a few days ago about a Tibetan "Disneyland" in Chengde, China. Many of the exhibits and spectacles at the park -- a popular tourist destination for the Chinese -- portray a visit by the Dalai Lama to the the Kangxi Emperor (1661-1722). The park celebrates a significant moment in the history of Tibet as a province of China.
A catch to this lovely sentiment is that the visit never happened.
Through cunning and conquest, the Kangxi Emperor greatly extended the borders of China. Beijing wants the Chinese people to think that this expansion included all of Tibet, and the Dalai Lama came to Beijing to pay homage to his sovereign. Historians say the 5th Dalai Lama made a well-documented state visit� to Beijing, probably arriving in January 1654. But this was before the Kangxi Emperor was born.
Tibetan and Chinese versions of just about any part of their shared history tend to be at odds, so I consulted some histories written by western historical scholars. Here's what they say happened --
The Shunzhi Emperor -- the Kangxi Emperor's predecessor and a child at the time -- sent a number of invitations to Lhasa before the Great Fifth consented to go to Beijing. The Qing court was wary of the Dalai Lama's fierce Mongol allies and desired friendly relations with its powerful bordering neighbor. By all accounts, the Great Fifth was greeted as a visiting head of state, not as a vassal subject.
And, anyway, the borders of China under the Shunzhi Emperor didn't extend as far as Tibet, and I suspect most Chinese would know that. That's why it was necessary to revise the date of the visit.
Could another Dalai Lama have visited the the Kangxi Emperor? There's no documentation of such a visit, but given the history of the Dalai Lamas, it's highly unlikely.
For one thing, the Kangxi Emperor played a supporting role in the death of the 6th Dalai Lama, who died at the age of 24 while kidnappers were taking him to Beijing, in 1706. There's no record of exactly what, or who, killed the Sixth, but it appears he didn't quite make it as far as China's central plain.
The 7th Dalai Lama was not enthroned until 1720, just a couple of years before the Kangxi Emperor died. The Seventh was still a teenager and wasn't ruling much of anything at the time.
So, no; the state visit of a Dalai Lama to the court of the the Kangxi Emperor never happened.
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