Gyurme Namgyal

Gyurme Namgyal (Tibetan: གྱུར་མེད་རྣམ་རྒྱལ, Wylie: Gyur med rnam rgyal; Chinese: 珠爾默特那木札勒) (died 11 November 1750) was a ruling prince of Tibet of the Pholha family.

The natural heir to the title was actually his eldest son Gyurme Yeshe Tseten, who had been given jurisdiction over Ngari (West Tibet) in 1729.

His junior brother Gyurme Namgyal, on the other side, was the commander of the Tibetan army, kept a cavalry unit of several thousand Mongols, and had the outer appearance of a nobleman used to rule.

In this connection, he accused his brother before the Qianlong Emperor to suppress monasteries in Ngari, rob traders, and cut off trading routes with Central Tibet.

Later, after the murder of Gyurme Namgyal by the ambans, the Chinese spread the assumption that the ruler had assassinated his elder brother.

The contacts they made with Gyurme Namgyal meant that he could maintain written communication with Dzungaria and call for the Dzungars to march to Tibet via Ladakh.

The ambans received news of the preparations of Gyurme Namgyal on 19 July 1750: 1,500 Tibetan troops were to arrive to Lhasa with 49 loads of munitions to be stationed there.

In November 1750 he ordered to impede the use that the Chinese made of the Tibetan postal system, so that the ambans could not communicate with the court in China.

[7] The only person who survived was the chief groom of Gyurme Namgyal, Lobsang Tashi, who saved his life by jumping through a window.

Lobsang Tashi and twelve other Tibetans were executed, and shortly afterwards the Dalai Lama received full spiritual and temporal powers over Tibet.