Awhile back I created a list of the succession of Dalai Lamas. Doing the research was fascinating and fun, but also frustrating. His Holinesses 9 through 12 all died too young to have left much of a mark, or much in the way of a biography.
At the Smithsonian website there's a fascinating article on this succession of short-timers. In "Murder in Tibet's High Places," Mike Dash argues that some or all of the four could have been assassinated. I'd heard this before, but the article brings out details that were new to me.
The 9th Dalai Lama was born in 1805, and the 12th died in 1875. These years of Tibetan history are not well documented, but descriptions make it sound a bit like the Wild West. Travelers in particular had to arm themselves with swords and guns.
Through most of this time Tibet was headed, rather haphazardly, by rivaling heads of the major Galugpa monasteries in Lhasa. Meanwhile, the Tibetan lay nobility took advantage of the confusion to build their own power and influence. To complicate matters, this period of Tibetan history coincided with weak emperors in China. This gave Chinese emissaries in Tibet, called ambans, a freer hand to meddle in Tibetan affairs without having to answer to Beijing, or Lhasa for that matter.
The one thing these antagonistic factions all desired in common was a weak and compliant Dalai Lama, or else a dead Dalai Lama. An adult Dalai Lama fully in charge in Lhasa would have messed up everyone's plans.
The 9th Dalai Lama was 9 when he died of pneumonia. That in itself was unfortunate but not suspicious. However, the 1oth was 21 years old and had just announced plans for a tax increase when, according to one account, he grew short of breath. He subsequently died of an unidentified disease, it was said. However, other accounts say he died when a ceiling collapsed on him as he slept.
The 11th died of an unidentified disease when he was 18. Tibet was engaged in a war with the Gurkhas of Nepal at the time, and the seemingly perpetual power struggle in Lhasa was even more contentious than usual. More significantly, the young Dalai Lama had just taken control of Tibet and had begun to rule without a regent when struck down by the Potala mystery disease.
Similarly the 12th Dalai Lama died just short of his 20th birthday. The nature of his death was so suspicious that the ambans ordered His Holiness's attendants arrested. No one was ever charged with actually killing the 12th Dalai Lama, however.
The reign of the regents would continue until 1895, when His Holiness the 13th Lama assumed leadership of Tibet. The Great Thirteenth would prove to be nobody's fool, which may account for his avoiding the Potala mystery disease. His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933.
Author Max Dash goes on to say there is strong evidence only for the murder of the 10th Dalai Lama. "What can be said, however, is that the numbers do suggest foul play; the average lifespan of the first eight holders of the office had been more than 50 years, and  while two early incarnations had died in their 20s, none before the tenth had failed to reach manhood." Dash writes.
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