[11] By 1642, Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Khanate had reunified Tibet under the spiritual and temporal authority of the 5th Dalai Lama of the Gelug school, who established a civil administration known as Ganden Phodrang.

Qing authorities engaged in occasional military interventions in Tibet, intervened in Tibetan frontier defense, collected tribute, stationed troops.

"[9] Western historians such as Goldstein, Elliot Sperling, and Jaques Gernet have described Tibet during the Qing period as a protectorate, vassal state, tributary, or something similar.

[33] During the 1913 Simla Conference, the 13th Dalai Lama's negotiators cited the priest and patron relationship to explain the lack of any clearly demarcated boundary between Tibet and the rest of China (i.e. as a religious benefactor, the Qing did not need to be hedged against).

[43] According to Sperling, the description of a "priest-patron" religious relationship governing Sino-Tibetan relations that excluded concrete political subordination is a recent phenomenon and not substantiated.

This impetus to formulate a Tibetan identity based primarily on religion has made understanding the political realities of Tibet's relationship to the Yuan and Qing dynasties difficult.

[44] From 1721 to 1727, Tibet was governed by Khangchenné, who led the Tibetan cabinet known as the Kashag under close supervision of the Chinese garrison commander stationed in Lhasa.

After the civil war of 1727–1728, the 7th Dalai Lama was suspected of complicity in the murder of Khangchenné, who led the Tibetan cabinet, and was exiled to Gartar Monastery in Kham.

The fact that two ambans with their Chinese garrison have been stationed in Lhasa since 1728 is significant because it shows that Manchu China had effectively taken over the position of the former Mongol protector of the lamaist regime.

[70] In 1674, the Kangxi Emperor asked the Dalai Lama to send Mongol troops to help suppress Wu Sangui's Revolt of the Three Feudatories in Yunnan.

[84] In 1717, the Dzungar prince Tseren Dondup invaded the Khoshut Khanate, deposed Yeshe Gyatso,installed the boy from Lithang as the 7th Dalai Lama, killed Lha-bzang Khan, and looted Lhasa.

[90] At that time, a Qing protectorate in Tibet (described by Stein as "sufficiently mild and flexible to be accepted by the Tibetan government") was initiated with a garrison at Lhasa.

[95] Green Standard Army troops were garrisoned at multiple places such as Lhasa, Batang, Dartsendo, Lhari, Chamdo, and Litang, throughout the Dzungar war.

[102] Qing troops arrived in Lhasa in September, and punished the anti-Qing faction by executing entire families, including women and children.

A stone monument regarding the boundary between Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces, agreed upon by Lhasa and Beijing in 1726, was placed atop a mountain, and survived into at least the 19th century.

[12] The Qianlong Emperor (Yongzheng's successor) sent a force of 800, which executed Gyurme Namgyal's family and seven members of the group that allegedly killed the ambans.

The ambans by this time had a broad right of supervision on the actions of the government,[51] although the Qianlong Emperor was later disappointed with their performance and decided to further enhance their status.

After the second Gorka incursion in 1791, another force of Manchus and Mongols joined by a strong contingents of Tibetan soldiers (10,000 of 13,000) supplied by local chieftains, repelled the invasion and pursued the Gorkhas to the Kathmandu Valley.

[120] With the decreed lottery system, the names of candidates were written on folded slips of paper which were placed in a golden urn (Mongol altan bumba; Tibetan gser bum:Chinese jīnpíng:金瓶).

When the Qing imperial commissioner discovered the truth, he declined to aid Nepal and instead restricted himself to expressing his desire that the Indian government could decide it was time to withdraw its resident from Kathmandu.

[134][135][citation not found] In the Treaty of Thapathali signed in 1856 that concluded the Nepalese-Tibetan War, Tibet and Nepal agreed to "regard the Chinese Emperor as heretofore with respect.

Then in 1896, the Qing Governor of Sichuan attempted to gain control of the Nyarong valley in Kham during a military attack led by Zhou Wanshun.

[citation needed] The Dalai Lama returned from his search for support against China and Britain to Lhasa in 1909, and initiated reforms to establish a standing Tibetan army while consulting with Japanese advisors.

The main points of the treaty allowed the British to trade in Yadong, Gyantse, and Gartok while Tibet was to pay a large indemnity of 7,500,000 rupees, later reduced by two-thirds, with the Chumbi Valley ceded to Britain until the imdenity was received.

[77] The British invasion through Sikkim triggered a Khampa reaction, where chieftains attacked and French missionaries, Manchu and Han Qing officials, and Christian converts were killed.

His troops executed monks[104][page needed] destroyed a number of monasteries in Kham and Amdo, and an early form of "sinicization" of the region began.

After obtaining the departure of the British troops in return for an indemnity payment, the Qing dynasty, although weakened, decided to play a more active role in the conduct of Tibetan affairs.

[164] Plans were laid to build a railway line connecting Sichuan to Tibet,[165] to form an army of six thousand men and to secularise the Tibetan government by creating non-ecclesiastical governmental commissions.

[17][175] After the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet at a location outside of Lhasa, the collapse of the Qing dynasty began due to the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911.

[17] On 13 February 1913, the Dalai Lama declared Tibet an independent state, and announced that what he described as the historic "priest and patron relationship" with China had ended.